Lideratge

Dijous passat dia 25/01/2007 vaig anar a una conferència sobre lideratge al Caixafòrum. L'organitzava Augere Foundation, fundació per promoure el lideratge, i Brahma Kumaris. L'orador era Mike George.

El títol, "Liderar con pasión, poder y principios"

A continuació copio el q van ser les meves notes de l'acte:

We are in an age of exponential change, mainly because of the development of technology, which makes communication go faster and has changed the way we work and manage people. There is a power shift from positional power (= dictatorship) to relational power.

Leadership v. Management
- Based on relations - Tasks
- Attitude - Position (what's in your business card)
(leader when others decide to follow you)
- Leads by example - Makes people do. Tries to control

You have to develop 4 levels of leadership

1st level: SELF AWARENESS
What I think, what I feel, why I think or feel the way I do, my emotional state, what causes it. What makes me think like that.
---> SELF-RESPONSABILITY: I'm the only responsible for what I think or feel, for why I react the way I do (not the Government, the weather, the others, etc)

e.g. If you feel angry about sth, you have to take responsibility for it, bc in the end anger is you creation.

2nd level: AWARENESS OF THE OTHER
Empathise, care, what the other person likes, what makes the other person tick --> if I don't care, they won't trust me, and they won't follow me, which is the whole point of leadership

3rd level: AROUND THE ORGANIZATION
What is going on around the organization. The organization as a whole. All different people, departments, etc are interconnected, what goes on in one place, will affect the rest. Interconnection.
Instead of MBA, MBWA (Management By Walking Around) --> creates relations --> know your people; info gets to you

4th level: GLOBAL AWARENESS.
Again everything is interconnected globally. Gotta watch global trends, events, etc

Leadership based on this 4 dimensions requires a new intelligence.

- Rational Intelligence (IQ)
- Intuition I. (II)
- Emotional I. (EQ)
- Spiritual I. (SQ)

In school we were taught to rationalize, think, calculate, memorize-- it's all IQ. But thinking is just too slow and exhausting. It has to give way to another intelligence based on intuition (don't know why, but it just feels right) --> relax --> stop yourself from thinking --> listen to that voice that talks to you --> your own wisdom.

There's too much noise in our heads, to much thinking. We're thinking about the future or the past, NOT the present. If we would, we'd hear our own wisdom.

Another intelligence is Emotional Intelligence-- Being aware of other people's emotions and controlling you own.

And a 4th type is Spiritual Intelligence-- that which creates meaning in your life. We all want, need, desire a meaningful life, but how to do it?

All this intelligence types can be used, so how do you define 'intelligence'? = Use what I know in the right way, in the right place, at the right time.

I create my own emotions. I have to take responsibility for my emotions, because they sabotage my relations, especially in the workplace (<-- emotional intelligence) e.g. somebody says something to you. You interpret that as an offense and overreact in anger. The other person will either be angry back at you, just walk away from you, or will create a wall to protect against you. You won't be able to reach that person, or relation with that person in a meaningful way. It sabotaged your relations. We all seek 3 things: - Love in our relations - Peace in our hearts - Happiness in our lives ===> we all seek that. It motivates everything. But most of us are not aware of that, or that love, peace and happiness lay in us.

We all want recognition from our peers, from our boss; we want the others to be pleased w us (if they are, we'll feel OK) = we want the others to love us ---> ignorance, not awareness that LOVE IS WHAT I AM!
Giving love = great leader

So how does love emerge in a relation?

Instead of trying to control others, INFLUENCE others by caring, listening, understanding, accepting, appreciating --> this is all the energy of love in action, this are all manifestations of love. --> here is where our personal power comes from.

In the basis, the foundation of this love-giving is being at peace with yourself.
- Do I know/ feel my own peacefulness?
- Can I feel at peace at will?
===> Peace is the foundation of PERSONAL POWER (NO anxiety, nervousness, stress)---> Peace is the basis of relational power = influencing others --> this is the basis of leadership!!!



PASSION = enthusiasm.

Passion energizes the self; it's consistent and stable.

