1st Edition
The C² Factor for Leadership How the Alchemy of Curiosity and Courage Helps Leaders Become Champions and Lead Meaningful Lives
Packed with nuggets of wisdom from the experiences of champion-level leaders across industries, Dr. Irving demonstrates how champion leaders engage their curiosity and courage to learn from the past, enhance the present and anticipate the future.
—Marshall Goldsmith, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Triggers, Mojo, and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There and Thinkers 50 #1 Executive Coach
Curiosity and courage are unstoppable forces. In this insightful book, Joanne Irving deftly shows how to enlist them to become a leader fit for the future.
—Daniel H. Pink, #1 New York Times bestselling author of WHEN and DRIVE
The cover graphic is a trailer for this profound book. The magical power of leadership is the effective blend of the courage of a lion with the curiosity of a cat. This myth-busting book will alter your leadership perspectives and practices by providing cutting edge substance, compelling examples, and insightful tools.
—Chip R. Bell, author of Inside Your Customer’s Imagination
All we know with absolute certainty is that we live in complex, uncertain, and rapidly changing times. Despite our best attempts to predict the future, we are often caught off-guard and surprised when it arrives. Whether a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, global economic shifts, political upheaval, or technological evolution, as senior leaders we must navigate these tumultuous times and make tough decisions to guide our organizations to success.
Champion leaders want to be truly exceptional regardless of the maelstrom of change they are experiencing. Not only do they want their organizations to succeed, but they also want to live fulfilling lives. They want the same for those in their organizations and personal lives as well.
How do we effectively lead in times of constant, often dramatic change? And, equally important, how do we simultaneously create a satisfying, meaningful life?
The C² Factor – the synergistic application of curiosity and courage – offers a path to both. This book reveals that when leaders manifest both traits, they embrace the professional and personal opportunities the future brings. When the landscape is shifting beneath our feet the C² Factor enables us to lead more effectively and helps us cultivate more fulfilling personal lives.
While other books have looked at curiosity and courage separately, The C² Factor for Leadership examines how, when combined, profound curiosity and relentless courage lead to remarkable outcomes. One enhances the other in a powerful alchemy that improves our outcomes, how we show up as leaders in our organizations and as human beings in our personal lives. Beginning with ourselves and expanding to our relationships, our teams, our organizations, and to the world, this book demonstrates how the C² Factor can be applied for superior results.To be a truly exceptional leader, to live a satisfying life, we must have profound curiosity and relentless courage. We must exercise the C² Factor. Without it, we run the risk of being leaders who are robotic, academic, or reckless. With the C² Factor, we can be champions.
The C² Factor for Leadership
How the alchemy of curiosity and courage helps leaders become champions and lead meaningful lives
Joanne Boyd Irving, Ph.D.
Acknowledgments
About the Author
INTRODUCTION
- THE MYTHS YOU MAY BELIEVE ABOUT CURIOSITY AND COURAGE THAT CAN LEAD YOU ASTRAY
- THE ALCHEMY OF CURIOSITY AND COURAGE
Four Myths About Curiosity That Muddle Your Understanding
Myth 1: You either are or are not curious
Myth 2: We should emulate three-year-olds
Myth 3: School is a wet blanket
Myth 4: Curiosity is a waste of time
Four Myths About Courage That Defeat Your Attitude
Myth 1: Courage is the same as fearlessness
Myth 2: You either are or you are not courageous
Myth 3: Courage is always recognized
Myth 4: Courage can’t be learned
You Gotta Have Courage to be Curious
- Admitting you don’t know
- Encountering unpleasant discoveries
It Helps to be Curious if You Want to be Brave
- Curiosity is the bravery elixir
- Using the curiosity to persevere
The C2 Factor
Lacking the C2 Factor
- The Robotic Leader: Neither curious nor courageous
- The Academic Leader: Lots of curiosity, little courage
- The Reckless Leader: All Courage, No Curiosity
With the C2 Factor: The Champion Leader
- The tackling terror in the supply chain
- Postscript: The C2 Factor does not stand alone
- Where are you and where do you want to go?
- THE C2 FACTOR BEGINS AT HOME: START WITH YOU
Gazing at Our Navels with the C2 Factor
- Meditation, mindfulness and the courage to be bored
- Feelings? What feelings?
- Using the beginner’s mind and embracing ambiguity
Shining the C2 Factor Beyond the End of Your Nose
- Heuristics and cognitive biases
- Fighting the Dunning-Kruger effect
- Extending self-awareness beyond 15 minutes
Enriching Your Life with The C2 Factor
- Inspiring competence
- Opening to where you haven’t been, and what you haven’t done
- The antidote to boredom and a key to happiness
- PEOPLE WHO NEED PEOPLE: THE ALCHEMY OF RELATIONSHIPS WITH THE C2 FACTOR
When First We Meet: Applying the C2 Factor to Build Relationships
- Empathy without curiosity is merely projection
- Newness + the C2 Factor = the honeymoon
- Networking without the C2 Factor doesn’t work
When the Bloom is Off the Rose: Applying the C2 Factor to Maintain Relationships
- They aren’t cars; they’re gardens
- Weeding your garden
- Tending someone else’s garden
Yay! Conflict! Using the C2 Factor to Embrace Conflict
- We are all foreigners
- Another damn growth opportunity
- Neither a bully nor a doormat
- HIGH PERFORMANCE TEAMS AND CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING WITH THE C2 FACTOR
Simple But Not Easy
- Engaging the C2 Factor
- Wait…..what’s the problem?
- Beautiful questions
- Attitude is everything
What are We Afraid of?
