In the last post I explained why leading from the heart can make the difference between being a successful or mediocre leader. Today I’m going to share with you how to harness the power of your heart to be more successful.
Listen to your heart
Many leaders base their actions on what others say instead of on what is inside them. When they do this, they can have regrets for not standing for what they believed in their heart was the right thing to do.
When there is conflict between your actions and what you believe deep in your heart, it’s as if you are waging an internal war. When you listen to and follow your heart, you have a congruent life with less stress and more peace.
Your truest values and morals live deep in your heart. Take a look inside you:
- How do you feel?
- What do you see?
- What are you key values? (honesty, kindness, integrity ….)
- What is your vision for life and work?
- What kind of life, work environment, and relationships do you want to have or create?
- Where would you like to make a difference?
In the light of your answers to the above questions, plan how following your heart can help you in your day to day decisions.
Value connectedness
Understand that everything is connected. What you do for others, the service and contributions you make, will ultimately serve the common good. What makes you feel good, connected, and involved? Leading from the heart is about relating, working together, caring for the people you lead.
Create positive relationships
Leadership is a relationship. You can affect how positive or negative the environment is in your workplace by the way you create relationships. Some of the ways positive relationships are created and sustained are: encouragement, positive words, being available, listening, getting to know your people, and providing excellent service.
Build Trust
Relationships don’t flourish without trust. Some ways to build trust include: being trustworthy, trusting others, open communication, honesty, consistency, competency, and taking responsibility.
Be Authentic
As I mention in a previous post, being authentic is living a life that is strongly connected to one’s belief system. It’s being true to yourself, your values, and convictions. Authenticity has to do not only with speaking the truth, but with presenting yourself in a genuine way; being without pretense; taking responsibility for your feelings and actions.
Be caring
Caring means sincere interest in and genuine concern for others. It includes consideration, compassion, empathy, sympathy, nurturing and altruism. Caring mean seeing humans as the most important resource in an organization.
If leaders treat their followers with caring behaviors such as appreciation, understanding, courtesy, attention, loyalty and encouragement, the leaders will be rewarded with cooperation and support in return.
Find meaning
The best leaders in today's organizations engage in actions that are directly connected to their own values and ideals. They not only have a strong sense of meaning themselves, but also build commitment by helping workers find meaning in what they do.
Meaning is created not only when people express their beliefs or values, but especially when this occurs in the context of sharing with other people. This relational aspect of meaning creates community.
Finding meaning is so important that I will write more about it in my next post. Meanwhile, start thinking about your deepest values and ideals.
What do you think?
How can you make decisions that include your heart? How are decisions made with heart be different? How can you listen to your heart more often? Share your comments with us.
Photo credit: fungiman_MD