Who are Heart Leaders?

People who lead from the Heart have learned courage. They have discovered 'spirit' - that buoyant energy deep within that flourishes when what athletes call  "in the flow" where everything seems possible. It's harnessing that energy and enriching your and everyones life. Let's explore....

Dream Dare Dazzle

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Again everyone, and welcome back to our podcast once More
a Dream their Dazzled podcast, continuing our quest about heart
leaders and other journey that were on at the moment.
It's trying to make the concept ideas of some the

(00:32):
question is who are heart leaders. It's trying to make
this a very simplistic but it's deeper than simplistic explanation.
Who is it? How to make these thoughts ideas concepts.
As you know, I've been researching and studying human factors,

(00:53):
human and ordinational factors for many many years, and particularly
when I was doing the root cause an ass of
accident investigation. Why do people do what they do? What's
the forms of errors and mistakes that are made? And
what particularly the influencing factors. What's the mindset the behaviors

(01:18):
of people when things don't go quite right? Right? Is
that something deep within themselves? Is it something they do
with their competence, their training, or is it the culture,
the environment, the systems that people were working to fascinating
area of research, and I'll touch on a little bit

(01:39):
as we and meander le say as we work a
way through the concepts of heart leadership and particularly of
bringing courage into the workplace. May I talk about one
of our family friends, the chap the name a Jock All,

(02:00):
a lovely lad and he would bring things down to
really simple levels. He didn't have higher education, but he
was educated when as many have called it before the
school of life. He was and he had studied and
worked worked in the land for many many years, and

(02:26):
he worked in the forestry Forest Commission in Scotland. I
worked with the trees and and I believe that Jock
embodied leadership qualities that I've been talking about about heart leadership.
They say, a relatively straightforward man. And I could talk

(02:51):
about what he did the activity has done, but what
I'd like to explore with you explain he was a
person inside and his comfort with himself with him, he
knew who he was, was comfortable with himself and enabled

(03:13):
him actually to be what we called at that time
a ganger, to lead people, to lead people so naturally,
and he brought a kind of infectious laughter with him.
He had a zealo for a living and then he
took on. He did it a hundred percent. He could

(03:34):
say one hundred and one hundred and ten percent. It
seemed natural for those around him they'd done the same thing. Aye.
He was a team player and he would jump in
and help others without being asks. And I would suggest

(03:55):
he would bring unconditional love and support for people and
encourage them to try new things, encourage them to do
their very best. He inspired, inspired people, inspired me, trusted me,
and always was a patient teacher and learn important thing here,

(04:21):
learn by mistakes. So I'm sort of saying we look
at the root causrook analysis of things that go wrong,
but it's stepping back and trying to understand what happened
and been able to do it better the next time.
That's it. It's this growth slipped back, you know, improve

(04:43):
another wee bit, but it's a bit putting things into balance.
We hear so much nowadays about people being burnt out
within business, and it's a great challenge. Just now gives
many people the traditional way that I was brought up
of people going to the workplace. Now a workplace could

(05:05):
be within offices, within factories, manufacturing, wherever it is, but
many many people are now working from home. A lot
of the social interactions can be missing now, but trying
to keep that alive, that person to person, So even
if you're not frequently seeing someone person to person, even

(05:27):
if you're doing your team's meeting or other forms of
social media interaction. It's being real. It's about connecting to So.
Joe was a lifelong student. He loved to learn, love
to help others learn, and he was exhilarated by advancement

(05:47):
and change. He cared about people, and they said he
cared about helping them accomplish them what they wanted to do.
The way he lived brought energy to his life and
to everyone around him. The qualities I observed observed in
job did I say it? And I'm jered him as

(06:10):
a young lad, a teenager, I've spent many many years
studying leaders in my back door a lad and all
the same things, all the core aspects I would say,
have heard leadership, And can I encourage you to look

(06:34):
around about you may find a lot of these traits,
shall we call them, are closer to you than we
may want to think. So often we look outside for
someone else to do it, for someone else to help
someone else. Oh can he do it? It's too hard

(06:55):
for me. But actually, every each and every one of
us has got marvelous core skills. And I've got a
heart it's about let's call it, let's call it emotional intelligence,
social intelligence that we have and let's use this wee

(07:19):
world called spiritual intelligence as well. We can recognize spirit
within ourselves and within others. And have you found that
you're attracted It's like a magnet that we're attracted to
that that energy, that flow. Call it of love, consciousness,