- Silence is golden, if we can tolerate it
- Stupid questions
Who are We Afraid of?
- Scapegoats
- Eccentrics and other difficult people
Exercising the C2 Muscle
- Break the adage
- Practice, practice, practice
- CHAMPION LEADERSHIP WITH THE C2 FACTOR
Who Do you Want to Be?
- The C2 Leader Diagnostic
- Champion leaders
Business as Usual Gets in the Way
- Too busy
- Too expert
- Too fast
Engaging the C2 Factor – An Imperative for Strategic Thinking
- Anticipate
- Challenge
- Decide
- Interpret, align and learn
- The strategy landscape
- ENSURING PROSPERITY WITH A C2 FACTOR CULTURE
Confronting Corporate Constraints
- Too successful
- Too standardized
- Too focused
Established, Fostered and Sustained Through Conscious Commitment
- Hiring
- Enabling
- Rewarding
- Modeling, mentoring, and sponsoring
- THE ASTOUNDING POTENTIAL OF OMNIPRESENT C2
Heroes with Super C2 Factor
But for Us Mortals….
- Prosocial organizations
- Not your father’s Rotary
Applying the C2 Factor in a Humanitarian Start-up – The Poop Story
- Social entrepreneurs need the C2 Factor
Design Thinking and the C2 Factor – One Marriage Made in Heaven
Conclusion
Biography
Joanne Irving, PhD, specializes in working with owners and CEOs of mid-size companies and senior executives at large organizations. She has worked in the Washington D.C. area and across the United States for over three decades, helping influential and accomplished leaders improve professional and business outcomes, organizational performance, and the quality of life for themselves and those around them.
Because of her finely-honed understanding of individuals’ motivations, emotions, and behaviors as well as team dynamics and organizational contexts, Dr. Irving has helped leaders in a wide range of organizations through challenges that are pivotal to their businesses and themselves.
When asked to reflect on her decades of work and over 3000 clients, Joanne identified the leaders who were most transformative, most able to seize opportunities, and most caring and wise, and realized that they all had two qualities in common – they are exceptionally curious and courageous. With leaders at Washington based institutions such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Federal Defense Department, and the White House, Fortune 100 companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, Pfizer, and a variety of non-profit associations across sectors such as AARP, HRC and the Zuckerman Institute at Columbia University, Joanne concluded that these qualities were applicable in a wide variety of leadership contexts.
Joanne graduated summa cum laude from Tufts University; received her PhD in psychology from the University of Maryland; and conducted her internship at Johns Hopkins University Hospital.
The book cover graphic of The C2 Factor is a trailer for this profound book. The magical power of leadership is the effective blend of the courage of a lion with the curiosity of a cat. This myth-busting book will alter your leadership perspectives and practices by providing cutting edge substance, compelling examples, and insightful tools."
-- Chip R. Bell, author of Inside Your Customer’s Imagination
Packed with nuggets of wisdom from the experiences of champion-level leaders across industries, Dr. Irving demonstrates how champion leaders engage their curiosity and courage to learn from the past, enhance the present and anticipate the future.
-- Marshall Goldsmith, New York Times#1 bestselling author of Triggers, Mojo, and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There and Thinkers 50 #1 Executive Coach
Curiosity and courage are unstoppable forces. In this insightful book, Joanne Irving deftly shows how to enlist them to become a leader fit for the future.
-- Daniel H. Pink, #1 New York Times bestselling author of WHEN and DRIVE
Today's champion leaders learn to work in and through complexity, using curiosity to find the elements in the environment that they can change and then having the courage to do something about it. That is the C2 Factor.
-- Jonah Berger, bestselling author of Contagious and The Catalyst
If you're a leader -- of a team, department, or organization -- The C2 Factor is for you. This accessible and engaging book enables you to see inside the decision-making process of top leaders, so you can hone your own strategic acumen.
-- Dorie Clark, author of The Long Game and executive education faculty, Duke University Fuqua School of Business
Dr. Joanne Irving is an advisor to Washington DC’s power elite. For years, she’s worked closely with heads of government, the military, and corporations on how to navigate challenges and lead with wisdom and grace. Few people understand, then, what it takes to lead in the real world better than Dr. Irving. If you and your organization are trying to accomplish something of magnitude, her new book The C2 Factor is indispensable."
-- Mark Levy, author of Accidental Genius, Levy Innovation: Differentiation for Corporations, Brands, and Thought Leaders
This inspiring book illuminates how curiosity and courage can be leveraged by champion leaders across all industries to achieve new levels of creativity and collaboration within their organization, exponentially raising productivity and effective decision-making.
-- Jennifer L. Farris, COO, Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Columbia University
Through Joanne’s newest work, The C2 Factor, Joanne helps companies take performance to even higher levels by exploring how leaders amplify their impact through the use of Courage and Curiosity. oanne has an innate knack at helping companies and their leaders discover how these qualities can separate themselves from the competition.
-- Rick Dudek, SVP Payer and Channel Access, Pfizer
A thought-provoking read for leaders at every level who want to build healthy thriving organizations and enhance both their personal and professional lives. I am giving it to our leadership team to read.
-- Beth Monroe, CEO, Justin Bradley, Washington, DC
With a great mix of explanations, examples, and exercises, this engaging and energizing book brings a new and interesting focus to curiosity and courage. The C2 Factor is applicable to corporate/organizational leadership goals as well as one’s personal life and community involvement. This book exceeded my expectations. It was the sort of page turner that I didn’t expect.
-- Elise Bolda, PhD, former Chair and Associate Professor Emerita Graduate Program in Public Health, Muskie School, USM