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The possibilities sitting in these seats I find to be extraordinary,” said Alexander B. Horniman, Ph.D., speaking to a classroom of credit union executives finishing up a three-year professional journey.
At CUES’ CEO Institute III: Strategic Leadership Development at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va., students spend a week learning to be more effective leaders.
“Leadership is an art. Each person in this room gets to be a unique artist,” said Horniman, a business administration professor and senior fellow at Darden’s Olsson Center for Applied Ethics. “Leadership begins with: How do we deport ourselves? How do we present ourselves, day after day after day?
“Leaders, as performing artists, you’re on that stage from the moment you begin work until you leave and even then you’re still on stage,” he added.
Everyone is watching you and your conduct. Think about: “What do the people who watch us see?” he encouraged.
“Each of is invited in the course of our careers to step onto that stage and lead. How you choose every day matters.
“It’s both a performing art and it’s a privilege to lead people. Sometimes it’s easy to lose sight of that perspective.”
What’s Possible?
As a leader, are you focused on getting stuff done or are you thinking about possibilities? Horniman encouraged the execs in the room to think about “what’s possible?” Not “what’s probable?” or “what’s likely?”
Then follow up with: “How am I doing on what’s possible?” said Horniman.
“We so often think from a mindset of scarcity—‘I don’t have this, I don’t have that.’ That’s so different from a mindset of possibility,” he stressed.
Intentionally thinking from a possibility mindset is a challenge, he added. But it’s something leaders should do and encourage in others. “How are you going to inspire people to think about possibilities instead of limitations?” Horniman asked.
Theresa Witham is a CUES senior editor.
