Leading with Heart E-Book

Peter Becker

• Herausgeber: managerSeminare Verlags GmbH
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Serie: LEADERSHIP kompakt
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 165

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

Leadership has become more demanding in terms of content, more time-consuming, increasingly challenging and more important overall than ever before. Discover how you can lead successfully as a versatile leader with dignity, values and trust in the digital world of work 4.0 – through a suitable mindset, a broader understanding of the goals and motives of leadership and the right communication skills. Firstly, learn to understand leadership in the context of social systems. This involves an understanding of leadership, neurobiological findings and core skills. This is followed by specific instructions on how to become a leader 'with heart'.

Leadership and personality
Part 1 of the book is about seeing people in their entirety and understanding leadership in the context of social systems. The analysis of the framework conditions deepens the topics:

VUCA world,
leadership roles and styles,
and the experience of crisis.

Models such as the circle of potential, the two-point model, the "Big Five" and the "Hogan Personal Inventory" provide a basis for a better understanding of human nature. They answer questions such as:

How should people be viewed in the modern working environment?
What helps and what hinders the development of their potential?
How should human behaviour patterns be viewed?

The role of human values and dignity becomes clear. By combining different experiences and findings from individual psychology, neurobiology, cybernetics, systems theory and automation technology, a new perspective on leadership can be derived: The so-called Communication Flow Model (KFM). This leadership model integrates business and social tasks and requirements in equal measure. The interaction between manager and employee is depicted as the regulation of a complex social system. This makes it clear what opportunities arise for the development of the inner compass - both for the manager and for the employees. Instead of reacting defensively to crises, they can be used to increase one's own resilience skills. In the end, it is about the central importance of dignity and the path back to vitality, curiosity and hopeful confidence in being able to shape the future.

Analysing team structure and leadership personality
Part 2 is designed to help you put the courage and curiosity you hopefully awakened into practice right away. In line with the EMMA principle - 'Someone has to start' - you will learn several ways you can choose to become a 'leader with heart'. It's about discovering and developing your inner compass, based on answers to one of life's central questions: "Who am I?" With the help of a tool from depth psychology, the 'boat story', concrete ways are shown to get to know yourself better and to arrive at a personal self-assessment.

Through the proven LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® method, purely cognitively inaccessible resources can be used to work on the personality. Your own values are scrutinised, exchanged and supplemented. Blockages are recognised and dissolved. New goals are developed. Solutions are discovered and people are encouraged to embark on the lifelong journey of growing into one's vocation. The 'Leadership Development 4.0' personality profile developed by the Steinbach & Partner Group with three central key competences will be presented. It focuses on the level of maturity of the personality in relation to the requirements arising from the digitalisation of the business world. With the new view of the individual in their individuality, teams can also optimise their appreciative collaboration. Every team member is a boat and here you can find out how the boats can become a fleet.

Leseprobe

Peter Becker

Leading with Heart

How you as a versatile leader can successfully lead with dignity, values and trust in a digital working world 4.0

© 2024 managerSeminare Verlags GmbH

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The publisher has made every effort to identify the copyright holders of all quotations, texts, images and illustrations used. If we have overlooked anyone, we would ask the copyright holder to contact us.

All rights reserved, in particular the right of reproduction, distribution and translation.

ISBN: 978-3-98856-388-0

Publishers of the Edition managerSeminare:

Ralf Muskatewitz, Jürgen Graf, Nicole Bußmann

Editing: Vera Sleeking

Coverphoto: Depositphotos/alphaspirit, Grafics: Stefanie Diers, Sonja Buske

Illustrations: Stefanie Diers

LEGO®, DUPLO® and LEGO® Serious Play are registered trademarks of the LEGO Group©2020. This book is not authorized, sponsored or approved by the LEGO Group. LEGO®, DUPLO®, the LEGO® and DUPLO® logos, the configurations of the brick, the studs and the Minifigur® are trademarks of the LEGO Group©2020. The book uses the LEGO® Serious Play® trademark policy at the date of the original edition. https://www.serious.global/LEGO-SERIOUS-PLAY-Trademark-Guidelines-2017.pdfThis book uses and builds upon the LEGO® Serious Play® Open Source Guide. It has been published by the LEGO Group under a Creative Commons license („Namensnennung – Weitergabe unter gleichen Bedingungen“, see www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/)

