Through a new lens

When caught in the flux of change, the best bet for those at the helm is to liberate their thinking from well-entrenched patterns and prejudices and view things from a different perspective.

- KARTIK R SHAH

It may take a while for us to reach the post-COVID-19 phase, but lively debates have already started on what mindsets, skillsets, and toolsets will leadership in a post-pandemic world that is likely to be characterised by rapidity, unpredictability, paradoxes, and unprecedented complexity. In vertical leadership circles, where the focus is on shifting leaders’ thinking and transforming their views of reality, there is emphasis on helping those at the helm cultivate a self-transforming mindset so that they may thrive in the future of work.

But what exactly is a ‘self-transforming’ mindset? It is the ability:  To acknowledge that our principles and beliefs may not be absolute.  To see multiple possibilities and perspectives  To co-hold two opposing ideas in the mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.

According to Dr Robert Kegan and Dr Lisa Laskow Lahey of Harvard Graduate School of Education, such a mindset is the most evolved of the three types of adult meaning-making systems viz., socialised (i.e., shaped by one’s environment), self-authoring (i.e., aligned with one’s own belief system), and self-transforming (i.e., integrated and expansive). A self-authoring mind is considered a mark of a leader’s wisdom as well as ability to navigate complexity and overcome immunity to change. Interestingly, this rather recent western idea of a self-transforming

Jain doctrines of ‘