Cracking Great Leaders Program
  • Home
    • About Human Energy
    • Attention all consultants
  • The Book
    • The Book
    • Reviews of the Book
    • Contents of the Book
    • Get the 1st & 8th chapters for free
    • Where to Buy the Book
  • The Programs
    • IP for sale
    • Who the Programs are for >
      • New consultants
      • CEOs wanting to change culture
      • HR & OD Specialists
      • Double check your suitability
    • The benefits
    • 23 Modules (workshops) >
      • Summary 23 Modules
      • 23 Modules >
        • How to Liberate Human Energy at Work
        • The Power of the Subconscious Mind
        • Understanding Ourselves and Others Thinking Preferences (HBDI) >
          • Could You Be Missing Out On Three-quarters of Your Business Opportunities?
        • Making the Most of Your Genius Factor
        • Building Your Personal Brand
        • Cooperation, Collaboration and Connectedness
        • Colour Your Customers and Staff
        • The Power of Questions
        • Managing Your Manager
        • Confidence, Influence & Personal Power
        • Trust & How to be a trusted advisor
        • My Personal Power Program
        • Strategic Thinking
        • Strategic Execution
        • Organisational Architecture
        • Systems Thinking in Business
        • Increasing Innovation and Ideas
        • Customer Service Tools
        • Improving processes & Eliminating unnecessary work
        • Networks
        • Review & Dragon's Den
      • Pamphlet for 23 Modules
      • To buy the Modules
    • The 8 Programs >
      • Strategy Program >
        • Who it is for
        • To buy the Program
      • Cracking Great Leaders Program >
        • A typical program
        • Who it is for
        • Case study: The Correspondence School
        • Program Pamphlet
        • To buy the Program
      • Customer Intimate Program >
        • Who it is for
        • Program Pamphlet
        • Case Study - interview with Canary Industries
        • To buy the Program
      • Thought Leader Program >
        • Who it is for
        • Program Pamphlet
        • Case Study HTS-110
        • To buy the Program
  • Free Stuff
    • Introduction >
      • Why we give it free
      • The Business World Is Changing >
        • Doing Business in a Changing World
    • Free consulting advice >
      • Getting started >
        • Are You in a Corporate Cage?
        • Your Personal Power Program
        • Taking the plunge to go consulting
        • It took me 25 years but it doesn't have to!
        • Save Yourself the Cringe-factor
        • How Consultants can remain positive
        • Answer Your Calling >
          • Do you want to make money or be happy?
          • The difference between a ‘job’ and a ‘calling’:
      • Finding customers >
        • How to be top of mind!
        • 7 ways to identify your best customers
        • How to get an appointment next time you want to catch up with your client
        • Stand in your customers' shoes
        • Why Consultants Can’t “Sell” and Clients Won’t “Buy”
        • Stop Closing
        • How to develop strong relationships
        • How to get more sales more quickly!
        • Going consulting? It’s all about relationships.
        • Should consultant treat clients the same or differently? >
          • The secret great consultants know
        • What are you selling?
      • Building trust >
        • The worst advice I got
        • Why Trust Matters
        • Why Trust is important
        • Why You Must Build Trust
      • Free diagnostics process >
        • Why diagnostics is important
        • Become the expert they ask for, listen to and pay higher fees to
      • Developing Products/IP >
        • Cracking Great Leaders Program
      • Measuring a project >
        • Assessing a project
      • Success is Beyond the Conscious Mind >
        • Body Language
        • Talking without words
    • Free workshop advice >
      • 10 secrets to running successful workshops
      • Setting up folders for workshops
      • A great icebreaker
      • Rules of the workshop
      • Setting expectations for the Program
      • Ancient wisdom on facilitation
    • Free leadership advice >
      • Is Your Biggest Asset Under-utilised? >
        • Your belief in scarcity could sabotage your success
        • How to empower your frontline to be as committed as you are
      • Develop your leadership skills >
        • How to be a more powerful manager
        • Leadership boils down to 3 things. Forget all the rest of the guff!New Page
        • To Be Successful You Need To Know Your Core Of Greatness. Do you?
        • What is your Genius Factor?
        • Operate beyond the conscious mind
        • Work with Human Nature, Not Against it
      • The Business of Love >
        • ​Unbounded Human Energy
        • Manage Body, Head, Heart & Soul
        • Manage energy fields
        • Focus on the Whole Person
        • Are Leaders Mentors or Tormentors?
        • Rescuing hug
      • Do your people pull together?
      • ​Leadership Development is on the Wrong Track
      • A Glass Ball or a Mirror? >
        • The Power of Vulnerability
    • Free Strategy Advice >
      • How To Complete Your Strategy in Two Days Rather than Two Months
      • Why 76% of Strategies fail. How to do it successfully
      • Is your strategy being hijacked by numbers?
      • How to implement strategy and get it right in a fraction of the time
    • Free Organisational Development Advice >
      • Old Ways of Managing Don’t Work for Online Workers
      • Todays management challenge is to evolve the management model
      • A 30,000 year view of where business is going.
      • Will business be the Breaker of the world or the Maker of the world?
      • Creating Unbounded Human Energy
      • Emergence changes the way we think about scale
      • Sweet-spot - organisation without top-down control
      • Culture for new age
    • Free HR Advice >
      • 3 simple steps for H.R. success at Top Table
      • Getting Top Management Attention
      • 2 Secrets To Make Leadership Development More Successful
    • Free videos
    • Free blog
  • Bruce Holland
    • Bruce Holland
    • Bruce's confession
    • Bruce's LinkedIn page
  • Contact

​Inspirational Leaders Focus on the Whole  Person

Picture
The derivation of the word "inspiration" is to be "in spirit." All great leaders know to be inspirational they themselves need to operate from a place of spirit; and they need to be able to get their people to come from the same place.

