Assessing leaders’ Negative Capability: ORGDYNE Training and Consulting, LLC and LeaderNation have partnered to create the Negative Capability 360 feedback tool.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) September 22, 2009 --

‘Negative Capability’ is an important leadership competency that rarely gets talked about and is largely overlooked in favor of ‘proactive’ leadership. Planning, forethought, and identifying issues before they become problems are necessary aspects of good leadership, though the overemphasis on being proactive has deleterious effects on a leader’s ability to be reactive, that is, to react to changing circumstances in real time. Organizational leaders are often judged by how much they know, how much they get done, and how quickly they arrive at decisions, and as a result, action often replaces thinking and reflection. This bias makes not knowing unacceptable and creates conditions that are antithetical to creativity, authenticity, and thoughtful reactivity. The Negative Capability leadership competency challenges these notions, and offers a simple approach that opens up space in personal and professional relationships.

LeaderNation (http://LeaderNation.com), in collaboration with ORGDYNE Training & Consulting, LLC (http://www.ORGDYNE.com) has created a set of eight leadership competencies that measure Negative Capability using a 360 feedback tool with behaviorally-based questions (see http://LeaderNation.com/FAQ for more information on 360 feedback tools that use behaviorally-based questions). Examples of these leadership competencies include authenticity, comfort with personal ignorance, and tolerance for ambiguity. All organizational leaders are called upon to exercise these skills in varying degrees, though they are rarely talked about and almost never taught due to the discomfort associated with negative space and the stigma attached to the limitations in personal knowledge that we all share. In combination with ORGDYNE’s certification training, the Negative Capability 360 feedback instrument challenges leaders to reflect upon these skills, confront uncomfortable uncertainties, and increase their self-awareness by actively seeking feedback.

The Negative Capability course is one of the ways ORGDYNE connects people and ideas worldwide and provides scholarship from leaders such as Manfred Kets DeVries and Edgar Schein. Dr. Herb Bilick, Ph.D., said, “I learned again the importance of time for reflection and containment, the importance of tolerating ambiguity and uncertainty, and interesting ways of presenting the material to others.” Partnering with LeaderNation demonstrates the firm’s continued commitment to bring the best in management theory to practicing organizational leaders. The Negative Capability 360 feedback assessment was built using LeaderNation technology, and designed to yield actionable feedback. Using LeaderNation’s 360 feedback tool participants in the Negative Capability certification course receive feedback that is imminently actionable, combining both quantitative and qualitative questions that yield personalized feedback directed at specific behaviors related to Negative Capability leadership competencies.

360 feedback     leadership competencies     leadership competency model     negative capability