42: Seth Kahan: The Visionary Leader

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On this episode of The Manage Your Message Podcast host Jim Karrh speaks with Seth Kahan—a consultant and author who works with CEOs and boards of directors to drive new levels of performance. The conversation focused on key takeaways from Seth’s new book, Visionary Leadership: How Association Leaders Embrace Disruption in the 21st Century.

Through his years of experience, including work with more than 100 CEOs, Seth has found that truly visionary leaders have three common attributes. One important point that Jim raised is that these attributes aren’t inherent—rather, they are clusters of competencies that nearly any business leader can learn and hone over time.

The three attributes of visionary leaders each encompass a set of competencies. During the conversation Seth provided more detail and examples of each attribute and competency:

The attribute of Personal Power includes the ability to inspire as well as to transform oneself:

Storytelling
Story listening
Intentional self-transformation
Radical self-care

The attribute of Association Leadership gets to one’s effectiveness in leading collectively:

Reframing obstacles as opportunities
Collective learning
Leading for collective impact
Ecosystem leadership

The attribute of Market Acumen means knowing where you fit in the larger market and doing strategy in real time:

Detecting larger patterns
Identifying disruptions
Systems thinking
Real-time strategy

During the conversation, Jim also asked Seth about ways listeners can be most effective as board members themselves.

They also discussed “Grand Challenges,” how they work, and examples of successful ones that solved seemingly intractable industry and/or social problems.

Links:

Learn more about Seth Kahan:

https://visionaryleadership.com/

Find Seth on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sethkahan/

Follow Seth on Twitter:

@SethKahan

Check out Seth’s books, including his latest Visionary Leadership:

https://visionaryleadership.com/books/

UCLA’s Department of Grand Challenges:

https://grandchallenges.ucla.edu/

Learn more about Jim Karrh: