The harsh reality for leaders is that understanding without action is not enough to make a difference. In fact, a more accurate title for our January leadership competency could be – Understands Self and Others – and does something with that understanding. Kind of cumbersome but more realistic.
Tom Rath and Barry Conchie in Strengths Based Leadership, identify four essential elements that people want from their leaders and when they get them they are more engaged and committed to their work.
- Trust: Credibility, respect, integrity and honesty
- Compassion: Caring, concern about whole person, genuine interest in whole person
- Stability: Predictability, consistency, fairness and security
- Hope: Direction, clarity, guidance and optimism for the future
Understanding these human needs for engagement is a starting point for identifying day-to-day actions you can take to demonstrate trust, compassion, stability and hope to your people. It will look different for each of us but taking action is what is important.
A great starting point is to think back to leaders who have most inspired you and ask yourself, what specifically did they do to demonstrate trust, compassion, stability and hope?
Please share your answers and we can build a toolkit of action ideas to share among us!
Todd Thorsgaard
