Drs. Randall P White and Sandra L Shullman are featured authors in the April issue of CLO Magazine. Writing on Ambiguity Leadership, Randy and Sandy advance the idea that an aptitude for ambiguity and the ability to be comfortable amidst uncertainty are traits that can be measured and developed. Also, they assert that research suggests that they are traits of high-performers. From the article:

Research done by the Executive Development Group suggests that the ability to positively manage uncertainty may be an essential trait of effective leaders, often found in those considered high potentials. Evidence shows it can be measured and learned.

Based on interviews with numerous C-level executives around the world, Elizabeth Mellon, executive director of Duke Corporate Education, said mindset — more than personality and behavior — forms an observable pattern among some of the most successful leaders and that a fearless approach to uncertainty is required.

“C-suite executives reveal a high degree of being comfortable with discomfort,” Mellon said. “They accommodate ambiguity and the uncertainty it brings. They are confident in making decisions that move their organizations into uncharted territory because they know this ensures long-term prosperity. They have ‘solid cores’ that allow them to navigate the unknown and accept not knowing everything. And they tend to have a longer view because they see time as a continuum in which uncertainty will come and go as they progress. Being uncertain doesn’t stifle them.”

Read the whole article here.

We have been studying the affects that ambiguity has on leaders for two decades. The uncertainty that we all feel in ambiguous situations appears to be both a challenge and an opportunity. The ability to fearlessly grapple with ambiguity might be a trait that competitive businesses should seek.

The first of the eight “enablers” sought through our 360 assessment “Ambiguity Architect®” is described as “motivated by mysteries.” While the purpose of Ambiguity Architect is to determine a person’s ability to navigate uncertain situations, we find that many of the contributing traits of high rated participants to be those that are desired by scientists, research and development, inventors and entrepreneurs. If the business environment continues to grow in complexity and scale, and we have many reasons to believe that it will, are these roles that grapple with the unknown not increasingly important to leaders across many industries?

Our data suggests high performers can thrive in uncertain situations in which the ambiguity is not a choice nor desirable. We can only speculate much beyond this, but it is compelling to ask: can leaders learn to seek out uncertainty and ambiguity as a business strategy? Does skill at “being uncertain” become a positive motivator for creative solutions by lessening the severity of judgment for “dumb questions.” If we are operating in uncharted waters who is to say we’re on the wrong course? Perhaps there is a new mode or style of leadership that pursues uncertain situations because of these factors.

In this era of uncertainty, we’re watching our greatest leaders emerge. These are folks who ignore the pessimistic attitudes around them, the too many cashed reality checks on the state of the global economy, and the risk and do something completely new. They move toward the unknown as a deliberate leadership strategy. They have to: it’s the only way they know how to behave.

Although we don’t always know what these leaders will do, new research shows that leaders like these share a set of measureable behaviors, including a penchant for risk, a dauntless attitude, relentless curiosity, and great skills—and while some are teachable, many are not.

We recently studied executives around the world using an assessment instrument called Ambiguity Architect. The instrument measures an executive’s tolerance for ambiguity and rapidly changing situations. As we move toward increasingly uncertain times, it’s essential to know an executive’s ability to manage uncertainty.

We find that those who are most adept at leading through uncertainty perform better than their peers, have a greater likelihood of being promoted, and are comfortable leading an organization through the uncharted waters of change.

Surrounded by support
As president, Joe Leonard helped AirTran recover from one of the worst airplane crashes in history and shape the company into one of largest low-cost carriers in the nation. READ FULL ARTICLE.

Dr. Randall P. White: "It's a good time to be an 'ambiguity leader.'"

We’re crossing the globe—in the last 30 days, India, England, South Africa, France…Upstate New York, Ohio and Texas—and can attest, there is a world-wide glut of talent.

One client tells us there has never had so much good talent to recruit from. The short list of candidates for top management positions looks like a C-level all-star team. Clients who have been searching for months for high level specialists are suddenly discovering ideal candidates eager to move almost anywhere.

On the other side of the desk, organizations are struggling to retain their top talent through bonuses and incentives.

Dr. Sandra L. Shullman: "It's a good time to be a recruiter."

And it’s one of those ambiguity leadership moments…no one has ever been in this position before, so the entire script of talent development is being written right now.

Training-wise, open enrollment executive education is moribund. And it may never return. At least, not as we knew it. Remember, if we can be without you for a week, we can be without you!

Research shows that women have a natural knack for leading through uncertainty, said Dr. Sandra L. Shullman, Executive Development Coach.

Read the full story in this month’s Monitor Psychology

Wanted: Leaders equipped for today’s trials
To become an effective leader in today’s volatile job market, tap your strengths—and learn some new ones.

By Tori DeAngelis

With today’s rapid globalization, changing technology and the turbulent economy, leaders must excel at dealing with change and ambiguity, said veteran leadership trainer Sandra Shullman, PhD, at the Aug. 12 APA Committee on Women in Psychology Leadership Institute for Women in Psychology.

