Knowledge Leadership To Achieve Personal and Organisational Goals

Most leaders receive their first promotion because they excelled in one or more areas of knowledge or skills, furthermore part of the reason knowledge leadership is so influential is that it can solve problems faster than other people can. These individuals can:

  • recognise problems faster
  • prioritise which problems are the most important to achieving the organisation’s goals
  • reframe a problem either by shrinking it, making it very specific, or expanding it and looking at its system implications
  • quickly identify root causes of the problem
  • provide fact-based pros and cons when solutions are brainstormed to select the best solution

The defining characteristic of knowledge leaders is that they use their knowledge to help the team or organisation achieve the priority goals.

Very intelligent people are often unproductive because they don’t handle knowledge in a goal-directed manner.

The Disney animation division, has a hierarchy of knowledge leaders in the animation skill. This is similar to the technical career ladders at engineering and other high tech companies. Disney use deadlines to stimulate creativity. To keep the animators goal-oriented in their art and knowledge, the vice president of animation.

Being goal-directed about the knowledge is required because knowledge leaders spend considerable time:

  • Acquiring knowledge
  • Processing the knowledge
  • Disseminating knowledge
  • Goal directness focuses knowledge acquisition on usage, application, and action.

All three of the above areas of activity include informal discussions. In an early study of the most productive engineers and scientists. Albert Einstein wrote up his famous theories of relativity after months of extensive interactions with his close colleagues. Einstein maintained an extensive network of contacts throughout his life. Knowledge leaders are in communication with people who have information and knowledge to share.

What are your goals personal and business for your areas of knowledge leadership?