Heart Leadership: Introduction

Heart Leaders are real human beings beings leading real people. Leaders who lead from the heart have a high level of self-awareness.They know who they are at their core - the good, the bad and the ugly. They don't crave for new things to do like a drug that keeps parts of themselves in wee boxes - let's explore....

Dream Dare Dazzle

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Logetting everyone and they will welcome back once more. I'd
like to explore another part of leadership, and I call
it heart leadership. It's about caring. It's it's about putting
your spirit or feeling your spirit within all walks of life,

(00:30):
and particularly we're talking about the business world at the moment,
and some this might be a completely new new concept,
and particularly engineers and they're, oh, I've no time for
this woo stuff. I've heard this before. The one I'd
like to pause and think about is the spirituality or

(00:54):
the spirit that I'm talking about just now. Is that
sense a feeling that you get when you're, for example,
your football team, your rugby team has won the cup,
and that's that joy exuberance that one has. Or it
could be the sense for feeling that you get when

(01:15):
you hear here and your born baby cry for the
first time. What in nature? The sense of well being
that one has. It's a bit curring that taking it
in all walks of life. And then the concept of business,
it's about being a humanitarian and that means to consider

(01:39):
the bigger picture. As we all know the world appears
to be, particularly with internet getting smaller. What we're doing
one now has got measurable effects and what happens another
willing to see what's happening in Gaz. At the moment,
both the economic and social circumstances can no longer be

(02:02):
confined to geographical boundaries. Culture and religions are now all
global are becoming more so. In that sense, our world
is truly becoming smaller. How we work, the decisions or
corporations make, the use of our funds and distribution of

(02:24):
wealth by far the most obvious mirrors of our efforts
to acknowledge our role in global circumstances. Even the smallest
organization has opportunities affect the world by contributing to less
fortunate people by considering the environment and susceptibility of global resources.

(02:50):
But heart speak, and when people in an organization feel
a sense of global investment and individual motives change, we'll
see benefits and business because I'll expand the dimensions of
the business outside the individual ego and to our bigger causes.

(03:13):
Heart leaders are real human beings leading real people. Leaders
who lead from the heart have a very high level
of self awareness. They know who they really are at
their core, the good, the bad, and ugly. The old
classic they don't crave new things to do, like a

(03:35):
drug that keeps part of them in wee compartments. Some
leaders may say are naturally able to lead. Many have
spent years peeling away leaders of insulation and learning the
ways they've kept their spirit distance distant from and uninvolved

(03:58):
in their work and particularly in all aspects of life.
They spent years on learning the habit of doing more
and more and more to fill the void and send
inside them, relearning the peace of just being in a moment,
of being present, open, and flexible. They spent years on

(04:21):
learning the ways of appearing to be super human to
make room for being a real human to read the
real people in an organizational quest aye. They've spent years
on learning that workers are robots, nay emotions, and learning

(04:44):
that each person is a real human being with hope, dreams, fears,
hearts and pains. It's virtually impossible for real people to
find courage to exercise and issues of to try new things,
to make mistakes and to learn from those mistakes. And

(05:06):
the presence of so called perfect superhuman beings. In early
morning meetings with the c suite, the executives and executive teams,
I brought I had a broccoli with me. From time
to time, I vegetable does get raised eyebrows and sometime

(05:32):
vegetable humor. Hey, as people query what we're doing with
the broccoli, Ay, we're being a veggie or a vegan,
I just smile, smile, and then I'm going to explain
the most important leadership lesson. Maybe they would have a

(05:55):
received a heart leadership lesson. Point out the general shape
and configuration of the broccoli. Then I pull off the
next largest division of the vegetable and note it's the
same shape. Surprise, surprising configuration. A break off each successive

(06:17):
smaller unit of broccoli and show how each unit reflects
the size and shape of the whole. Finally, I let
them know and tell them if I were to get
a single cell of broccoli, we discover the even on
the cellar level, the plant retains the same shape and

