Why Smart, Skilled Leaders Still Fail – and the One Thing That Can Change That

 

Last time, I left off with a question: why does any of this – the suffering, the feeling, the processing – actually matter for the work you do all day? Here’s where it leads.

If you get a group of leaders together and predict which of them over the next ten to twenty years will create and sustain success for their organizations, their people, and themselves, only a vital few will make the cut.

You may think the differentiator is experience, education, or intelligence. Or skill – in communication, making decisions, strategic thinking, creating accountability. Or qualities like decisiveness, confidence, resilience, agility, or focus.

Those are all great attributes. But without one critical component, no combination of the others is enough. And that one quality is heart.

The business world is far more partial to the mind than the heart, which is often considered soft and irrelevant to generating profits, expanding market share, achieving operational efficiency – all the hard measures of business success.

But the heart is what fires the accomplishments of the mind – and all the actions that go into creating bottom-line business results. In fact, one of the greatest dangers that leaders face today is over-reliance on the mind at the expense of the heart.

The mind without the heart takes a path that emphasizes power and control, relies on authority to get things done, and prioritizes profits above everything else.

When the mind eclipses the heart, people feel expendable, disillusioned, disconnected, and ultimately disengaged. They lose their connection to their work, to each other, and to themselves.

What that looks like in an organization is people running around with their hair on fire, talking at each other while withholding information, looking over their shoulders, creating silos, hedging their bets, doing only what is necessary to get by. There is no light in their eyes. They show up, but they are not really there.

Performance declines, trust erodes and people burn out.

Leaders who will be able to create and sustain know that when the heart comes online, engagement and performance follow. There is little need to rely on authority to get things done, because people feel connected to the why behind the what. And as a result, they generate the energy sufficient to figure out and accomplish the how.

Many of these leaders are experiencing the fallout of a way of doing business that has long run its course. They know rising to the challenges and opportunities of the future, a new way of living and leading is required. They are awakening to the call to reconnect to the heart – in themselves and each other – and to utilize the power it generates to change the game of business altogether.

Perhaps you are one of them.

If this resonates, the Real Leader Revolution Manifesto goes deeper into what it takes to lead from heart instead of autopilot. You can download it free at RealLeaderRevolution.com.