NO 'have to' (=live your life reluctantly) but 'want to'

'Want to' = PURPOSE --> Direction of life --> Commitment to yourself --> Focus --> Motivation ===> Direct link btwn purpose and motivation --> Deepest motivator is a sense of purpose

Exercise: Finish the sentence "My purpose in life is..."

2 sorts of Life Purposes:
a) Of Survival b) Of Service
Take Give
Fear Love
Competition Cooperation (= how can I help you do your job? Servant leader)
Attached Let Go
Resistance Accept
Impatient Patient
Self Balance Self- Others

Entertainment= To avoid facing the question "What's my purpose?", "What am I doing with my life?"

People have 3 different sorts of lives:
Life Happiness Work
a- Pleasurable life-- Lots of ups and downs. V unstable-- Just a job. Life starts after work and weekends
b- The Good life-- More stable-- Make o.self a career. Good house, car, education for children, etc
c- Meaningful life-- Stable! Inside-out happiness; self-generated!-- Contribution--> Vocation--> I know my strengths, talents and qualities of character, and use them in the service of others.

3 Motivators:
a- Sense of purpose
b- Meaningfulness
c- Creativity: Your deepest joy is when you do sth. creative. You become whole-hearted to that what you are creating. You give yourself to the process. You are having fun!

A leader knows and helps people know their motivations so they come out intrinsically (from inside out), not extrinsically

e.g. In a totally run-down school in a Glasgow area w lots of poverty and social problems, a new, young teacher comes in. Her class is full of v young kids from destructured families, etc. She starts teaching them, but they completely misbehave, don't listen, starts fights, etc. After 2 weeks of this going on, she feels completely helpless and frustrated. Feeling defeated, she sits down on her chair and in tears, out of sheer desperation, asks them 'but why are you here anyway? What do you expect to learn? What do you want from your lives?' And surprisingly enough, they start responding. They are being teased, motivated. So she decides to keep like that and day after day, asks them more questions, and they start behaving, liking it... and learning. Two weeks later, she has a meeting with the parents, who are basically like their children, but grown up. So she does the same, keeps asking questions. And the parents, too, respond to her.

Once kids are motivated, they start wanting to learn, bc they are having FUN!

Motivation is drawn out instead of forced in!


How do we focus our energy, our life? With a sense of purpose, which is guided by principles, which come from values, which com from truth (= that which never changes, that which is eternal)

e.g. If you give trust and respect in a relationship, you'll be given back trust and respect.

e.g. A Miami prison which had the country's biggest violence and break-away rates. Its new director has all his staff attend a 4-week customer service course and tells them 'ok now, you have to treat your inmates as if they were your customers'. Two years later, new statistics come out and this jail now has the lowest violence and break-away rates.

If you give respect and trust, this is what you'll receive. Therefore, a truth would be "what you give, you receive"; principle: respect; purpose: to serve

Sometimes organizations suffer from clash of values.

e.g. A fast food chain whose purpose is to serve great burgers. Some of its execs were saying 'we need to tell them what's in the burgers, our customers need to know', while some others said 'don't! be ambiguous!'. It affected its behaviour, public images and ultimately, sales.

We need to clarify the values that shape the behaviour!

We are all leaders (there's s.body watching you all the time)


QUESTIONS FROM THE ATTENDANTS:
1- How can I increase my self-awareness?

By daily visualization, meditation, or contemplation, etc.

Our mind is too full of thoughts.

Don't escape into action. Press the pause button

And finally look for people whom to share, talk, etc at this level, at a meaningful level.

2- Could you tell us about the 'detached observer'?

'If I had to recommend one, single skill, it'd be the art of detachment'

Stress is always related to being attached to s.thing (internal attachment) --> it generates lots of thinking > NOISE, peacelessness, v tiring!, tension, no space for anything new.

We need to let things go.

Two ways to detach o.self from s.thing [he holds a marker in his hand]-- when you are attached you grab, hold on to this marker [fist closed with fingers down]. You can let go, detach like this [as he opens his hand, the marker falls]

or you can let go like this [he turns his fist around so fingers are upside now. Then he opens up his hand] -- I let go, but the marker is still on my hand. I still have it, but I'm no longer attached. Now if s.body wants it, I can say 'take it, it's all yours'. And I make room for new, better things to come.

3- Meditation practice