(07:42):
whatever title works for you. Found over the years that
leaders hat leaders lead from the heart. And I've also
learned courage to step out of their comfort zone and
it's to go that the extra step, the extra mile

(08:03):
of having courage. So what trying to do is encourage
you to step outside yourself to try some of the things.
There's a question I asked when I'm doing a lot
of coaching and that if it was impossible to fail,

(08:24):
what would you do? And then send by Canlucncy. So
what's stopping you taking action? Now? Today? Sold story of
the first step and they is the most important of
the journey of a thousand miles. One of the clients
I worked with was involved a little while ago and

(08:48):
the creation of a work unit to manufactually new product
within our organization. The core team that developed the new
unit wanted to build a team that tapped into individual spirit.
They managed to do it. There was quite a lengthy
selection process that was largely based on human qualities that

(09:12):
the individuals brought to their job. Let's call it the
leadership without title, the leadership abilities no matter where they were.
It's that self starting capability of looking, learning and growing.
So the selection process, majority of all the people that

(09:36):
were looked at all had the right skill sets. They
were talented. People had the skill sets, but how would
they meld together as a high performance unit. Although the workers,
mostly production workers, had shown significant personal leadership qualities before selection,

(10:00):
some time we spent peeling away the layers as a group.
They spent five days as a group learning about themselves,
what it meant to be a member of the team,
learning to help, to care, to respect their teammates. Leadership
was developed, as they say, leadership without the title at
all levels in the team. The team was fairly young.

(10:24):
Their results have been extra ordinary. The team members have
taken ownership of the product line and each feels accountable
for getting the job done. Members actively seek and give feedback.
The team has either met or been every schedule milestone

(10:45):
along the road to generating this new product a highly
unusual accomplishment within that organization. Other product lines have required
twelve individuals who were but this team has done something similar,
has accomplished it with seven. Another of my clients within

(11:10):
the same organization is a manager from another department. He
he attended part of the team meeting of that group
and he said that it seemed to be reminiscent of
a football team rather than a work meeting. People exuded

(11:30):
in exenthusiasm. They cheered each other as a team and
what I found over the years enthusiasm a coursmen. People
are tuned into each other. I mentioned that about the
Scotland team, Scotland team making a difference the last time,
about pulling together, and it's connecting with that inner spirit

(11:55):
and self belief. No matter what happens, we will get
through this, we will make a difference. And I honest
believe that when people are tuned into each other and
share a belief in what they're doing, magic happens. I'm

(12:18):
regularly told by by some of the business people I
deal with, we don't have time for that stuff, or
we can't afford that you've feely stuff. However, as you're
probably aware. Study after study of companies learning to balance

(12:39):
consciousness with their focus and the bottom line always show
this kind of approach is a financially winning formula that
makes a world of the better plays to live into work.
The rapid start up with the tea that I mentioned

(13:01):
initially saved the company thousands of pounds. Often associates are
part of the starts that don't quite write the team
even to this, they continue to save with its enhanced
quality and productivity. These are the way that heart leadership

(13:25):
pays off for management teams for employers. I've discussed this
with a few other of my coaches over the years
and asked them to reflect and surprise and prize they
found that leaders, the team leaders or the managers who've

(13:51):
treated their workers with trust and respect and have encouraged
workers to be creative and innovative were the ones that
I had and lower theft rates, greater productivity. I've mentioned
before and transformational leadership and my work in the Middle
East of working with various cultures, different beliefs, different behaviors,

(14:16):
but it's having this common thread of trust and working
way through and having really this common goal and a
vision of what good and great looks like and enhancing
the behaviors. I have a little dictionary of good, bad,

(14:38):
and not so good behaviors associated with valueles. I'll share
that next time with you. So we've said that I
found and others have found that when you treat people well,
they work well by you. Yes, you could say there's
the odd exception, but that is the odd exception, and

(14:58):
quite frankly, they they're weeded out relatively quickly. The ones
that are control freaks. That's when things you start having
this background chattering and they let's call it the coffee machine.
It's this complaints and nibbling that takes away the energy

(15:23):
and the courage to do a good job within the work.
The organization Caught in Hasket have studied corporate colors, shire
and performance and discovered over a kind of a liven
year period, net profits grew over seven hundred percent companies

