From time to time, we are asked to describe the ‘benefits’ of emotionally healthy leadership. This tends to come from a traditional perspective of comparing leadership styles: the ‘servant’ leader versus the ‘visionary’ leader versus the ‘affiliative’ leader.
It is, of course, a reasonable question, though we would avoid describing emotionally healthy leadership as a ‘style’. One doesn’t decide to be an emotionally healthy leader one day and an affiliative leader the next. Emotionally healthy leadership isn’t defined by a given set of actions or responses. Rather, it is a characteristic of the person. It develops out of growing emotional health as an individual and living an emotional healthy life.
What we know from over 20 years of work and experience in this field is that when a leader is emotionally healthy, they:
- are resilient and have an enhanced state of wellbeing (instead of being overly stressed and scattered).
- operate above the line and exhibit a high degree of behavioural freedom. They make conscious and constructive choices (instead of being reactive and defensive).
- have mindful practices (instead of not looking after themselves physically, emotionally and mentally).
- maintain respectful relationships with others, displaying a minimum degree of self-centredness (instead of surrounding themselves with people who meet their needs first, agree with their ideas or just do what is expected without question).
Emotionally healthy leaders are authentic and vulnerable. They have no need for artificially bestowed positional power because they show up in a way that enables and engages people immediately.
So, what are the benefits of emotionally healthy leadership?
First and foremost, the emotionally healthy leader is a leader in the truest sense: they get the very best out of the people and teams they are leading. They engage and enable their people to give their best. They lead not by having the organisation revolve around them, but by embodying the organisation.
This has enormous impact on an organisation and its people. We know that when others experience emotionally healthy leadership, they give and do more than is expected (discretionary effort). They emulate the behaviours and attitudes they are experiencing, making them more effective and emotionally healthy as well. They – along with their skills, knowledge and organisational know-how – are more likely to remain with and in the organisation because they genuinely want to be there.
In this sense, emotionally healthy leadership is something much greater than the leader themselves. It expands to become an integral part of the culture of the leader’s organisation, with further positive impact on the community.
Emotionally healthy leaders drive positive emotions in their workplace; they create resonance by inspiring others through the creation of a genuinely shared vision.
In summary, the benefits of emotionally healthy leadership include respectful relationships, getting the best out of people, discretionary effort, low staff turnover and a genuinely shared vision, along with many others. These are all recognised as base measures of effective organisations, leading to high – and sustainable – performance on whatever key performance indicators the organisation values.
Gayle