Your download resourcesIn addition to the book, you can download work aids from the Internet. You can access and use the templates for your own work. Please use the following link:www.managerseminare.de/tmdl/k,12890

”Leadership is not magnetic personality – that can just as well be a glib tongue. It is not ‚making friends and influencing people’ – that is flattery. Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to high sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond it’s normal limitations.“

– Peter F. Drucker, economist

”We need to know who we are, before we take care of others.“

– Robert Waldo Emerson (philosopher)

Leadership is about intelligence, credibility, humanity, courage and discipline. Relying on intelligence alone leads to rebelliousness. Simply practicing humanity makes you weak. Anyone who only believes numbers is a fool. Depending on the strength of courage breeds violence. Excessive discipline and strictness in instructions lead to harshness. If a person has all five virtues and can use any of them appropriate to his task, that one can become a leader.

– Based on Sun Tzu, approx. 544-496 BC, known for his book “The Art of War”

Contents

Introduction

What it is about

Contents and Chapters of this Book

1The Paradigm Shift: The Role of Leaders

1.1Why We Need to Rethink Leadership

1.2The VUCA World

1.3An Expanded Understanding of Role and Leadership Style

1.4Internal Crises – Avoid or Shape Them?

1.5What Matters in These Conditions

2Understanding Human Nature

2.1The Holistic Human Image as a Basis for Development

2.2Models for Understanding Human Nature

3What VUCA and the Holistic Human Image Mean for Leadership

3.1The Influence of Neurobiological Process on Leadership Behaviour

3.2What Makes Us Strong from Within

3.3Leadership in the Context of Systemic Interaction

3.4Communication

3.5The Role of Emotions

3.6Trust– The most Important Resource

4Who Am I?

4.1Practical Methods for Self-Discovery

4.2”I am a Boat“

4.3Building My Boat: Access to Myself through Creative Techniques

4.4Access to Myself Through the ”Leadership 4.0 Assessment“

5Who Are We?

5.1On the Way to a Common Goal as a Team

5.2Team Building with the Boat Story

5.3Team Building with the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® Method

5.4Transfer to Everyday Life – The Personal Development Plan

5.5Conclusion– Become Who You Are, and Then Set Out on Your Journey!

Bibliography and Index

Introduction

Mindmap

What it is About

Whether you are a group, team, or project leader*, whether you bear entrepreneurial responsibility as a board member or managing director, or if you have any other leadership function or are responsible for people – I have written this book for you. For every person who, in any way, has the task and responsibility to guide other individuals.

Because our world is becoming increasingly volatile, uncertain, ambiguous, and complex, many people seek support and orientation. Our whole society is in the middle of a period of upheaval. Old, security-giving orders in politics and business, including families, no longer work. To still be able to navigate in it, people choose ways to reduce complexity – even those that are agonising and not sustainable in the long term. They opt, for example, for a leader who advertises with simple recipes, new forms of organisation and work equipment or for repression or distraction which causes illness. These are not solutions! Many providers of training courses and seminars, many specialist books, and publications still try to explain to others how to solve their problems. However, I experience it almost daily in my contact with managers and customers – it is no use.

