Make The Elephant Jump -- Leading With A Kind Heart
A leader who wants to consistently motivate people to meet tough challenges and achieve extraordinary results must have a kind heart.
By Brent Filson - 2005
Leadership is not about getting people to do what they want. If they
did what they want, you wouldn't be needed as a leader. Instead,
leadership is about getting people to do what they don't want to do (or
don't think they can do) – and be ardently committed to doing it.
This paradox lies at the heart of all great leadership.
Unlike management, which involves simply the care and feeding of your
organizational elephant, great leadership gets that elephant to jump.
Anyone who knows anything about elephants knows that they may run, they
may stand on their hind legs, they may kneel on their fore legs, they
may roll over; but they don't jump.
And that's what leadership is all about: getting organizations to do
what they usually can't do, i.e., getting great results consistently.
Now, you can't do the jumping yourself. The elephant must do it. You
can't push the elephant into the air. It must jump of its own volition.
Making the elephant jump involves cultivating a special relationship
between the leader and the people of the organization.
Many leaders misunderstand that relationship. They try to use fear and
pain to spur the activity needed to achieve consistently great
results. "Sure, I'll get this elephant to jump. Just give me a cattle
prod!"
But inducing fear and pain are habit forming and ultimately destructive both to the leader and the people.
To make the elephant jump -- not now and then but consistently, i.e.,
to lead people to consistently to achieve great results -- deep, human
emotional bonding between leader and people must take place. And
fundamental to that bonding is the nature of the heart of the leader.
This is the secret: You can't get the elephant to jump unless you have
a kind heart. Kindness in leadership means following the Leadership
Imperative: "I will lead people in such a way that we not only achieve
the needed results but they become better as leaders and people."
Most leaders focus on the first part "getting better results" and
forget about the second part. But in truth, when you have a kind heart,
getting results and helping people be better are not two things but
one.
From now on, see every leadership challenge you face as a way of having
people increase their knowledge, their skills, their courage, their
tenacity, and their leadership abilities. Cultivating that perspective
is a kindness.
But don't mistake kindness for being nice. Don't mistake kindness for
having people simply feel good. Don't mistake kindness for allowing
people to indulge the worst aspects of their character, laziness,
inconsiderateness, selfishness, etc.
Furthermore, you may be kind and have people be frustrated with you.
Many great leaders I've had relationships with got me frustrated as
they had me go through the trouble of tackling challenges I might not
otherwise have tackled. (In fact, deep, human, emotional bonding cannot
happen without a great deal of frustration.) But I was motivated
despite my frustrations because I recognized that they essentially had
my best interests at heart.
Yes, through skill, persuasiveness, understanding, forcefulness,
education, and guidance, you can get the elephant to jump -- as long as
you do it through the kindness of your heart.
2005© The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
The author of 23 books, Brent Filson's recent books are, THE LEADERSHIP TALK: THE GREATEST LEADERSHIP TOOL and 101 WAYS TO GIVE GREAT LEADERSHIP TALKS. He is founder and president of The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. – Celebrating 25 years of helping leaders of top companies worldwide achieve outstanding results every day. Sign up for his free leadership e-zine and get his FREE report "7 Steps To Leadership Mastery"