Transleadership Makes us Great-Two Opinions

This is a monthly column on becoming a great human being and has two opinions on the subject from western and eastern part of the world namely Michael Thallium from Spain and Dr Amit Nagpal from India.

Michael Thallium, Spain

If I want to write on transleadership, I can’t help mentioning Jennifer Sertl and Koby Huberman, co-authors of “Strategy, Leaership & The Soul” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS5BpO6l8mo), a book where I first learnt about transleadership. Almost a year ago, in “Jennifer Sertl & The Transleadership” (http://www.michaelthallium.com/en/2011/07/20/jennifer-sertl-y-el-transliderazgo/) I explained how I happened to know about Jennifer and back then I said she was an example of what a transleader is. 

But what is a transleader?  In words of Jennifer and Koby: “He or she is currently -or prospectively- the CEO of a small-to-medium-sized business or the head of an organization of similar size, the person who has the primary responsibility for its survival, its success and its growth.” We are talking about a new kind of CEOs, those who look at themselves, their companies and their people in an new way, “a way that is consonant with society and the marketplace as it is today”, not as it was when they got their MBA or their first office on the executive floor. The transleaders are more resilient, responsive and reflective. They create learning experiences and leverage failures and breakdowns (resilience), they “hold multiple realities together as they flex their style and mental models to the needs and concerns of their particular audience, and are much more likely to consider customers’ and employees’ insights as valuable as their shareholders’ (responsiveness)”, they design in “quiet reflective” time for themselves and their teams in order to get perspective (reflection).

Why does transleadership make us great? Well, let me tell you a very short story. Getting in touch with Jennifer Sertl led me to learn about some interesting people such as, among others, Koby Huberman (http://stls.co.il/), Nancy Lyn Cotter (http://www.myselfworth.org/), Lucie Newcomb (http://www.newcommglobal.com/Your-Team.html), David Holzmer (https://www.facebook.com/holzmer), Ralf Lippold (https://www.facebook.com/RalfLippold), Bert-Ola Bergstrand (https://www.facebook.com/bertola.bergstrand), David Hood (https://www.facebook.com/davidahood18) and, of course, Dr Amit Nagpal. 

So, in a way, these monthly columns that Amit and I write on how to become a great human being and that you are reading right now, would not have been possible without Jennifer Sertl’s transleadership. In the end, transleadership is a call to consciousness, to personal resposibility, to harmonize your organization, to elevate your people, it’s a call to know your soul and the soul of your organization, a call to embrace diversity and to use your energy wisely, it’s a call to make flexibility and adaptability a core competence, a call to share power in order to multiply organizational strength. 

So, when are you going to embrace this call to consider your possibilities unlimited?

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Brief Profile

Michael Thallium is a Global and Greatness Coach based in Spain. Michael has spent many years of his life traveling around many countries and continents, sailing the seas and flying the skies all over the world. Since 2008 he is dedicated to his passions namely coaching, language & communication and music.

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Dr Amit Nagpal, India

The world became a global village many decades back but social media has increased the speed of globalization tremendously, as individuals are developing friends across the world using Facebook, Linkedin and other platforms at an amazing speed. If politicians could never solve the enmity between nations like India and Pakistan, the increased interactions between people through social media and other technologies is going to really help in building the bridges. The first tough bridges will be built by Transleaders. Jennifer Sertl, a thoughtleader in corporate consciousness (she coined the term Transleadership) says, “What the world needs now is beyond leadership, what is required is Transleadership.”

So what are Transleaders? Transleaders are basically conscious leaders who are deeply conscious of what they are doing and why. Other traits that Transleaders have include deep awareness of environment, strong intuition, ability to inspire trust, non-judgmental attitude, encouraging especially of proactive innovation, revolutionary thinking, devilish persistence, openness to constructive conflict, effective listening, high energy, curiosity and the ability to energize others.

Since a Transleader has deep respect for people, she automatically develops a global mindset, a respect for diversity and sensitivity to cultural differences. The organisations may spend crores of rupees in training their managers to develop global mindsets but training cannot remove deep rooted prejudices and sometimes hatred for other cultures and religions. A true global mindset requires the respect for humanity irrespective of caste, colour, religion, gender, culture, country, and region and so on. And such respect can only come from a person at a higher level of consciousness. In my view, Transleadership is very similar to spiritual leadership or to become a Transleader, one needs to first develop a tendency of looking within and being the change one wants to see in the world.

Transleader is easily able to tap her and her team’s peak potential. Once the team puts in its best, the products and services created by such an organisation are bound to be the best. A great human being or Transleader  trusts others and inspires trust in others, sometimes at the cost of short term benefits.

So how does one become a Transleader. Though Jennifer says, Agility = Resilience, Responsiveness and Reflection, I personally believe reflection is the starting point. The process of deep reflection and contemplation clears the clutter in the mind and brings out the best inside us or the greatness inside us. Louise Smith says, “Your intuition knows what to do. The trick is getting your head to shut up so you can hear.” 

Jennifer believes Transleaders are both born and made. She says, “For some people, it is a reflection of their natural temperament, personality and character. For others, it is an acquired skill set, taught by life and work experience, by trial and error, learning from their mistakes. For still others, we believe, it is the result of long reflection and self-examination.”

I believe, it takes time, attitudinal shift and deep reflection (contemplative practice) to make the head shut up. My friend Raja says it perfectly, “I have an enlightened soul covered with a foolish mind.”

So let us shake off the foolishness and we are great Transleaders already.

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Brief Profile

Dr Amit Nagpal is a Personal Branding Consultant & Global Success Coach. He is based in New Delhi, India and specializes in personal branding with a holistic touch. His philosophy is, "Enlarge as a Human Being, Excel asa Social Media Being and Evolve into a Personal Brand(ed) Being