“Do what you do with all of yourself,” is a powerful maxim.  In fact, in the challenges before us we can not afford anything less.  It invites each of us to bring the whole of who we are to each endeavor whether it be at home or at work.  When it comes to addressing complex challenges, dealing with rapid change, being more innovative and getting more with less, we need the richness, intelligence and full engagement of everyone around us.  The whole person needs to be invited to show up at work.

Unfortunately, too much of the leadership and management understanding and subsequent behavior of many executives invites only part of what others have to offer.  One senior manager in an organization I was consulting with referred to the people on the factory floor as “the hands.”  He tended to treat others as if they were there solely for him to direct and that it was his and the other members of the senior team’s thinking that was required while everyone else were there as “hands” to do their bidding.  Yet, as our consulting work progressed and we worked with the “hands” it turned out that as more of who they were was invited in, the more innovative and productive they became.  In fact, more than 80% of the ideas that led to a 30% increase in productivity and a doubling of the profit came from those on the factory floor.

There is another benefit in inviting the whole person to show up beyond those of increased innovation, higher levels of engagement and better solutions to complex, challenging issues.  You, personally, are inevitably enriched by the complex, full texture of a vital, whole presence.  In the presence of others who are really “showing up” we tend to show up even more.  There is in fact a beneficial “contagion” of possibility, courage, honesty, flow of ideas as well as professional and personal growth.

Are you inviting the full person to come to work?  Are you bringing the fullness of who you are to all that you do?

I had the privilege of spending an evening and a day with the Poet David Whyte last weekend in Charleston.  He talked about a major presentation he did for the senior leadership at Starbucks.  As one executive expressed it, “The ways of thinking and the language that we use that got us this far are not sufficient for where we now find ourselves.”  Having consulted with more than a hundred organizations and also coached many senior executives over the past 27 years, I too am finding that most senior leaders and their teams do not have an adequate language or way of conceptualizing and expressing the territory they now find themselves inhabiting.  The rules have fundamentally changed and the enemy turns out to be the very ways of thinking and communicating that up to this point have made us successful.  We now need a more open level of expression and a more flexible way of understanding both who we are, who are customers are, where the world is heading and where we now find ourselves standing.

We all need a more open, less restrictive way of thinking, communicating and interacting if we are to have the imagination, creativity and connectivity to respond and innovate most effectively.  One of my greatest teacher’s in this realm of thinking was the great visionary poet, William Blake.  For example I find a great resonance and freedom of thought that is evoked in me by his statement, “How do we know but every bird that cuts the airy way is but a world of infinite delight, closed to our senses five.”  Or take for example, “To see a world in a grain of sand and a heaven in a wildflower; to hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour.”

The challenge for all leaders and teams is how to both deal with rapid discontinuities AND how to become more innovative.  The enemy to both is “old ways of thinking” and old forms of communicating, connecting and relating that limit human potential, imagination and capacity.  How will you begin to open up your own thinking and invite into your life and that of those around you a larger, wider and more openly creative way of seeing and embracing the world?

Leadership is really all about the tone and quality of the heart of the leader as well as that of the follower.  We do not lead from the head – trying to engage others solely through intellect is like trying to light a piece of paper with the picture of a candle.  It is the tone and quality of our hearts speaking to, engaging the hearts of others that determines the passion and quality of how others follow.

Yet, it is not only the tone and quality of the leader’s heart that matters, but also that of those who would follow.  If a leader uses the passions of hatred, prejudice, division and blame to incite others, then those who are engaged have hearts filled with anger, hatred, blame, divisiveness and prejudice.  This leads to greater pain, suffering and mis-direction down the road.  What is in the hearts of the followers determines the legacy of the leader – whether architect of something better and more whole or critic-destroyer who leaves a path of destruction behind.

What is the tone of your heart?  What are you focused on, past woes, wrongs, anger and vengeance or healing, making positive changes, engagement and possibility?  Watch your focus and the content of your thoughts and notice how you feel.  Your inner guidance system of quality and tone of feelings as well as content of thoughts will let you know whether you are developing a tone of heart that will create and engage the best in others or one that will sub-optimize and bring out the worst.

Leaders, true leaders, are assuming responsibility while others are making excuses.  Leadership to be effective requires a high level of personal responsibility and true systemic accountability.  The essence of accountability is not to be found in “controlling” others or in trying to coerce behavior from them.  In fact, coercion and force drive a higher level of CYA (cover your ass-ets) and minimize accountability.  In the organizations with the teams and leaders with whom I have been privileged to work, whenever we have directly addressed and removed old vestiges of “blame and shame” as well as micro-management and over-control, we have increased accountability levels and driven higher levels of performance.

