Lead with an Open Heart?
This is one of the five shifts that I discuss related to inner mastery as a CEO. This one is often hardest to crystallize. So I’d like to discuss it further:
Highest of standards and yet validating acceptance of each person. Intensity and swiftness and yet patience when needed. Feedback and rapid growth and yet supportive caring. Honest reflection of weak performance and yet no de-valuing of anyone…These are the challenging polarities that an open hearted leader is called to master.
This is a radically different approach than leading through fear, holding back validation, being vocally or even silently critical, or showing aggravation at underperformance.
This approach is particularly challenging in a high stakes environment. The irony of it is that it can be a real differentiator and driver of optimal performance. A very high standard of expectation and performance can still be held. It is communicated constantly and directly; but not harshly. And not personally. People already want to do well, want to succeed, want to win, want to make an impact. And if they don’t, that is ok, but they don’t belong in that environment. But if they do care already and the values are aligned, then simply holding a high standard consistently and believing in people becomes the source of power. Not criticizing them, or overly focused on rating them, or subtly manipulating them to work harder.
This can be quite challenging, especially for a leader who themselves may be driven by people not having believed in them early on, and having to prove themselves along the way. Or a leader whose own self criticism is what has made her great up until this moment and rendered her in a position of leadership to begin with.
This open hearted approach is particularly challenging for A-type personality people who are hard charging and intense. When that fire burns, it is not for us to suppress it. In many ways, the value a leader adds is to unleash their natural drive and edge across the team. The key is to direct that intensity towards the accomplishment of the mission; not towards any individual. Feedback can be given about a course correction, without presumption of any shortcoming in the person. Strong emotion is expressed towards the desire of winning and what it would take to succeed, but no negativity is directed at the individual, even the one whose performance is ostensibly getting in the way of the goal.
Aren’t businesses all about people, and isn’t success about attracting and retaining the very best. And don’t the best want to be seen, heard and validated, in addition to wanting to win and succeed. And if that is indeed the case, shouldn’t we owe it to ourselves as leaders to ask this question:
Can we not build and run great, growing and profitable businesses while being authentic to our human hearts, and caring for each other and developing each other and having that process lead to our own deeper development in the process? And so isn’t the path to success inclusive of rooting out our own self criticism and routing out any leftover disbelief in ourselves, any leftover lack of self worth? … The answer is what it means to me to Lead with an Open Heart.
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