“The rate and pace of change is extraordinarily high,” said Shullman. “It’s why so many leaders both in business and academia are staying up late at night, because it’s often unclear exactly which direction things are going.”

Fortunately for women, the leadership styles in vogue are ones that research shows women both prefer and are more effective for them, noted Shullman, a managing partner with the Columbus, Ohio, office of the Executive Development Group, an international leadership development and consulting firm.

Shullman advised the women to:

• Take a democratic rather than autocratic approach. Sometimes called a “transformational” leadership style, through this approach, leaders delegate some power and autonomy to employees and encourage their independence and creativity.

• Foster active, ongoing learning for both employees and leaders. Such learning is critical in getting up to speed with today’s global markets or with technology, she said.

• Learn through experience. Research shows that great leaders learn 70 percent of their leadership skills on the job, 20 percent from mentors and role models and 10 percent from coursework. That may be a hard concept for people in academia to accept, Shullman added, but they need to overcome the tendency to overthink, so they can act.

• Exploit your personal style. Good interpersonal skills are a mark of effective leaders. In particular, good leaders can read and respond to the emotional needs of a situation, she noted. “When 99 percent of the people in a group you’re leading are angry and you reflect that anger, you’re perceived as an effective leader,” she said. “If 99 percent of the group aren’t angry and you’re reflecting anger, you may be seen as out of touch with your group.”

• Be a “good enough” leader. Research shows that if leaders have 10 major leadership areas they need to attend to, great leaders do two or three of them extraordinarily well and seven or eight “well enough,” said Shullman. If you’re a whiz in your field and a clear, courageous decision-maker, for example, you don’t also have to be a top-notch organizer or an ace strategist.

Being less than 100 percent perfect “is a hard concept, especially for women,” said Shullman. “We tend to use our best area as the standard for all other things, so sometimes we don’t try new things.”

• Embrace challenge. How much you learn is directly related to the size of the challenges you face. Good leaders admit their mistakes and learn from them, she said. “Many of us keep our memories of failure like they should be preserved in a museum somewhere,” she said. Instead, solve the problem first and figure out what may have caused it later.

• Work on your behavior. Good tools are available to help you learn and work with your leadership style, including an inventory called the FIRO-B (Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation-B), which participants took before arriving at the institute. The scale taps leaders’ expressed and desired needs for affection, control and inclusion and how those play out in leadership behavior preferences.

“Ultimately, people respond to how you act,” Shullman said, “and you can learn to work with your behavior.”

• Take time to learn. “You can’t teach people to be wonderful leaders in eight sessions,” said Shullman. Research also shows it’s better to focus on one or two things you can really sink your teeth into.

• Know your strengths and weaknesses. Work on your weaknesses to get them off of people’s radar. Work on your strengths “because that is what you could be known for,” Shullman said.

• No woman is an island. Research shows that people who share goals with valued colleagues are more likely to achieve them than those who don’t.

“Whether you go to a leadership training institute for one week, six weeks or six months,” Shullman said, “sharing your goal with significant colleagues at work is what seems to matter in terms of whether you do anything with what you’ve learned.”

Alfred E. Perlman predicted, “Learning is what most adults will do for a living in the 21st century.”

If ever there were an opportunity to learn something about leadership it’s 4Q 2008. And if you’re diligent and inquisitive you can earn an MA degree…Master of Ambiguity. [What is your capacity to deal with ambiguity?]

On the brink of the current financial crisis, United States Senator and presidential candidate John McCain offered a now famously Babbit-like bromide, “I think, still, the fundamentals of our economy are strong.”

But in fairness to McCain’s boosterism, nobody else really had a clue what was happening back in September, nor could anyone foresee the results.

But if a visionary leader had based her organization’s direction on a “fundamentally strong” economy, she might regret it today.

It’s time to look for “ambiguity leadership.” The visionary leader says to followers, “Let’s work together on how to make my vision happen.” The ambiguity leader says “Let’s work together on how we can learn what the vision should be.”

Philip Hodgson and I defined a leader’s role in our 1996 book The Future of Leadership as:

Identifying productive areas of uncertainty and confusion and leading the organization into those areas to gain competitive or other kinds of advantage.

Five years later in Relax, It’s Only Uncertainty: Lead the Way When the Way is Changing we illuminated the fact that in a situation of high uncertainty—like now—your view and approach are as relevant as anyone else’s. You’re winging it, but also you might be defining the marketplace for all competitors until the next “collapse of certainty.”

You can screw up, royally, too.

So one of the best hedges against ruin is to build a learning organization that can respond quickly to mistakes, so progressive thinking and implementation can propel you into the lead.

And if somebody says they’re certain about anything right now, get their best stock tip and do the opposite.