To increase accountability and performance levels requires taking a systematic approach.  ”Systemic Accountability” as I have termed it consists of 4 broad aspects or drivers.  The first driver of true accountability is that of focusing on a “solution-focused” mind-set.  By solution focused I mean that everyone is coached in not only identifying problems, gaps and issues, but they are also invited to bring forward ideas and attempted solution.  After all, critics are plentiful, true change agents and problem-solvers are much rarer.  The second driver of accountability is a “mistake-positive” approach that is focused on a “lessons learned” orientation when mistakes do occur.  Mistakes do occur in life, in team, departments and organizations.  The challenge is to take a mistake, learn from it and transfer the lessons learned so that we “fail forward” versus falling backwards.  This means no-blame, no-shame when mistakes are surfaced.  Instead the focus in on how to address it effectively and to actively learn from it to advance the agenda of the enterprise.

A third key driver of true accountability is that of focusing on the power of language.  To create a systemic accountability approach leaders and team members need to learn to stop asking “Why did you” and “Who did this” and instead focus on “What happened” and “How did this occur.”  Simply by moving off of “why” and “who” questions and instead focusing on “what” and “how” we are creating the environment for greater personal, team and group accountability.  For example: “What happened here?”  ”What did we want to have happen?”  ”What went wrong with our process, our approach?”  ”How will we address it best?”  ”What have we learned?”  ”How will we apply that lesson to prevent future issues and to create better outcomes?”  ”What do you need from me to help address this?”  ”How can I best support you?”

Finally, to create systemic accountability, leaders needs to serve as role models for taking responsibility by demonstrating the ability to listen non-defensively to critical input.  Then, to lock it in, the leader needs to use the “what” and “how” questions to seek to understand the criticism and to turn it into usable information and guidance.  Are you creating true accountability in a systemic way in your life, team and organization?

Leadership is all about engendering engagement in others to work together to achieve some desired outcome.  In that sense leading, at its best, is about creating or focusing attention on possibilities.  Leading in possibility is a key way to focus attention since it tends to align others in a mutual, inspiring enterprise.  For example, when Nelson Mandela addressed the nation of South Africa as he assumed the presidency of what had been a white dominated, Apartheid country, he said, “It is not our darkness that frightens us; it is our light.”  He pointed out a new possibility to all South Africans that the time to hide each person’s light was over and that all of the people, no matter race or creed, needed to move beyond the fear of being able to shape their own future and step into their power and grace.  Here was a vision of possibility that inspired and also aligned focus in the great enterprise of shaping a new national identity and way of being.

The greatest leaders have always used possibility to capture the hearts of those they would lead.  Since the mind tends to follow the heart, by capturing the emotional resonance of inspiration, the newly focused minds led to concerted efforts of creation.  Leaders create through the use of high level engagement that is engendered through inspiring and aligning others.  Leadership focuses minds by engaging hearts by challenging old limitations in thinking, in perceiving, in working and relating.  Leaders are dealers in the currency of possibility.

What are essential behaviors?  What makes them essential?  Why should you care about them?  Can you list some of them? Essential behaviors are the actions we take as well as the practices we engage in that connect most powerfully with others and make the greatest positive difference in the results we get in life, whether at home or at work.  Essential behaviors are the things we do that have the most potent impact in terms of building relationships, maintaining them, deepening understanding, building collaboration, getting things done well, building permission and capacity in individuals and groups and creating more significance in life.

Some key examples of essential behaviors are: actively listening, speaking respectfully, thinking before talking, expressing gratitude, planning important meetings, following through on commitments and acting in spite of anxiety and fear.  There are more but the list above is a great start.  Which ones above do you engage in and which ones do you neglect or use least often?

Using just a few of the above, if you want people to listen to you, then you need to model listening actively to them and, by doing so, you gain insights, key information and are less likely to be blind-sided.  If you speak respectfully by watching the tone of your voice as well as your words, people are more likely to listen to you and will tend to reciprocate by being respectful to you.  Thinking before you speak, taking the time to organize your thoughts and then to say what you mean in a thoughtful way just builds the sense that you know what you are talking about and that you don’t go off half-cocked.  Expressing gratitude, even as simple as saying, “Thank you” gains you far more than I can write about here.  Gratitude begets better performance, greater engagement and appreciation in return.

Planning important meetings simply means you take the time to think through what you wish to accomplish, think about who will be present and have a game plan in mind as well as a process.  Doing that helps you produce better outcomes.  It is also a sign of respect to take the time to plan out what you want and to participate effectively.  Following through on commitments means that you are trust-worthy and you build your “brand” as someone who does what is promised.  This gives you credibility and a reputation for reliability.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the essential behavior of acting in spite of fear and anxiety helps to build your Courage Quotient, the essential “cardiovascular” system for leadership and living whole-heartedly.  As you face your fears and self-doubts, taking them into account but not letting them “run” your life, you act on your deeper sense of purpose and personal meaning, not the feelings of the moment.  This means that you become a person of substance, vitality and personal authenticity.  You also, thus, help to inspire and engage others.