(06:38):
configuration as the whole. And I would suggest and suggest
to you as well. Companies organizations are a bit like broccoli.
The leadership of a company is the broccoli seed. Where
this kind of principle and transformational leadership. This is going

(07:00):
a bit deeper about putting spirit into business. The heart
into business. What occurs at the top will be recreated,
will be recreated again and again and successfully larger business
units until it encompasses the whole business. So it's critical

(07:24):
that the executive team, the senior leadership understand what it
reflects into the organization. Self awareness work is a work
of discovering the broccoli seed of the company. It's about
learning how everything that occurs as the result of the
seed that's been planted by our actions and what we

(07:46):
say and either consistencies or the incongruities between our words
and action. It's about everyone at all levels within their
organization being accountable, taking responsibility, and that starts at the

(08:08):
very top. It's about walking the talk, doing what you
say you'll be doing, and that reflects the seed that's
been solen at the very top of the organization. If
you take personal responsibility for your actions and you follow
through and everything you say you'll do, oh, you update

(08:32):
people if it's not possible or it's delayed. That's the
seed of responsibility accountability. It creates trust within an organization.
When we work in self awareness, it reveals to individuals

(08:53):
and group what is being created and what, if anything,
is need to change. As we found out in transformational
leadership that I have done this work, can consciously choose
to plant seeds of learning, risk taking, social responsibility, respect

(09:15):
for environment, and respect for the whole person within our organization,
or respect for excellent customer service. It takes, may I
suggest to you a lot of courage to raise or
illusions and objectively see yourself, standing back, observing what do

(09:41):
we see? And we do that if we can do
that both individually collectively, but for me, it's really one
of the only ways that company discover what seeds have
been planted? What is it? And it's the old story again.
What happens as the leader or what happens when you're

(10:02):
not there? What happens within the organization? What do people
say and do? What's their core values, their cold beliefs,
and how does that reflect in their behaviors. When leaders
get in touch with and live as real human beings

(10:24):
that every minute of the day, then and only then
can others be free to soar to the greatness in
the leader's presence. One of my clients is this chap
called Joe. He's growing a dynamic and innovative company. He

(10:50):
is beginning to get in touch with his inner greatness.
May it suggests for the first time, he see the
company is created as his life work. For the first time,
he's able to feel a sense of purpose to share
his hopes and dreams and even fears with his whole team.

(11:12):
He shares his need to work with people as a
team and to help each of them achieve greatness so
that the company can also achieve his potential. His approach
is not about theatrics. Theatrics would be transparent. He speaks

(11:34):
to people from the depths of his heart. From taking
a hard look at himself, accepted who he really is,
I he can be frightened and despite fear, He's choosing
the path of heart leadership. He's choosing the path of

(11:54):
courage rather than the path of fear that would appear
to be easier and safer. The exposure of human frailty
has been incredible, has had an incredible impact on his company.
Workers talk about feeling important and so importantly of making

(12:20):
a difference. They've got spirit. Jack is learning to leader
from the heart by peeling away the layers of insulation.
He's demonstrating the courage of heart leadership by looking within
and doing his his self awareness work first. To be

(12:44):
a leader means saying individuals, not just we nondescript groups
of people. To be a heart leader means discovering what
works for us personally when they're living from I would
say at core that spirit, that deepness within us, not

(13:05):
following how to do prescription in a book, and it
means discovering and respecting the same place in each and
every person with whom we come in contact. To be
a leader means actively looking out, seeking to guide people

(13:25):
to find and work from the place where our organization
BROCCOLI's see in each person's individuality we overlap, rather than
forcing everyone to work in lockstep with the way we
personally prefer. May it suggest catteris and labels are mindless

(13:49):
ways of avoiding listening, to avoid thinking, to avoid personal
decision making, and to avoid connection. When groups of people
are categorized into buckets, the manager doesn't have to take
time to think about the person who's present. Putting people

(14:15):
in boxes preventing incising that a worker can be hard working,
skilled person who's proud of consistently top notwich work, say
for example, they're active in their church, could lead a
Scout group a guide group when a manager or a

