Leading in a fast-changing environment: Hercules meets Buddha

In this video:

Leading to align, empower, and collaborate has never been more important than now. With the uncertainty surrounding the current COVID-19 pandemic, today's leadership requires setting clear direction in ambiguity, often without direct authority over the many stakeholders involved.

On April 8, 2020, we hosted a free webinar to explore ways to think about your own leadership to cultivate success in this environment. Led by Martha Maznevski, "Leading in a Fast-Changing Environment: Hercules Meets Buddha" was a virtual workshop on balancing leadership priorities by contrasting the leadership styles of Hercules and Buddha.

Key webinar content

Core topics

• The tendency to “lead harder” or “lead more” during crisis and why that’s unhelpful and unsustainable
• The “Hercules” leadership style: hard work, strength, stamina, courage, drive, goal-orientation, direction, clear authority
• The two deepest human fears and how the Hercules leadership style alleviates them in the short term
• The “Buddha” leadership style: trust, generosity, wisdom, empowerment, reciprocity, coaching, curiosity
• How to blend the Hercules leadership style with the Buddha leadership style to be a more effective leader
• Maintaining leadership consistency in both crisis and non-crisis periods
• Key performance indicators to use to know if you’re utilizing both Hercules and Buddha leadership styles

Memorable quote

“Give yourself permission to really be Hercules, and also enjoy being Buddha. This is a way of empowering and having sustainable leadership so you’ll last longer, and at the same time you’ll empower other people to higher performance and develop their own leadership.” - Martha Maznevski

Additional Resources

Click the above image to view slides, or download the slide deck presentation.

Note: This article was originally published under our former name, The Ivey Academy. We are now known as Ivey Executive Education.

About Ivey Executive Education

Ivey Executive Education is the home for executive Learning and Development (L&D) in Canada. It is Canada’s only full-service L&D house, blending Financial Times top-ranked university-based executive education with talent assessment, instructional design and strategy, and behaviour change sustainment. 

Rooted in Ivey Business School’s real-world leadership approach, Ivey Executive Education is a place where professionals come to get better, to break old habits and establish new ones, to practice, to change, to obtain coaching and support, and to join a powerful peer network. For more learning insights and updates on our events and programming, follow us on LinkedIn.