Learning leadership from the inside out

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The leadership needs a serious overhaul. The collapse of SVB and Credit Suisse, the implosion of Boris Johnson’s government, the Facebook struggles and Elon Musk’s stumbles on Twitter all point to how under siege seemingly confident and experienced executives and leaders in management can become. of their organizations in complex times.

As leaders are pushed into rapidly changing conditions, it can feel like they must be everything, everywhere, everyone at once. Experts promote one new “muscle” after another to help them meet the challenge, such as empathy, empowerment, psychological safety, purpose, growth mindset or inclusion. But there is no silver bullet.

Over the past 15 years, my team has built a database of more than 1,000 exemplary leadership moments, when iconic leaders and anonymous executives achieved unexpected positive results. These micro-interactions, which typically last a few seconds or minutes, test their behavior and show the need to rethink leadership discipline, rebuild its anatomy, and redesign its teaching.

First, how to reformulate leadership? In 2008, Roger was working at a large bank when the crisis hit. As an expert in a niche banking function, he was invited to an emergency meeting with top executives to determine how cash balances must be managed to save the bank. New to the industry, he couldn’t understand much of what was being discussed and was confused as to why he had been invited.

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His boss’s boss asked him a simple question to get him into the game. Feeling more confident, Roger felt comfortable speaking up and correcting a misstep. They were examining a spreadsheet that modeled aggregate balances rather than the cash flow that would determine his survivability. Within a few years, he was upgraded to suite C.

Roger’s story shows the importance in fast-moving conditions of calling upon a variety of voices to stay alert, drive progress, and make corrections. He does this by creating a culture where leadership is embraced as an internal choice, not bestowed by an organization. Leadership means bringing out the best in oneself and others for a common purpose.

Second, how do we reconstruct the anatomy of leadership? Leadership has long been viewed as a set of competencies that must be mastered. But many exemplary leaders had little training in anything. Abraham Lincoln had a year of education, Mother Teresa and Eleanor Roosevelt never went to college, while Steve Jobs dropped out of college. Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela were, by their own admission, poor students.

Mastery of the inner state allows ordinary people untrained in the formal craft of leadership to become extraordinary.

How did these ordinary people become extraordinary leaders? They took simple actions in pursuit of their goals, such as showing appreciation for an opponent to help open their hearts, merging opposing ideas to build a bridge, or changing their thoughts and feelings to set a positive intention for a crucial conversation. All of these actions were focused on activating a state of high performance within themselves and others.

Cognitive behavioral therapy has shown that our thoughts and emotions are states, not traits. Cognitive psychologists find that when we re-focus from within, we reason, relate, react, and recover better. Mindfulness and meditation show that we can all activate an enhanced state of creativity and open mind. Within each of us is our “inner core”: a space from which the best of ourselves emerges.

To activate the core in themselves and others, exemplary leaders tap into five core energies: purpose (commitment to a cause); wisdom (calm, receptive to the truth); growth (curious, open to grow); love (connected to their team and those they serve); and self-actualization (focused on a happy spirit).

When executives take responsibility for their inner state and help their team to do the same, insecurities, habits, and egos melt away and extraordinary performance can emerge. They can do this with small actions to activate one of the five core energies, for example, taking people on an inspired hero’s journey; reduce or redirect a negative emotion; recognize a stumble; or apologize and adjust.

The anatomy of great leadership is not about mastering predetermined behaviors, but about building resonance in a team by bringing people to their inner core. Correct behavior follows, as members respond to conditions that develop. This is a big change for old-fashioned educated executives. But mastery of the inner state allows ordinary people with no training in the formal craft of leadership to become extraordinary.

Third, how do we redesign leadership teaching? People are more likely to gain mastery when they are guided to solve a problem in a way that they can quickly apply in practice. We teach executives to pause briefly before high-stakes events to shift to their inner core and consider how they will help others to do so. They create a positive intention, focus and visualize small actions to use in a meeting to activate the right energy and pursue their goal. Executives who do this report a triple gain in their ability to achieve their goal and how favorably others respond.

To develop a new generation of leaders, we must not keep adding new arrows to executives’ quivers while they are away from the battlefield. Instead, we should guide them on how to keep their bow steady and focus on the target in front of them, right in the middle of the battle.

Hitendra Wadhwa is a professor at Colombian business school in New York, founder of the Mentora Institute and author of “Inner Mastery, Outer Impact”