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Written by Nikola Ilic |
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Dear friend, |
When I was 8 years old, I witnessed a disturbing scene in my hometown Belgrade, Serbia. I was walking from school to my dad's office when I saw a crowd of 30ish people watching how three young men were brutally attacking a Roma teenager. I felt scared and powerless. What do YOU think, how many of those bystanders thought that what they were seeing was wrong? Probably most of them? Then, why didn't they do anything about it? So, even though they had the right set of values knowing this was wrong, there was no action. Why? What were they afraid of? At the same time, two policemen were just across the street, ignoring the violence. Why? Were they corrupt, incompetent, or indifferent? Or was there a deeper issue with the system? |
We've all experienced situations where we didn't act in line with our values for various reasons. Or when the whole system is failing. This is precisely what we'll explore in our weekly newsletter, in a practical and action-oriented way: |
🤔 How do we confront obstacles & fears that prevent us from acting in line with our values? |
🔀 How do we become more self-aware, and take control of who we are becoming, to reach our full leadership potential? |
💫 How do we obtain power & authority, and use it democratically to lead change? |
💗 How do we craft our purpose for more meaningful work & life? |
✊ What do we need to practice on a daily basis to grow, enable others to grow, and collaborate on a whole new level? |
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Pulse of Change is for individuals who believe they have untapped potential and want to become more effective leaders. Some themes will be more interesting to you, some less. However, we promise to deliver world-class weekly content with practical steps and additional resources. |
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How will we do it? |
🎯 Leadership Insights: We will send you only one email a week with practical content to make you a better leader - 5 min read |
🎬 Action! Each newsletter will have an action item that will guide you on how to apply what you have learned in practice right away. |
📚 Reading Recommendations: Carefully curated selection of books, articles, and resources. |
🌟 Exclusive Content: Workshops, webinars, videos, interviews with high-level practitioners. |
We will start by sharing several insights from one of my favorite books! |
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This book influenced my thinking about leadership in a profound way. Here are some interesting points: |
Adaptive VS Technical challenges - we need to distinguish between technical challenges, which have clear solutions and can be solved with existing knowledge, and adaptive challenges, which are complex and require new learning and changes in values and relationships. Technical challenges require management, while adaptive challenges require us to learn how to deal with uncertainty and require adaptive leadership. |
Get on the Balcony - as a leader, it's crucial to be both active and reflective. You need to alternate between participating and observing. This allows you to have a broader perspective on the situation and make more informed decisions. |
Manage the Anxiety in the Face of Change - As a leader, you need to pay attention to the anxiety level in your team. Too much anxiety can create unnecessary conflict, while too little can make people complacent. Knowing when to raise or lower the level of tension is an act of leadership! |
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💫 To support our collective mission of cultivating greater democratic leadership potential worldwide, share this newsletter with anyone who you think might benefit from it: New Subscribers Link |
✊ Welcome to our community! |
Nikola Ilic |
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About the Author - Nikola Ilic |
Hi! Thank you for subscribing! Let me share a bit about myself. I have been an activist since I was 15, when I joined the Serbian anti-dictatorship movement. Since then I realized that the only way to learn leadership is through practice & action. I never stopped being an activist! I co-founded and actively participated in several pro-democracy movements and worked with high-level activists and politicians. Additionally, I collaborate with UNICEF, Georgetown University, and the Obama Foundation. Using my practical, professional, and academic experiences, I created a Democratic Leadership framework. This framework aims to enable more people to exercise leadership and use power in an empowering, democratic manner. Over the past few years, I have been teaching this framework as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University. |
Five years ago I started ChangeLab Global, aiming to make leadership & social change tools available to millions, irrespective of their socio-economic background. As part of our mission, we've created Pulse of Change, a weekly, thought-provoking newsletter, filled with practical tips which will help you on your leadership journey. My promise to you - I will never try to teach you something that I haven't tried myself first! I hope you will find it useful! |
💡Here is some great content that you might have missed: |
https://pulseofchange.org/ |
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