Organizational performance can rise no higher than the collective performance of its people. With the arrival of the knowledge economy, organizations are transitioning on a global scale from a mechanistic environment of linear control, to a systemic environment of complexity. As such, the role of leader has never been more important than it is in today’s world, and individual leader behavior is the single most important predictor of organizational performance.
In the book Strength-Based Leadership, best-selling author Tom Rath and renowned leadership consultant Barry Conchie explore the results of decade’s worth of Gallup research on the topic of leadership relations with followers. Responses from more than 10,000 interviews conducted around the world reveal the four central reasons that people choose to follow their leaders:
1. Trust
In today’s fast-paced, complex, ambiguous environment of constant change, conflicts and crises abound within the organization. So in order to succeed, trust is a necessary characteristic of any organization’s culture. Trust enables your team not only to perform its daily function but also to rise above conflicts and crises. Trust is vital to forging and sustaining connections and collaborations in the relationship between a leader and follower.
2. Compassion
Compassion goes beyond empathy. Empathy is a personal understanding of someone else’s difficult condition, whereas compassion is a commitment to help that person out of their condition. Compassion includes kindness, warmth, sensitivity, openness, and tolerance. Compassion and caring cannot exist without one another.
3. Stability
To be employed by a financially stable organization will always be a top desire of the workforce all over the world. This kind of stability is a practical need; after all, everyone has to make a living. Financial stability, however, is not just based on leadership’s ability to grow the business. It is also rooted in leadership’s consistent and predictable patterns of behavior. When leaders are honest, accountable, and transparent, they promote confidence among their employees. Employees, in turn, are assured that their leaders are doing what is necessary to the keep the organization operational.
4. Hope
Hope and stability are two sides of the same coin. Stability tends to revolve around the present, while hope is oriented toward the future. Leaders who have a positive mindset about the future and who promote enthusiasm among followers instill hope. Hope, in turn, encourages people to devise a realistic plan and to imagine themselves in more ideal situations – particularly during challenging and chaotic periods of workplace and economic disruption.
Enlightened leaders can connect through following others by practicing the principle of followership. Followership is a leader’s willingness to listen to those for whom they are responsible – their concerns, their hopes, their aspirations and the like. Making the right connection between leader and follower has never been more important than it is today.
Catherine is the President and CEO of CORPORATE HARMONY, providing virtual solutions for leadership development and organizational culture change. Her leadership and coaching experience as a Project Manager in an ever-changing, fast moving technological organization with unrelenting demands drove her to the realization that a positive mindset and strength-building behaviors are essential for today’s complex and chaotic organizational systems. CORPORATE HARMONY’s virtual platform of programs, coaching and performance measurement, is an innovative online technology of tested proprietary content. The world-class content of CORPORATE HARMONY’s Positive Presence Program develops the skill of ‘Positive Presence’ and the necessary ‘Positive Presence Behaviour Competencies’ for maintaining a positive and energized mindset and increased performance in today’s complex work environment, and leading to a culture of collaboration and connection. Catherine’s vision for Corporate Harmony is to bring the skill of “Positive Presence” to the corporate world as it becomes more complex, ambiguous and chaotic. Catherine is uniquely positioned to impact organizations’ productivity and long term success, with her powerful vision of eliminating bad stress from every workplace around the globe, bringing purpose into the people equation to promote healthy, productive and meaningful work cultures and turn the tide on the neglect of mental health on a global scale. Catherine is author of the book: “CORPORATE HARMONY – The Performance Link for Today’s Modern Organization” Catherine can be reached at: Catherine.Osborne@corporateharmony.ca or go to ‘contact us’ on our website www.corporateharmony.ca. Catherine is available for consultation, and can be reached by 519-695-3407.