How To Lead From The Heart

In the film Hostiles, a Cheyenne chief named Yellow Hawk killed Union Captain Joe Blocker’s fellow soldiers, which turns Blocker to hardened rage. But Blocker was ordered to escort the ailing Yellow Hawk and his family to their homeland in Montana. They faced several challenges on the journey and, through their experiences, eventually came to appreciate each other. 

The movie captures the critical skill of being able to lead with vulnerability and authenticity — to lead from the heart. I believe leading from the heart is critical in today’s world because of the volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity that surrounds many business environments. 

Authors of Mastering Leadership: An Integrated Framework for Breakthrough Performance and Extraordinary Business Results William Adams and Robert Anderson, who also certified me in the Leadership Circle Profile, define creative (effective) leadership and reactive (ineffective) leadership. Creative leaders manage their teams by engaging, empowering and bringing out the best in them. Authenticity, self-awareness and genuine appreciation of their people dominate the mindset of creative leaders. They are driven by purpose, focused on vision and place themselves in others’ circumstances to understand what’s motivating them. This is what I consider leading from the heart. 

In my leadership coaching practice, it is my job to help leaders move from reactive to creative leadership. I teach them to lead from the heart, just as Yellow Hawk and Blocker did. I've observed that great leaders display the following traits: 

1. They are emotionally self-aware and use emotion to motivate. 

Highly effective leaders possess an ability to move through complex situations, adjusting to the human need. Some ideas to consider: 

• Practice what Adams and Anderson call “conscious leadership.” Conscious leadership means realizing the full impact that your words and actions have on your leadership team. Refrain from comment at the right times. Challenge your team at other times. Consciously balance having composure and communicating expectation. They are highly effective when deployed in concert. 

• Emphasize relationship-building and communication. All leadership skills live under these two big ideas. Be deliberate about relationships with your teams. Leadership is personal. Understand individuals' motivations and needs. They will appreciate your effort and will return it two-fold. With respect to communication, clarity and repetition rule. In his book Thinking, Fast and Slow, author Daniel Khaneman explained: "A sentence that is printed in a clear font, or has been repeated, or has been primed, will be fluently processed with cognitive ease." If you want people to understand your vision and expectations, then be clear and repetitive. 

• Demonstrate humility and authenticity (but not self-deprecation) to your team. You will find that this will open up conversations, and complex issues can be vigorously attacked as ideas multiply. 

2. They use the teams’ collective talents. 

Being right is secondary. If a CEO's tendency is to “always be right,” they can demotivate their team. The underlying message is, “I don’t need you.” There is weakness lying beneath the surface, as the team’s collective talent is compromised. It will show in the results. 

To embrace your team's talents, engage them by: 

• Challenging them. For example, say, "I do not have the answer, so I am counting on you to get us to one.” 

• Asking open-ended, quality questions during meetings to create dialogue and gain buy-in from others. 

• Making the team accountable to one another. Peer accountability is a powerful motivator, but it can be elusive. Get your people to make agreements to one another in the group setting. They will not want to let one another down. 

3. They strive for a common, higher purpose for the company. 

What purpose is your company willing to fight for? For example, one of my clients is the CEO of a manufacturing company that has a higher purpose to make the lives of its employees fulfilling and prosperous. 

High-performing groups thrive on a purpose that is greater than the business itself. As the leader, define what is important to you by answering: 

• Why are you leading this team? 

• What do you want from the experience? 

• What’s important to your team? 

Employees want to know why their role is important to the company. Answering these questions will help you tell them. Last, give your employees an outlet to pursue their greater purpose. I've seen that doing so helps keep them engaged in their work. 

4. They encourage the leadership team to have its own common purpose as well. 

This is different than the company’s purpose and is often overlooked. The leadership team's common purpose addresses behavior and operating values during adverse situations. Adversity helps form a team's identity. It is an opportunity to create a common cause — to strengthen a team’s resolve to work together. A CEO should help define and enable the operating values in his or her team. Employees are watching. They want to feel great about the leadership team. 

To create a common purpose among the leaders in your organization: 

• Be clear about your expectations of the executive team’s behaviors. Values equal behavior. Behavior affects outcomes. 

• Create an atmosphere of trust and unity through adverse times. Consistently let your team know that you have their backs. If they trust this about you, then they will trust one another in the same way. Model the behavior. 

• Separate task from emotion. Adversity creates fear. People want to eliminate the fear but might do so at the expense of a good solution. Show confidence and composure through adversity. Your team will follow suit. 

Captain Blocker transformed from “command-and-control” to intuitive, authentic and compassionate. He began to see the Cheyenne leader as a respected warrior who loves his family. 

In today’s complex world, leading from the heart will take your company or division further than you thought possible. I focus on this transformation with my clients. Those who make the move from head to heart become highly effective leaders.