By Eitan Sharir and Andrew Lindesay

“The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.”
– Carl R. Rogers

Businesses that deliver exceptional results over a sustained period of time and consistently outperform their competition do so because of the quality and competence of their leaders. Leadership is the greatest competitive differentiator that any organization can acquire and the business results go on to prove it.

Moreover, just as HR professionals help develop great leaders, the principles at play are even more prescient to developing their own leadership potential. Most practitioners are well-versed in what it takes to develop better and more emotionally intelligent leaders (in theory), but many struggle to apply it in practice.

Three Steps to Ongoing Mastery
Essentially, there are three stages required to improve your business results through your leaders:

• Stage 1: Develop Leaders’ Self-Awareness and Self-Mastery
• Stage 2: Develop Leaders’ Environmental Awareness and Mastery
• Stage 3: Create a Culture of Leadership Excellence

A common theme throughout these three competencies is a focus on “self”; this is because highly-effective leaders know who they are, commit to being their best “self” at all times, and collectively create a culture of excellence that inspires others to perform at the highest levels.

It is important to note that these competencies are not finite. The journey of self-discovery, self-mastery, as well as environmental awareness and mastery, will never end. To achieve and maintain mastery in leadership, all leaders must continue to develop and cultivate each of these areas at all times.

Stage 1: Self-Awareness and Self-Mastery
The first essential competency to becoming a more effective leader is to know and lead your “self.” This includes:

• knowing your personal and career goals and aspirations;
• having a clear and inspirational life purpose that you are committed to;
• having clearly defined values that form the basis of who you are and want to become;
• knowing your preferred ways of working with others and dealing with the external world; and,
• understanding how your brain works, what your triggers are, how your beliefs shape your perception, your feelings, your behaviours and your outcomes.

In short, self-awareness is the ability to understand yourself as an infinitely-wise, neutral third party would see and describe you.

It is only with that level of self-insight that you can begin the journey of personal leadership and self-mastery—for without personal leadership, you earned neither the right or the ability to lead others most effectively.

So, what can you do to develop greater Self-Awareness and Self-Mastery in yourself and your leaders?

Developing Self-Awareness
The first step is to help leaders recognize and understand what is going on within themselves (i.e. having the insight to identify, and the vocabulary and emotional literacy to describe, their thoughts, feelings, and impulses), and the awareness to understand how each of these factors are provoking them to behave.

The table below outlines 14 levels which describe how leaders might be described. Levels one to seven are what we call the “Horizontal Mindset” and levels eight to 14 are what we call the “Vertical Mindset”—which is where excellence thrives.

What Causes Horizontal Behaviour?
In the “Horizontal Mindset” states, we perceive the external world as a threat and become over-sensitive, over-reactive, and we often feel easily frustrated, thereby losing focus and attention to the appropriate course of action.

Why this occurs is actually very much a part of us all; when the amygdala (which controls the fight or flight response in the brain) is triggered, there is diminished use of the prefrontal cortex (our more logical, rational, and problem-solving brain), which can thoughtfully evaluate the nature of the threat and decide how to best respond.

When we are in these states, our reactions tend to lead to sub-optimal results and by the time our prefrontal cortex (higher brain) registers what is actually going on, it’s too late—we have already said or done “it” (“it” being a level 1-7 thought, feeling or behaviour). None of these behaviours models great leadership.

Vertical leaders have choices and exercise those choices wisely; horizontal leaders have impulses to which they react, typically leading to negative consequences and more horizontal behaviours.

Stepping up to Self-Mastery
The second step is to help the leaders learn how to “choose” their mindset and show up in line with their core purpose and highest values so that they become more “vertical” leaders, and get the results they want.
How then do we move from “horizontal” reactions towards “vertical” achievement? If you see the external world as a threat based on your thoughts, feelings, and impulses, the steps to take are:

• Acknowledge the perceived threat;
• Acknowledge what you feel “provoked” to do in reaction to that perceived threat;
• Recognize that your impulse reaction is driven by your amygdala and not your pre-frontal cortex and will therefore likely lead to negative consequences;
• Do nothing (do not act…or react; do not let your impulses drive you unless this is a real crisis and your life, or the life of someone else, is being threatened); and
• Choose a higher-level vertical response in line with the seven steps below.

