Bastian's advice for building leadership skills.
Practice a beginner's mind - Learn from martial arts and meditation
I recommend to practice Aikido or any martial art, sport, meditation where a beginner's mind is essential. Aikido taught me to be completely present and open to change. If you practice Aikido you have to commit yourself to Shoshin, a beginner's mind. You have to deal with the fact that you do constantly do certain things, make decisions, start projects you haven't done before. Without this state of mind it hard to adapt on a constantly changing world and be open and eager to drive innovations.
Learn from start-ups
Whether you are starting a social business or running an established NGO, in our fast-moving times it is extremely important to be flexible and able to deal with all the dimensions of the so-called VUCA world. I am convinced that we can learn from lean start-ups here. The approach of Eric Ries promotes a framework to bring innovations, new products and services rapidly to the target group. Short planning phases, rapid prototyping and flexible adaptation to the target group's needs - in my opinion promising principles that should be applicable to organizations that focus on measurable social impact.
Reinventing Organizations - The Handbook for applied integral organizational development
Reinventing Organizations by Frederic Laloux gives you a contemporary and handy introduction into integral organizational development. This inspiring book offers you variety of methodological approaches and applied models for facilitating change in organizations that strive to become more purpose-driven.
About Bastian Neumann
Bastian Neumann is social entrepreneur and intrapreneur at LEAD Academy, a non-profit social business located in the heart of Berlin. LEAD supports leaders from non-profit, the business sector, academia and government in taking on leadership for the public good. As a coach and facilitator he is passionate about training individuals, and supporting corporate organizations and startups to manage their key challenges. Since 2015, he is the Head of Academy Programs, being responsible for the strategic development & management of the LEAD leadership curriculum, designing and implementing leadership courses and further developing the LEAD social business model. Prior to joining LEAD, he founded and ran a cooperative online-marketplace with over 2000 members. In his spare time, he actively explores mindfulness, practices Aikido and loves surfing at the Portuguese coast.