(15:44):
that an ethic or multiple stakeholder satisfaction involvement, compared to
one percent increase in the comparable set of companies that
kept to traditional practices. Because they found that the stress
created in our bodies when we're not working from a

(16:04):
spirit is really causes a host of illnesses that take
their toll on our bodies and on her performance. So
really it's a mixture of you could say, aye, all
you want to do is get greater productivity and all
what we're looking for is happy peoples, a happy workplace

(16:29):
with good quality of product, whatever you're working in service
industry or the manufacturing business. And the gentleman Daniel Goleman
as psychologist who may be heard of him in the
he's the author of emotional intelligence, and he shows his

(16:50):
studies of showing her emotions either enable or impedeer effectiveness.
And he's found that chronic emotional distress has been in
a hostile, anxious, pessimistic or the press doubles environment, that is,

(17:12):
doubles a person's chance of serious disease, and it makes
emotional distress a stronger risk factor than smoking. Ah to
agree that we learn to control a hot temper or
find more effective ways to relax, we lower odds of illness,

(17:36):
bolster the effectness of immune system and of course which
I know very well, the cardiovascular system. Yes, I used
to work at one time in a very high pressure,
controlling environment where it was production, production, production, and it

(17:58):
was nothing about quality of life. Quality of well being.
It was virtually the nose to the grindstone. Long long hours,
working twelve fourteen hour days at a time, hard going,
and I had its impact on my body and what

(18:22):
I've found over the years once I left that industry
that people in spirit respecting workplaces take time to know
and come to peace with himself. They understand why they
have they'd got it, they've got a hot temper or
their rise. Who is it that presses their buttons? And

(18:44):
how quick did they responded, I have got you again.
My son Gordon was told that some time ago he
was working in Aberdeen and there was this marriage that
really got him. He pressed all his button he had

(19:04):
to walk away. He was so agitated and angry as
he walked out the building that had this glass panels
all up the front and windows. He slammed the door
as he left and it reverberated through the hall of
the building when he returned the senior manager. The senior

(19:32):
manager asked that he immediately go to his office. On
his return, told the receptionist with head hung he went
up to see the senior manager, expecting to be sacked,
and he was told Gordon, don't ever let anyone take

(19:57):
you to the brink of such much anger again, learn
to control, learn to understand who you are. You have choice.
Don't allow people to take away your personal choice, press
your buttons to make you so angry and agitated you

(20:19):
lose all sense of reality. A beautiful lesson that you
had and it stayed with him to this day. When
we ask people to sell their souls to the company's store,
as the old story goes, whether consciously or not, workers

(20:42):
may suggest to you they will stract more than their
salary in return. The costs of company include increased death
I it could be diminish quality, faltering customer service, or
escalating insurance rates. May it suggest, would lead from the

(21:03):
heart and champion development of the unique individuality and every
work and every person the pay by actually say, for
the time and money investing, its greater than just a
good feeling feeling when providing environment in which people can

(21:25):
discover their spirit, their core sense of being, this feel important,
feel apart, and know that they make a difference. We're
rewarding with increased quality, serve safety, innovation, and countless other
competitive and I'll leave it at that this week. I

(21:50):
think that's enough just now for you to be blundering.
Over next week, I'd like to discuss what you suggest
to you that leading from the heart doesn't mean being
a pushover. May suggest a little activity to you for
you over the coming week, look around your environment, be

(22:15):
at home, within your community, or within your organization. Look
out and see what people you believe are heart leaders
that live from the heart, that are authentic people that
are there to live their true selves, to show all

(22:40):
the traits of heart leaders helping people to learn, they've
always got a helping hand, A wise word for me.
A lot of this is about simplicity. It's cutting through
all the let's call it the techno babble that's there,

(23:03):
the business speak and people who speak I would suggest,
from the heart. But they're there from a good place
and you can feel it. You can feel the authenticity there.
As I suggested to you earlier, maybe around us we
have a number of heart leaders that we've been so

(23:23):
busy being busy, we haven't seen it. And the question
for you is what can you learn from them or
going to ask them some questions, A simple question and
what I found over the years, the really good should

(23:43):
I suggest as the heart leaders that they know the
most appropriate question to ask at the time. And the
other thought they'd like you to leave you with is
may suggest that we're each on our own individual journey.
What may be suitable for one may not be for another.

(24:07):
So it's using discernment as well. May be slightly crude
and saying it's not being a smart ass. It's about
being real, being authentic. So then live life with passion.
Goodbye now h