So what does "in spirit" mean? Spiritual energy comes from knowing yourself, your core of greatness, the purpose for your existence and doing something bigger than yourself; something really worthwhile. It provides the spring in the foot and the gleam in the eye. It is the spark which if created can turn an average team into a great team capable of extraordinary feats. Liberate the spirit and you have helped the person know who they are, leave a legacy and provide meaning to their life.

Inspirational Leaders Nourish The Whole Person

Inspirational leaders nourish the whole person: the physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual. Or as I like to say: body (more income), head (more learning), heart (more belonging) and soul (more meaning). Each level is deeper and more powerful. Of the four levels soul is the most powerful. This is why inspirational leaders are 'soul proprietors.

Most managers stop at the body level; on the external, physical world, thinking about results, structure, technology and processes. But the physical world is just the manifestation of the internal world. By the time you see it, it's too late to change it. Real external change happens because of changes in the internal world of thoughts, emotions, beliefs and dreams.

To build goose-bump-type energy in their people inspirational leaders don't stop at the body and head. They know, to give extraordinary results, their people need to give gifts of their heart and soul.

People have gifts to give at four levels. In reverse order of powerfulness, these are: Body, Head, Heart and Soul.

Body

This is physical energy including health, safety and security. Although body is the least important area, it is important because the body needs to be satisfied before people will give gifts from their head, heart or soul. Reach the body and you have helped the person become richer, safer and more secure. However, even at the physical level many organisations fail hopelessly. Their key business transaction: the exchange of time for money is a thin and mean incentive. Few managers teach their people how to renew their energy through relaxation, focus, exercise, breathing and eating.

Head

This is mental energy or brainpower. Reach the head and you have helped the person become wiser and more knowledgeable. Most organisations operate on a 'needs to know' basis and even when they provide information, they deliver it in only one way. Inspirational leaders know that people learn in different ways and want to know far more than most managers think. Also, when people are trusted with extra information it gives context and meaning to their work. It's about understanding that people are like 'learning machines'. They love to explore. They love to play. They don't like to be boxed in. So inspirational leaders think seriously about how they structure work; knowing project teams are far more liberating than jobs.

Heart

This is emotional energy. It comes from belonging, esteem and knowing that you fit with the values and culture. When inspirational leaders reach the heart they help the person's sense of belonging, connectedness, reputation, self worth and respect. Inspirational leaders know about the importance of bringing people together, social activities, common tearooms, stories, deep conversations, trust and being face-to-face. They boost the dignity and confidence from top to bottom by helping each person discover their core of greatness, then reorganise the work so it uses these cores of greatness.

Our basic human need is to connect. Evolutionarily, the worst punishment was to be banished from the tribe, yet this is the way many organisations make their people feel. People are treated like spare parts and squeezed into set boxes (jobs) even if they don't fit. Even worse, often when new managers are appointed, the first thing they do is to make themselves feel important and their people worthless, by getting everyone to reapply for their positions.

Soul

In most organisations, soul is the biggest desert. In my experience even good managers miss out at this level. Inspirational leaders work to help people understand who they are and why they exist, then they help people use this understanding to make the organisation stronger. They also help people to think about how the work they do adds value to the world. The key comes from constantly discussing the meaning of their work and tying it to a higher purpose. Nearly everybody wants to be part of something that is bigger than themselves. The example I like to quote is the work I did with the Porirua City Council grave-diggers. Their starting point for their purpose was "digging holes and burying people." However, magic happened when they started to see themselves as "central to the way people remember their loved-ones." The energy of your people will depend on how they see themselves and what they are trying to do.Like the Porirua gravediggers, they want to make the world a better place. They want to leave a legacy. Talk in these terms and real energy multiplies.

In their report, "A Spiritual Audit of Corporate America", Ian Mitroff, a professor at the University of Southern California, and Elizabeth A. Denton, an organisational consultant, write that employees hunger to bring their spiritual values, their whole person and not just their (left) brain to work. They also found that companies that acknowledged spiritual values and that aligned them with corporate ones, outperformed companies that didn't.

We all have the ability to access the spiritual level, but, most people don't do it. Either they don't believe they are capable of it, or they don't believe in their people enough. Access to the soul is surprisingly simple both for individuals working on their own and for groups working together. All you need is a belief that you and your people are capable of more than they are giving and a process to get you started.

Challenge

I think inspirational leaders are "Soul Proprietors." They manage themselves and they manage their people at the spiritual level. They inspire greatness in others. Their people achieve more than they thought they were capable of achieving. Customers and Boards can't help but see the difference, even if they don't understand how it was achieved.

Here is my challenge: rate yourself (or your manager) 1 to 10 at each level, where 1 is about as bad as you can be and 10 is outstanding:

Body (1-10)

Head (1-10)

Heart (1-10)

Soul (1-10)

If you got a 10 in all four levels please let me know because you are a Soul Proprietor and I'd like to shake your hand and add you to our list of favourite managers.

I'm sure soul is the biggest uder-tapped resource in most organisations. Please send me your thoughts.

Regards Bruce.