Leadership has become more demanding in terms of content, more time-consuming, more challenging, and more crucial overall than ever before. However, what leaders have been doing for many years, if not decades, is not questioned or learned. Instead, experienced managers try to practice leadership according to old patterns with new methods (such as Scrum and Design Thinking) and new forms of organisation (such as agile organisational development and holocracy) and fail repeatedly. As valuable and helpful as these new approaches may be, they alone are not enough. In addition, it is becoming clear that leadership is less attractive for the younger generation. Young people realise the price that many, especially older managers, pay for it: high time pressures (24/7), neglect of spouses, children, and friends, and, in the end, loss of physical, mental, and spiritual health. All of those are sacrifices on the career altar. (See FAZ article: „Fast niemand will mehr Manager werden”, ”Almost nobody wants to be a manager anymore“ from September 2019.)

Against the background of this observation, what does leadership in the ”Working World 4.0“ look like? So, is leadership a discontinued model?

Will people still need managers in the future, and if so, which ones? This book provides answers to these questions. It becomes clear what is most relevant in the ongoing paradigm shift in the area of leadership:

A new image of humankind,

Independent personal development and

An expanded understanding of the goals and motives of leadership.

The focus of my remarks is the human being. After all, the central goal of leadership must be to unfold the creative power and dignity given to every human life. Finding courage and freeing up inner resources and strength requires a counterpart who cares about the well-being and development of the other. The remarkably high potential inherent in every human being released and invested for the benefit of oneself, but also for the development of the environment, will achieve a stable state of order – despite the phase of upheaval. Managers can become this counterpart for their employees – a ”leader with heart“.

To become a leader with heart, you must develop an ”inner compass“ – as neurobiologist Gerald Hüther calls it. The compass, from within, exerts a stronger and behaviour-determining influence than all solutions propagated from the outside as seemingly attractive or supposedly necessary. Developing this inner compass means taking responsibility and following the paths I will present in this book. Accordingly, this book is initially about seeing people and understanding leadership in the context of social systems. You will learn methods and tools to help you on the adventure of holistic personal development and open up access to yourself.

This book will awaken in you the longing to engage in the process of developing your personality. Embark on your journey and become part of a daily growing group of executives inspired by our vision of ”making Germany the world‘s leading nation in dealing with people“.

Contents and Chapters of this Book

The first three chapters of this book deal with modelling leadership in the context of social systems. By combining various experiences and insights from individual psychology, neurobiology, cybernetics, systems theory, and automation technology, the essential tasks and approaches to developing into a leader with heart are presented and discussed.

Chapter 1 discusses which new roles and skills managers must develop for the Working World 4.0.

Chapter 2 deals more closely with man and his nature. Among other things, I will present five different psychological models that have been proven in practice. Using the models, people can see who they are – their strengths, resources, and potential for development, but also their blockages and limitations.

Chapter 3 focuses on the ”management“ system and the ”leadership“ system. It takes the approach from our second chapter and transfers it to the factors ”values“, ”trust“, and the core ability of a leader with heart – ”appreciative communication“.

In the last two chapters of this book, you will find concrete directions to get to know yourself and your team better to create the basis for leading as a ”leader with heart“. This part intends to help you put into practice the courage and curiosity that the first chapters hopefully aroused. You will not find any tips and suggestions here that you must adopt. Instead, I will introduce you to methods and tools to help you explore holistic personal development and open up access to yourself.

In Chapter 4, I ask the question: Who am I? I want to support you in establishing a new approach to yourself. Since the classic question ”What are your strengths and weaknesses?“ only brings to light what you and others already know. The projective methods presented in this chapter deliver better answers to such questions.

In Chapter 5, I leave the consideration of the individual personality and show you how valuable the application of the methods from the previous chapters is for team development. It is incredible how teams rediscover themselves, develop an understanding of their problems and find solutions that could not be seen in advance.

The appendix to the book contains a list of in-depth literature and an index for quick reference.

This book also has downloadable material. The download resources are marked in the book by the adjacent symbol. You can access it by typing the link on the inside front cover of this book into your browser bar.

In addition to this book, we have ”shipLeader“, a podcast for executives in which I discuss topics, thoughts, and impulses for developing executives into leadership personalities with my colleague Aleko Vangelis. The podcast has three formats:

”Espresso“ – every Wednesday 10 – 15 min.