Seven Steps to Self-Mastery

1. Be Clear and Committed to Your Purpose: Vertical leaders are very clear on what their highest purpose is (personally and professionally). Their behaviours are aligned with their core purpose.
2. Take Full Responsibility: Vertical leaders take full responsibility for their choices, actions, and the consequences that arise from their actions.
3. Make the Highest Level Choices: Vertical leaders understand that it is their responsibility to make the highest level values-driven decisions in all situations, regardless of the consequences.
4. Face Everything: Vertical leaders face reality as it is and don’t hide from discomfort. Instead, they confront their fears, insecurities, and their mind’s manipulations.
5. Be Authentic: Vertical leaders show up as the highest expression of who they are, both at work and at home. They are trustworthy and act with the highest level of integrity. This means complete alignment between what they say, think, and do.
6. Give 100% in Everything You Do: Vertical leaders are fully engaged, present and focused on what they are doing. They constantly look for the best way to do whatever it is they are doing.
7. Do it Now: Vertical leaders know that if it’s the right thing to do, they need to do it now. No procrastination.

Stage 2: Environmental Awareness and Mastery
Vertical leaders appreciate that they cannot influence the external world without understanding it and working with it as it is—not how they wish it were. They also understand that there are two external worlds that they need to distinguish between; the first is the objective world of facts and data and the second the subjective experiences of others based on their concerns, hopes, expectations, assumptions, beliefs, fears, and values.

Many people confuse these two worlds and believe that their subjective experiences are objective facts or “the truth.” For example, a manager may hold this ”fact’” as true: “Our employees are not fully aligned with our business and are disengaged.”

The vertical leader recognizes that many people believe that their subjective truths are objective truths.Through deep and penetrating questions and strong, active listening, the vertical leader understands and appreciates these two external worlds, ensuring clear differentiation between them. In addition, through acute self-awareness, effective leaders are aware that their interpretation of the external world is mostly based on a subjective interpretation made up of their own beliefs, expectations, concerns, hopes, assumptions, fears and values.

The vertical leader accepts that there are many different “realities” depending on the eyes of the beholder and none are more right than the other, just different. The vertical leader works with these differences and does not try to prove that he or she is right (level 7 – Superior) and others are wrong.

Stage 3: Create a Culture of Leadership Excellence
Once your leaders have mastered self-knowledge and self-leadership, they have earned the moral authority to lead others.

Here are five steps to creating a culture of leadership excellence:

1. Identify the desired results for your organization and for your leaders: Clearly identify the results your organization is seeking, relative to the results you are getting today. Then, clearly identify the leadership capabilities needed to deliver those results.
2. Develop a mindset of and the skills for leadership excellence: Focus on developing a mindset and culture of leadership excellence throughout the organization, starting with your leaders, and then, cascade that mindset and skills to every employee across your organization.
3. Engage senior management: Senior management must be actively engaged in leadership development. Leadership, like strategy development, cannot be delegated.
4. Create a sustainment plan: Fully consider the business context needed for sustaining and retaining the mindset, culture and skills developed and remove any barriers that may get in the way of sustaining this new learning.
5. Measure The Business Impact: Ensure that you are able to properly measure the business impact of this new learning (including comparing pre-program and post-program results).

A Dire Need For Great Leadership
Over the course of history, there have been many great leaders who inspired their people to build thriving societies that prospered over the long term. There were also leaders, driven by their egos, who created division, fear, conflict, destruction, poverty, and great suffering.

In many corporations today, we see the same patterns of leadership. There are those who, through their commitment to an aspirational future, personal influence, authenticity, collaborative style, focus, and accountability, create a culture that engages the heads, the hearts, and hands of their employees and inspires people to innovate and create true value for their customers.

Then, there are also those who, through their quest for power, driven by personal insecurities and greed, create a culture of mistrust, fear, conflict and self-preservation, marked by a lack of innovation and silos—all of which undermine an organization’s ability to deliver value to its customers.

Corporations today have the greatest power to affect change and are therefore vehicles for creating a better world:  better businesses, better places to work, better communities, and better homes. It is, therefore, the moral, ethical, and social obligation of every organization to develop those types of leaders who will create a better world for all.

Dynamic Achievement Group presidents Eitan Sharir, organizational culture and performance and Andrew Lindesay, business strategy and execution, lead a team of highly committed and experienced corporate development professionals.

(PeopleTalk Winter 2015)