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Jean-Pierre
Bal
Founder of the Graduate School, and
Executive Director
Professor of Leadership and Mastery of Change
Statements
(excerpts) from Prof. Bal (compiled by Cecilia Gomez)
“For
many leaders, the business world of the 21st century generates three
inescapable challenges:
.
to be able to face the increasing flows of information and transactions
that
evolve very rapidly;
.
to ensure a continuous evaluation process of the leadership vision and
style;
.
and a constant sharing of the objectives, by all people and parties
involved.
(...)
In daily practice, to be a leader entails:
.
to remain alert to changing currents;
.
to be flexible, adapting vision and strategies;
.
and, to listen, to reflect, then to communicate.
Active
listening, consequential thinking, and coherent communication are part
of the most elementary competencies
in the practice of leadership”
(excerpted
from a
conference held in 1999, "Le Leadership au 21eme siècle",
translated from French).
"Leaders should focus on the survival of the whole
world, by transcending the drive for survival of the fittest " (in a press-statement about leaders, society
and war, quoting the opening paragraph of his lecture at
the United Nations University's International Leadership Institute, in Amman, Jordan -
August 2002)
"One of the
primary tasks of a leader is to define reality. Ours is a world with
dark skies, we want to improve it. I chose the year 2025 as a long-term
goal" (about what leaders could do to improve a given situation,
and how much time it can take to achieve it - March 2003)
"In
other words: he is realistic, pragmatic, and has a good dash of
creativity. But his greatest competency is the one our present-day
organizations miss the most, the one that is far more stronger than
team-spirit: esprit de corps" (about Ernest Shackleton, the Polar explorer, in the preface Jean-Pierre wrote
to
"Leadership sous O°", the French translation of "Leading
at the Edge" written by Dennis N.T. Perkins et al. -- August 2003)
"By 2025...
Imagine how our world will be. Imagine how -your- life would be. And
your children's. If you want a better world... Care for OUR world, act
TODAY" (his response when asked about the major challenges in
the two to three decades ahead -- September 2003)
"No other set of
experiences in my career has brought me such a wealth of learning and
sharing as the drawing, the initiating, the growing, and the leading of
the Thierry Graduate School of Leadership"
"Leading is an art, the one art that involves the
six senses in the relationships with, and in the influencing of and by
other people"
"We all make some
errors, have some failures, and some successes in life; it all
demonstrates the imperfection as well the courage of human beings, of
leaders in particular "
"I hear some of my
colleagues say that leadership is a relatively young domain of study or
learning. I disagree. It is as old as mankind itself, at least 50.000
years old, far more older probably. But the legacy from our ancestors is,
sadly enough, rather futile; we repeat our mistakes time and over
again." (in open conversations, and informal
Q&A's, with executives and public officials in Brussels -- March to
June 2005)
"My
major work of art?.. It is found in another field, where many people are
involved during the work, the field is leadership, the art of leadership.
That one work takes a lifetime to make, it is a shared one, with all the
people, the artists, that contribute to it. It is dynamic, vibrant, it
cannot be affixed onto a wall. It is the Thierry
Graduate School of Leadership."
(in
an interview for a French classical arts magazine, in relation to his
paintings -- April 2006)
Read
also > "The
Radical Departure (...)"
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