”Latte Macchiato“ – monthly on Sundays 45 – 55 min.

”Latte Macchiato with a kick“ – irregularly on Sundays for 45 – 55 minutes with guests.

We offer various training modules, study groups, and individual/team coaching in the ”HEAD AND HEART“ Academy for practical consolidation of the models, methods, and exercises presented in the book. You can find the link on the front cover flap under the contact links.

* For the sake of readability, this book uses the generic masculine form, referring to all genders, of course.

1The Paradigm Shift: The Role of Leaders

Managers, scientists, and entrepreneurs hardly doubt that we need a different understanding of leadership. We live in a time when people discuss the value and necessity of leadership. Indeed, leaders of the kind we know today are a modern phenomenon. With the further development of humanity and innovations (such as the steam engine and electrical engineering), people always had to look for new forms of coexistence and life organisation. As a consequence, different social and political systems came into being. With every new development in technology and society, the complexity increases. With ever-deeper organisational forms, an increase in the number of management positions, and the help of more laws and rules, people tried to keep everything under control. Since the beginning of digitisation, it has become apparent that we are facing a significant upheaval in human history. We must define a new model of coexistence in society, politics, and the economy that creates order, provides security and enables people to live together in dignity. This new model will not emerge by itself.

We will need mature leaders who act proactively as role models in the Working World 4.0. Critical examination of leadership practised up to now, mostly detached from the situation, the events, and the person, is mandatory. What can and must we keep? What do we have to say goodbye to? What new things should leaders learn? Instead of dealing with these questions, many managers try to master the complexity through known behaviour patterns. The number of new methods is constantly growing: Design Thinking, Business Model Canvas, agile procedures, and Scrum, to name just a few.

When I decide to become a ”new“ leader, it is not only possible on the methodical-rational level, e.g. by attending seminars and training courses. It also needs the inclusion of the emotional, sensual, and transcendental levels, and thus access to me, to become a ”leader with heart“.

A leader with heart has a high degree of versatility, can adapt to individual and situational requirements and people, and treats himself and the employees entrusted to him with dignity and respect.

This chapter is about why we need leaders with heart.

1.1 Why We Need to Rethink Leadership

Frank Dopheide, the former German head of the international advertising agency Grey and founder of the company Human Unlimited, provocatively formulated the following on March 17, 2020, in the podcast ”Der achte Tag – Deutschland neu denken“ (”The Eighth Day – Rethinking Germany“) (Mediapioneer Podcast 2020):

”In the fires of crisis, a new generation of leaders is now being forged. We need that, too. The idea is painful, but the ‚manager‘ is a discontinued model. A career of the century that is now history.“

I disagree with the statement ”discontinued model“ because there will also be phases in a company in the future that need a manager, but only then and not all the time! And in an authoritative, not authoritarian form. I can subscribe to Klaus Dopheide‘s core statement that ”in the fires of crisis, a new generation of leaders is being forged“ and that it takes more than just the ”manager“. The responsibility of each leader must not end with the assumption of a role whose evaluation is based solely on numbers, data, and facts. The leader is called upon in his entirety, with body, soul, and spirit, with his emotional being.

Where the ”managing culture“ prevails, where people are viewed as purely cost-generating resources (”human resources“) and should not change, sooner or later, the light will go out. Developing a corporate and leadership culture that does not focus solely on results but also on value-based performance is essential.

It is a mistake that the economy expects well-trained specialists who are as efficient and deployable as possible and who work on their advancement and professional career – but not on their further personal development. Furthermore, especially in middle management, the consistent implementation of ambitiously announced high goals is expected.

