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[MUSIC].
Welcome back. Now, when we stop and think about how the
exercise you did in Module One feels, and, and you could just think about
moments you had with the person on the left, how did you feel about what you
were doing or why you were doing it? And I would expect, from a lot of other
people's response to that recently, that you would say, well I felt a part of
something important. That's because one of the things that
effective leaders do, these resonant leaders, is they help us understand the
context of what we're doing. They know that as adults we don't learn
unless we attach new experiences on to a framework, a context.
What the effective leaders do, is they use the purpose of the organization as
the context. It's one of the reason why people who
start management meetings with financials are really very uninspiring, and usually
not very effective, because they're telling everybody around them, that
there's a confusion between why we're doing what we're doing, the purpose, and
the measures, of how well we're doing. But one of the things, for example, I had
the opportunity not too long ago, to witness the CEO of a ultimate low tech
steam valve company, kick off his annual meeting of his top 350 managers in
Philadelphia. And, it was really an amazing moment
because he said, thank you. Good morning.
The next thing out of his mouth was a name of a small town in upstate New York,
and he said, in that town, last year they gave birth to 350 lives.
Last year they saved 1800 lives, as a result of surgery in tertiary care.
And not, none of it would've been possible if they didn't have 40 of our
steam valves moving oxygen and gases through the hospital.
And, then he mentioned a small town in Western Pennsylvania where people,
parents got up this morning, they got their kids breakfast, and dressed, and
off to school and they got dressed and went to work.
And, none of it would've been possible if the local gas and electric utilities
didn't have 400 of their steam valves. As he was talking about this, you could
feel something in the room go click. And that, that click was very important,
because people were sitting there saying, hey, you know, I don't make steam valves.
I make steam valves. It was a click of meaning.
2:24
So with the context, being the purpose in the organization, it's what we often call
vision, or vision mission. And, it always embodies some aspiration,
for something bigger than us, something more noble, something that we're looking
forward to in the future, and it stimulates hope.
The second characteristic that becomes very key to these relationships, as you
were talking about, is the issue of trust and caring.
We use the term compassion. We're not using it in the Western sense
or even the Buddhist sense of feeling for one in pain, but we mean it as more open
and almost out of Confucian philosophy of benevolence.
Opening yourself up to and caring for someone, whether they're in pain or
they're enjoyed, or they're trying to grow and develop.
But, the idea is that you aren't just understanding them, empathy, you're
caring about them, and you're doing something about it.
With that combination, what happens is you feel a part of a group, a team, a
unit, and when you feel that somebody cares about you, you respond and you
don't want to let them down, and you care back.
3:35
The third characteristic that is always a part of these relationships, or seems to
be, is what we call mindfulness, which is kind of a psychological jargon we're
using these days, and something that comes out of Buddhist philosophy.
But, what it really refers to is, are things that you would normally say in
normal language as, well the person's very genuine.
They're authentic. they, you know, they seem like they're,
like they have high integrity. All of those things conspire to make a
person who’s a resonant leader more inspired.
They are more inspirational, on the whole.
And, here’s the question to ask yourself. When people leave your office or leave
the conversation, do they feel inspired, lifted, excited, because if they don’t,
then you’re not being an effective leader.
You might be a good person. You might be solving problems.
You might be producing performance to a budget, so you're predictable, but you
aren't an effective leader. Maya Angelou said in a commencement
address at Case Western Reserve University a few years ago, "It is my
observation that in the future, they will not remember what you said, they will not
remember what you did, but they will remember how you made them feel.
4:54
One of the things I'd like you to consider, as a personal learning
assignment, to do after this module, there are other resources on the website,
readings and electronic discussions, that you can and should participate in.
But, for a personal learning assignment, I would ask you that over the next two
weeks in every meeting or every group that you're in, take a few notes, not
just about the contents, or you're paying attention, but, also about the behavior
and the relationship that the person who's up in front of the room, the
quote-unquote leader; what are they doing?
Are they inspiring people or not? Take notes about the observations, and at
the end of the two weeks, compare the notes for those where you felt excited
and lifted, as go, you know, in contrast to those meetings you were in, in which
you felt either okay, or so-so, or deflated.
In the process of all of that, one of the things that I should also caution, is
that this is a dynamic quality. In our relationships, we can have great
resonant relationships, but they, it's very difficult to have them stay that way
unless you're investing a lot of energy because over time, you can get out of
sync. So one of the things that happens very
often is, a, a person has difficulty staying, as a resonant leader, because it
is, in part, stressful. Well, you might be sitting there an
saying, you know, I knew this. I know most of it.
Didn't have maybe the same words. It's really common sense, but it's not
common practice, as I pointed out the data over the past 40-some years has been
showing us. [MUSIC]
Richard BoyatzisDistinguished University Professor, and a Professor in the Departments of Organizational Behavior, Psychology, and Cognitive Science
