The Leader's Core Part 3 - Mind the Invisible
The 4 Thoughts of a Leader
How do you know that China exists if you’ve never been there? When will the earth's oil reserves no longer support humanity's demands? Where do the stars go during the daytime? What was I like when I was three years old?
The invisibility of places, data, memories, history, et cetera doesn’t make something stop existing.
In the last edition of The Insightful Leader, we explored the EQ of the leader and its impact on those we lead. In this installment, we will focus on the intangible mind of the leader. Emotions themselves are an excellent example of this concept. They can’t be seen or touched, but we feel their effect keenly.
As leaders, we must deal with the invisible long before it impacts the visible. In fact, the invisible has a more significant impact on the shape our lives take than the visible. Think of past relationships that you've had that shape you to this day. The memories of them and perhaps the people themselves are no longer visible, and yet the impact they had appears in the way you approach life and even handle routine tasks.
Since we process the invisible in our minds, it is critical that we take an active role in leading that focus. Is a college degree, much less success, visible to the Freshman student? Of course not, yet they must hold that out in front of them because the answer to the "why are we doing this?" then drives actions in the “real” world.
If much more of reality is unseen, then I know that what I’m sensing through my five factories is not enough, and what we are is based on the invisible (or at least the things that are not presently visible). This means that those thoughts, memories, and stories that we allow to take hold in our minds will affect our core.
With this in mind, we must realize that the thoughts traveling in us have passing value (positive and negative). It must be our priority as leaders to control the focus of our thoughts and sift through what we allow to take root or uproot.
Here are four invisible thoughts that we need to carefully consider as leaders.
1. How do I reinforce the Culture of the Organizations I lead?
What are our values, assumptions, and beliefs that are affecting performance today?
2. The shadow I cast and the perception of others under my leadership
Am I aware of how my behavior and moods are impacting those I lead?
3. Where are we going? Bonus: Why is it so compelling?
If I don’t have that clear, the rest of my organization certainly does not.
4. How much hope do I have?
Hope and Fear are contagious. Waiting for a present reason is not good enough. I need to manufacture hope in me.
If we want to lead ourselves and ultimately our teams to success, what we are feeding our minds is impactful. We need an inner guardian that manages the internal dialogue, a focus to take every thought captive and make it submit to my values. We have to discipline our thought life to only allow through the thoughts that will provide for the future.
Managers deal in the visible – leaders in the invisible.