Employees leave superiors, not companies

Employees leave managers, not companies. This concise summary outlines the impact of unprofessional, destructive, degrading leadership. There are two observations which give insight into the maturation level of company culture development:

Development and appointment of internal leaders

Recruiting process of external leaders

Internal Leadership Development

„Chef-sein: Nie gelernt, aber danach bezahlt, einfach auf Leute losgelassen“ (”Being a boss: never learned it, but paid accordingly, just let loose on people“) is the headline above a blog post in „WirtschaftsWoche“ (”Economic Week“) (Tödtmann, 2020). The survey cited there was conducted by the online job portal StepStone among 5,000 executives. It reveals the extent to which valuable energy is being wasted in leadership:

Problems with managers

35% say they have never learned leadership

Only 15% were allowed to practice their role

27% would prefer to reverse their promotion

16% admit they do not like their new role as boss

25% have nightmares after their promotion

15% need psychological help

How difficult it is for managers to lead can also be seen from the value (quality) and time expenditure (quantity) of leadership work compared to technical work. Ulrich Goldschmidt from the DFK – Verband für Fach- und Führungskräfte (Association for Specialists and Executives) puts it in a nutshell: ”Often enough, this only makes a superior a better senior clerk.“ Due to a lack of training, distorted role perception, or the mistaken belief that ”those who master their field also have leadership skills“, overwhelmed leaders resort to technical work.

A Forsa survey also had the appropriate headline: „Chefs haben zu wenig Zeit für die Führung“ (”Bosses have too little time for leadership“) (Forsa study 2012). They spend only one-fifth of their working hours on coworker leadership, half of which is used for solving already-known issues.

Personality development YES, personality bending NO

As a therapeutic counsellor and systemic coach I also address this point with executives. It is not uncommon for people to have taken on a management position without this task matching their basic disposition of skills and strengths. Then, a development aimed at further leadership would seek personality inflexion, which must not happen under any circumstances. These people have made themselves the object of others (people, companies) and allow themselves to be misused to achieve their goals and interests. They also do not treat themselves with dignity.

Personal development always involves growing into something existing or learning something possible. However, when I do not know who I am, I offer myself to others to tell me who I am and what to do.

External Executive Recruitment

As an HR consultant, it always frightens me when companies present me with requirement profiles for executives that hardly differ from those 20 years ago. Put together on a DIN A4 sheet, you will find many criteria that are always the same, such as ”team spirit“ or ”assertiveness“. The current company situation, its derived goals, values, and task-specific personality requirements are rarely addressed in the necessary depth.

Not to mention the requirements for a ”Digital Leader“. In a worthwhile article, in the publication „Wirtschaftspsychologie“ (”Business Psychology“), entitled „Unsere Perspektive auf New Leadership: Wie charismatische Führungskräfte Demut entwickeln können“ (”Our Perspective on New Leadership: How Charismatic Leaders Can Develop Humility“), the authors rightly point out that charisma has deservedly received much attention but that humility should also be considered a critical success factor in candidate evaluation.

The second disillusionment follows when you take a look at the selection process. Yes, gut instinct is essential, but it can sometimes be wrong. As countless studies have shown, mismatches are costly. Other expenses can easily be added to this, such as conducting a new job search or losses due to reputational damage, as the Federal Association of HR Managers (Bundesverband der Personalmanager – (BPM) indicates.

All of these problems are just the tip of the iceberg. After all, digitisation entails additional new challenges for managers.

1.2 The VUCA World

The acronym VUCA – originally coined by the American military – describes the changed framework conditions resulting in today‘s Working World 4.0. The letters mean:

V – Volatility

The nature and dynamics of change unleash enormous forces and are catalysts for radical transformation.

U – Uncertainty

The lack of predictability, the level of uncontrollable surprise, and a lack of awareness and understanding of issues and events create uncertainty.

C – Complexity

The high dynamics, the rapidly changing influencing factors, and the mutually influencing mechanisms of action and networks cause chaos and confusion.

A – Ambiguity

The superficial cause-effect relationships we are used to are no longer sufficient to plan the future and predict development. Knowledge and experience as the sole basis for action are becoming less and less significant.

The term VUCA describes the general characteristics of this time. However, managers have to deal with concrete megatrends such as