Leadership

Nature of Leadership
Definitions of Leadership
• The definition that I liked:
• “Leadership is a process of giving purpose (meaningful direction) to
collective effort, and causing willing effort to be expended to achieve
purpose.” (Jacobs & Jaq ues).
Definitions of Leadership
• Keith Grint (Leadership: Limits and Possibilities, 2005), says that
leadership has traditionally been understood in four quite different
ways:
• Leadership as Person: It is WHO ‘leaders’ are that makes them leaders.
• Leadership as Results: It is WHAT ‘leaders’ achieve that makes them leaders.
• Leadership as Position: It is WHERE ‘leaders’ operate that makes them
leaders.
• Leadership as Process: It is HOW ‘leaders’ get things done that makes them
leaders.
Definition of Leadership
• Joseph Rost: ‘Leadership is an influence relationship among leaders
and followers who intend real change that reflect their mutual
purposes’.
• Influence that is multidirectional and non-coercive
• More than one leader and always more than one follower. Though followers
are active partners, it is an unequal relationship.
• Work together to bring about substantial rather than superficial change,
driven by mutual purposes forged through non-coercive influence.5
Leaders who inspired you
• Think of a leader for whom or with whom you worked – one that
brought out the best in you, one that you would gladly work with or
for again
• Think of a leader for whom or with whom your worked – one that you
try to avoid, left you wishing for more, would help your organization
more by working for a competitor
• When you were around them, what did they say or do? How did they
make you and others feel?
Leadership
• You know what good leadership is
• Leadership is a relationship
• It is a resonant relationship: Being in tune with or in the same
wavelength as others
• The music of leadership is emotions
Resonant Leaders
• They help us understand the context of what we are doing: The
purpose. They inspire through hope and vision
• They spread compassion
• They are mindful: Attuned to mind, body, heart and spirit
• They engage in playfulness
• They inspire others by creating and maintaining resonance
Mindfulness
• According to Emiliana Simon Thomas: Mindfulness is maintaining a
moment by moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily
sensations and surrounding environment through a gentle nurturing
lens.
• Jon Kabat-Zinn defines mindfulness as the awareness that arises by
paying attention on purpose, in the present moment and non-
judgementally.
• Shauna Shapiro says mindfulness is the awareness that arises out of
intentionally paying attention in a open, kind and discerning way.
Mindfulness
• Deliberate attention in the moment
• A kind, open-hearted stance
Chinese Character for Mindfulness: Presence and Heart
Studying Mindfulness
• Levels of Mindfulness
• A momentary state
• An exercise or practice
• A disposition or personality trait
Original work of Jon Kabat-Zinn
• Study of pain
• Other chronic conditions
• Immune response
Mindfulness in Organizations
• Some companies that promote mindfulness:
• Google, Aetna, Ford, SAP
• Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute (SIYLI): Google
• Potential Project
Benefits of Mindfulness
• Improves psychological and biological indices of health and well-being
• Leads to better handling of and recovery from stress
• Sharpens attention and enhances memory function
• Increases positive emotional experience and outlook
• Strengthens social relationships
• Slows cellular ageing
• Makes us more productive, collaborative and engaged at work
How do mindfulness practices work?
• It can enable or strengthen a dimension of our personality: We can
become a more mindful person in general.
• Inform our outlook and shape our core values in life.
• Influence how we do things and interact with people day to day.
Key mental processes of mindfulness
practices?
• Deliberately paying attention to a particular thing
• Softening the association between our own experience and “reality”
or “truth” i.e. Humility
• Meta-awareness – noticing and shifting patterns of thought and
feeling
• Activating pro-sociality – our core motivation to serve the welfare of
others
How do these processes help?
• Attention: helps us to complete tasks, be productive and efficient and
find flow
• Humility: helps with flexible thinking, adaptive problem solving and
innovation
• Meta-awareness: helps learn, handle change and be strategic (not
reactive) decision makers
• Pro-sociality: makes us better communicators, leaders and teammates
Mindfulness Makes us Better Leaders
• By improving interpersonal communication quality
• We hear more of what others say, fixate less on inner thoughts and seek more
win-win solutions
• We ruminate less about retaliation, and try to address causes of injustice
rather than get revenge
• We get better at empathy and perspective taking
Mindful leaders……
• See and meet employee needs. which drives up commitment and
productivity
• Exhibit values-based leadership
• Are better liked
• Are better negotiators and problem solvers
• And have greater productivity and success.
Online emotional intelligence tests
• https://psychologytoday.tests.psychtests.com/bin/transfer
• https://globalleadershipfoundation.com/cgi-bin/eiscore.pl
• https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/quizzes/ei_quiz/take_quiz
• https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/quizzes/take_quiz/empathy