Leadership Energy
(a 3-minute read to understand what leadership really is)
“When we first launched in 1980, people told me that it was crazy, and it was sure to be a big failure.” Ted Turner, Founder of CNN
“There was a designer in LA who I looked up to. And I remember telling him about the idea. And he said something I will never forget. He said: Brian, I hope that is not the only thing you are working on. “All along the way, people said, ‘No, this isn’t going to work, don’t do this” Brian Chesky, Co-founder of Airbnb
When the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai was under siege by heavily armed terrorists conducting a mass shooting in 2008, not a single Taj employee left. They stayed all night as the shooting continued to get customers to safety. Many lost their own lives in the process.
Where would we be today if Turner and Chesky had listened to all the naysayers and given up on their bold and brilliant ideas?
What made Taj employees place the safety of their customers above their own?
The answer is Leadership Energy
In the first two examples above, it is personal leadership energy, and in case of the Taj hotel, it is enterprise-wide collective leadership energy
Personal Leadership Energy
Rather than being a position, title or a set of competencies, leadership is a burning desire to create a better future. Almost all attempts of creating a better future encounter resistance. Leadership Energy is the inner strength that prevents leaders from giving up amidst the most formidable of resistance, thereby keeping them firmly rooted and committed.
Leadership Energy is the main ingredient of leadership, and it is made up of:
- A strong conviction in a set of deeply held values
- A values-based purpose
Tis sounds simple, yet most people do not have honest clarity about their values and purpose, even if they think they do. Better Future creators like the leaders referenced above have crystal clarity of purpose driven by a set of values. What prevents them from giving up is the honesty (emotional integrity, not intelligence) of that clarity. And not giving up is in fact the only difference that sets leaders and non-leaders apart.
Enterprise Leadership Energy
The collective leadership energy of an organization is made up of three elements:
- Organizational Purpose, Vision and Strategy (Brains)
- Organizational Architecture (Bones)
- Organizational Values and Culture (Nerves)
The Future of Leadership Development
Billions spent annually on leadership development are missing the mark because they mostly teach on-the-surface skills and competencies. To get a much bigger bang for buck, the leadership development industry needs to shun backward looking competency models, best practice case studies, copycat role-plays, and personality assessments; and reorient itself towards helping leaders:
- Uncover their own long-lasting leadership energy – the kind that prevented Nelson Mandela from giving up even through 27 years of rigorous imprisonment.
- Maximize collective leadership energy by proactively shaping the Brains, Bones and Nerves© of their organization.
LEC at its core
Helping leaders uncover their personal leadership energy, and the collective leadership energy of their workforce is at the heart of what we do at LEC.