High Performing Leadership: Secrets for Progressing up the Corporate Ladder
Part#3 Being
By Jonathan Creaghan
3. Being (Executives and CEO’s)
2. Wisdom (Management and Directors)
1. Knowledge (supervisor & team leads)
3. The Role of Being
We can define being as who
you are, it is your nature. That if there were no barriers in the way, you would
operate freely and easily from this inner state. This is not the short-term
emotional reaction of: “I am happy, sad, satisfied”, rather it’s the long-term
deeper state that you operate from daily. Leaders demonstrate who they are every day,
whether they are conscious of it or not. But, few are aware of their impact on
the company or their team.
At Being there is a shift from emotion to
states of being and power.
Energy Draining Emotions
Force
|
Energy Growing States
Power
|
Insecurity and unease
|
Inner belief in self, others, and the world
|
Fear
|
Courage, willingness
|
Impatience
|
Strategic Patience
|
Reaction
|
Reason
|
Excitement
|
Passion
|
It is easy to
use emotions to get things done. But it can be exhausting and counter
productive over time. The strategies
that we use to succeed very often become counter productive over time as
complexity and issues become larger. Driving change, growth and success take a
great deal of energy. This in turn must be sustained with constant new sources
to feed from.
States of being on the other hand don’t require
external feeding stations, rather they come from within the person. For
instance ‘Acceptance’ is not a weakness, but is the recognition of the reality
of a situation where one is able to distinguish between what can be controlled
and what can’t be. This allows for a focus of energy on productive actions, not
a spraying of energy. I am not saying that anger can’t be useful on certain
situations, but at the level of being,
it is a tool not a way of leading.
‘Acceptance’ is not a weakness, but the recognition of
a situation where one is able to distinguish between what can be controlled and
what can’t be.
Likewise fear,
which is prevalent within companies, can no doubt allow some people to ensure
they do their best. Fear of failure, fear of looking bad, fear of poverty can
be a great motivator to become very successful.
However in the long run fear suppresses and creates inaction and
hesitation. Companies that operate from this place over time are less
productive and make more mistakes, than those which operate from courage and
willingness.
Being gets translated
through action and behaviour. Every action, facial expression, statement and
reaction are noticed and catalogued by staff. This information is then stored,
and behaviour is adapted based on these collected experiences. Timing to
approach the leader, even amount, type, and currency of information shared is
defined by the judgments formed over time by staff. Even how the information gets interpreted is shaped
by the emotional lens it is viewed through.
Ethical and
values based companies succeed. The values and ethics are determined by the state of being of the executive group. These in turn get translated through their
behaviour and decisions to everyone else: staff, suppliers, customers and the community
at large.
It is clear that
every person brings who they are to the job, whether Supervisor or CEO, but as
advancement occurs the attention gets placed in a different way. Knowledge
is important at first, but as one progresses, Wisdom shared (and
invited to be shared), becomes more important until is
understood that what drives the organization to success, is the quality of the
person at the top (their Being).
Jonathan is the author of several books including Duxter’s Leap! and the Thinking Differently® Leadership series which includes Thinking Differently® about… Getting More Done. His books are published around the globe in several languages.
For more information on Jonathan Creaghan:
- 519.472.2562
Copyright © 2015, Jonathan Creaghan all rights reserved
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