Hi! Welcome back. I’ve been writing these past few weeks about leadership and I’ve been reviewing what various people believe constitutes want leadership is. You can see what I’ve written in the past by checking out my blog archive to the right. Most recently I’ve been writing about Deepak Chopra’s acronym on the word leader. Today’s letter is E and these excerpts come from Chopra’s excellent book the Soul of Leadership.
E = Empowerment.
Empowerment is the fruit of successful action. Doing and having power go together, since without the power to sustain your vision through difficulties and resistance, your vision will wither away. This isn’t ego empowerment, which is driven by the demands of “I, me, and mine”; you are empowering others at the same time as you empower yourself.
The belief that power isn’t compatible with spirituality is misguided. At the source, there is a field of infinite possibilities. Packaged with every possibility is the path to achievement. Your soul unfolds both at the same time. Your power is validated by what you can manifest as reality.
When thousands of people were asked what they most wanted from a leader, four desires topped the list: trust, compassion, stability and hope. The tools for building trust are honesty, candor and competence. Compassion makes people feel cared for. When you know what it feels like to walk in someone else’s shoes there is no choice but respect. The tools for building compassion are empathy, respect and gratitude. The tools for building stability are reliability, support, and peace. Hope is intangible because it rests upon belief. As a leader you must keep the horizon full of promise. When we lose hope, we become directionless. Therefore a leader must provide clear direction, a definite step-by-step plan. Eventually people will find their own direction, but until then you as leader must provide it. Providing guidance means holding out the values that need to be restored, such as self-confidence, competence and worthiness. Through your showing that you see these values in others, they will begin to see them in themselves. When you show others a concrete way to move forward, you give them a reason to have faith. The tools for building hope are direction, guidance and faith.
Boy! I don’t know about you but that last paragraph has many pearls of truth and wisdom in it. Empowerment is a word we hear a lot about these days but it seems that few leaders that I have been associated with in my career could or would use it in their practice of leadership, why? Were they so insecure about their positions and skills that they didn’t wish to share the problem solving or decision making process with others, for fear of losing their status or authority? Were they so wrapped up in who ultimately would get the credit for the work that they didn’t want to share the responsibility?
In my experience I think that is what happens to many people in leadership positions, they have the title of leader but don’t know how to develop themselves as a leader and are afraid if they relinquish control of a process or project that they are giving away their status as leader. What do you think? Do you agree with my comments? Have you had leaders that have empowered you? If you are a leader do you use empowerment to strengthen and lead your charges? I hope you’ll comment and thanks for reading my blog. Until next time all my best! Jer.
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