The leader of a group of people has the ability to sway everyone’s emotions and therefore affect performance. Emotions tend to be very infectious to all those around.
When leaders drive emotions positively, they bring out everyone’s best. This effect is called resonance. Creating resonance through positive emotions e.g. enthusiasm, passion, excitement, fun, provides the foundation for people to become ‘star performers’ and flourish within the group, organisation or community.
When leaders drive emotions negatively, they undermine the emotional foundations that let people shine. This effect is called dissonance. Negative emotions such as anger, anxiety, frustration, disappointment, sadness, hurt, actually hijack people’s attention from the task at hand and has a negative impact on performance.
Global Leadership Foundation places a focus on those styles that bring out the best in others, in particular Visionary and Coaching Leadership Styles.
To get the most from people today, it is important to know how to create ‘buy-in’, generate active participation and engagement and give people the opportunity to be in control of what they create. This requires the ability to inspire others as well as to coach, mentor, sponsor development and share both wisdom and knowledge with others.
At the core of each of these roles lies the skill of facilitation, which can be developed and strengthened in all leaders. Through focusing on our own styles and preferred ways of working and how these impact and affect others, we come to understand how we can be most effective as a leader.
We are more likely to build trust and respect with those around us – creating more opportunities to achieve success with and through others.
Resilience
Resilient leaders deal effectively with pressure; maintain focus and energy and remain optimistic and persistent, even under adversity and recover quickly from setbacks.
Resilient leaders are able to problem solve with a calm, confident sense of being able to overcome adversity. They approach challenges with learning agility: the ability to learn from each experience, positive or negative.
Resilient leaders maintain a focus on the things that matter when the going gets tough; whether organisational change, meeting tight deadlines or pressure to perform.
Interestingly enough, during these times it is noted that these leaders also pay attention to their values, maintain and honour a life balance and work to ensure sure that there is congruence between what they believe and how that is reflected in behaviour.
At these levels of ‘Emotional Health’, leaders recognise and make conscious choices in the behaviours they will use. These choices reflect their knowledge of and compassion and empathy with those they are leading and with whom they work.
The integration of thinking, feeling and ‘knowing’ is also present in resilient leaders. They rely on all three aspects of relating to inform and guide them in their relationships and in the way they work.