LOVING LEADERSHIP

Currently I am reading the great book ‘ The Power of Design’ from Richard Farson. In his discussion about leadership he says the following: “Love and passion are the organizing forces in leadership and management, overriding technique or skill, just as they are in almost everything that is worthwhile – romance, parenthood, creativity. Leadership is then like being in love”.

 

Further he discusses the new requirements for leadership. What does today’s manager need to think about?

  1. The paradoxical nature of human affairs.
  2. The necessary conditions for achieving innovation.
  3. An understanding of the true nature of success and failure.
  4. An understanding of the changing workforce.
  5. An appreciation of the new context of work.
  6. A commitment to a new ethics of leadership.
  7. The development of a courageous vision.

 

 

This puts a high emphasis on learning and accepting these new qualities and new learnings. But love for learning is a conditio sine qua non for leaders in this marketplace.

 

The focus of leaders should be on facilitating the professional as well as the personal growth in organizations.

In order to do so, it is very helpful to act according to  a set of leadership principles; These principles are guiding the leaders’ behavior.

These leadership principles cover  the following topics: leadership, change, talent, frontline and sustainability.

 

 

LEADERSHIP

 

·      TRUST IS A VERB

·      HAVE COMMITABLE CORE VALUES

·      COACH INSTEAD OF MANAGE

·      LISTEN OPEN MINDED

·      PROVIDE MEANING

 

 

CHANGE

 

·      EXPLAIN THE WHY AND WIFM OF CHANGE

·      EVERYONE HAS TO CHANGE

·      INNOVATION IS THE NORM

·      HAVE CROSS FUNCTIONAL TEAMS

·      INVOLVE CUSTOMERS

 

 

 

TALENT

 

·      FOCUS ON STRENGHTS

·      HAVE FUN, PROVIDE THE POSSILBILITY TO PLAY 

·      LEARN CONTINUOUSLY

·      METRICS DRIVE BEHAVIOR

 

 

FRONTLINE

 

·      THE FRONTLINE IS YOUR REAL BUSINESS CARD

·      STIMULATE BOTTOM-UP COMMUNICATION

·      MAKE A DIFFERENCE

·      ENTHUSIASM DRIVES EXCELLENCE

 

 

 

SUSTAINABILITY

 

  • RESPECT DIFFERENCES AMONG INDIVIDUALS AND GROUPS, HAVE EMPATHY
  • BE ETHICAL IN THE FULFILLMENT OF ONE’S ROLE   
  • PROVIDE ‘CLEAN AND GREEN’ SOLUTIONS 

 

 

When applying these principles in the day-to-day operations, the leader will be showcasing loving leadership!

 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

10 most common leadership shortcomings and how to resolve them

After scrutinizing 360-degree feedback data on over 11,000 leaders and evaluating the 10% considered the least effective, Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman found the 10 most common leadership shortcomings . These are ranked according to the size of the difference between successful and unsuccessful leaders' scores; successful and failed leaders differed most significantly in their energy and enthusiasm.  Please find the listing below as well my suggestions on how to change them.   1.     Lack of energy and enthusiasm If you do your job just because you have to, if it feels like it is something you should do (rather than would like to do), then it drains your energy. If you are a leader mainly because you are attracted to the status, the power and the money, then you will lack the necessary enthusiasm. Your heart is not connected, so it just is an economic and rational activity. This activity is not fuelled by your enthusiasm. If you do work, which you love to do, if you foll
Read more

Do you feel like you’re running around in a straitjacket?

Image
  If you deliberately plan on being less than you are capable of being, then I warn you that you'll be unhappy for the rest of your life.  ~ Abraham Maslow Do you feel like you’re running around in a straitjacket? Or swimming in ice hockey gear? You probably think this sounds ridiculous. Still, that is what we all do, most of the time. We let beliefs limit us.  We believe that we are not good enough. We believe that we cannot change or grow. We believe everything that mass-media tells us. Most of the time, fear is driving our behavior . And fear definitely makes us risk-averse. When I ask people whether they are using their full potential, they look at me in a sad way. They immediately feel the pain of not living up to their own capabilities. Many people are suffering because they feel not seen and not good enough. As a consequence, they lack self-confidence and experience stress, burnout, depression or worse.  Why is this the case?  It is crucial to understand that parents, teach
Read more

AMAZON’S Backlog in Building Earth's Most Customer-Centric Company

Image
Last week I did read an article in TechCrunch that Amazon now accepts American Express membership rewards points for purchases on Amazon.com. Well this is good news, I thought, as I have quite some points to use. So, I logged into the specific page on Amazon to link both accounts. I just had to fill in a few details regarding my American Express account and then hit the last button ‘Link rewards account’. But........ nothing happened, I expected a confirmation page which tells me that everything is linked now, but no reaction at all. I could only see that my cursor was back at the place where I first provided my details. So, I tried again and again, but every time no result. Pff, this was frustrating. While I was so happy with the possibility of buying books from my points. What to do next? I had to get in touch with customer service. This is where we get in an area where there is a huge opportunity for improvement. It is very difficult to find a way to email/contact customer serv
Read more