(14:37):
team leader says his union, he avoids seeing the person.
It's much easier to hate a label than it is
to hate a skilled craftsman who works hard, takes pride
in their work, and is active, for example in church

(14:57):
and scouting. Catogs and labels easy ways to stop connection
and separatis. They can cause us to focus on one
part of a person, and by doing that we miss
the whole person, to forget that the union guy and
the manager are living, breathing human beings, feelings, a family, hopes, dreams,

(15:21):
and a spirit just itching to sow. The leader who
leads from the heart looks carefully at people, so the
uniqueness and value of each of us are really appreciate.
When generalization slips into a thinking, really we must work

(15:41):
at being conscious being a moment and recognizing it for
what it is. It's a way to separate and disconnect us.
A lot of that is happening in the world just now.
Putting people into little groups are bigger groups, and that's
when we start to get division. People start getting aggravated,

(16:05):
angry at each other. They don't see it my way.
They have this this narrow tunnel vision. Then start coming
out and the blame game starts. Everyone who works for
us and for us may suggest as a human being

(16:28):
with heart, mind, feelings, and the spirit. More traditional management
structures have treated people within little boxes we compartments. The
message has been quite clearly, bring your body in part
of the brain that thinks the way that we think.

(16:52):
I leave the rest at home. We can't expect we can.
We can sever or coff a worker's are them and
tell them or her to leave it at home. The
bleeding from the severed arm makes a person weak and unproductive,
But we sever people from their mind, spirits, and souls

(17:14):
expect them to fall perform one hundred percent. Traditional manners
who have held this sort of expectations of more less
saying neither their spirits and souls, nor the needs of
these parts, these aspects themselves. They're not needed, so they

(17:39):
haven't been able to accept they're needed by other people.
Acceptance of our own, authentic selves freeze the energy. So
many of us have diverted to keeping the person who
truly are stuff it down inside. Didn't talk about it,

(18:02):
don't be there, keep it quiet, stuff it down deep
insiders from time to time however it wants it wants
to push out and be my true authentic self. Ah,
beat it in the head again. It's that child's game,
just batter every time it pops up, Pop it in

(18:23):
the head. But when we accept who we really are,
the energy needed is brought up. It soars up so
we can do or be whatever we want to be.

(18:43):
We don't need artificial symbols that reinforce our ears, but
telling us you're worthly and valuable. When we have self confidence,
confidence in their true authentic self, we're able to be
connected to the rest of the team. We believe in
people and the belief inspires others to give one hundred

(19:04):
percent and a bit more. It's if you've been in
the football team and the team are on a raw
spirits are sorry that that tackle of that ball it's
just out of reach. Suddenly we reach it. Are the
other team the team that I've got that core, that

(19:24):
spirit deep inside. They take out that so something. My
national team, the Scottish team on their in May. Over
the years, it's it's really had its problems. I lived
in the years of many years ago of Valley starting Army.

(19:45):
But Scotland we're playing, We're playing Greece. This week, and
they had a really poor first half, terrible first half.
They came alive, They had that talk that we are
one in the changing room and come out this second half.

(20:10):
There were one down and the scored, scored and scored
to win three to one. It's getting that energy deep
within us and running with that spirit. Each member of
the team believed in each other, and that belief inspired

(20:31):
them all to give one hundred percent as we said
in a bit more so, when we accept people just
as they are and value of differences is a gift
of perspective and step towards the wholeness of the team

(20:54):
of all. We often don't know what growth will look like.
Leaders are learners and teachers who trust it change will
bring it in an exciting advancement. Leaders hat leaders of
courage for their achievements take courage to do so. I

(21:14):
had some thoughts to think about for this week. Heart leadership,
encompassing the spirit deep within and making a difference not
only to yourself, your team, your organization, but the whole
world as if we're all interconnected with each other. Until

(21:37):
next week, I'd like to explore with you who are
heart leaders and go a little bit deeper into that,
and where do we get this courage from? So then
live life with passion by now