Our emotions play an important role in recognising gifts that people have.
I always know when I am ready to take a risk, because risk-taking involves my emotions, and I may feel afraid, excited, hopeful, confident etc. at such times.
And it is a risk to encourage autonomy and a sense of adventure in others.
Motivation also involves our emotions, and encouraging potential is far more motivating than pointing out deficiencies and continually pestering people to change. (Both of the words emotion and motivation actually share the term movement; in that motivate comes from motive, and emotion implies motion).
It is good for morale in an organisation to focus on what people can do, not on what they cannot, or should not, or are not allowed to do. An atmosphere where we find it easy to ask to take the lead in something that we are interested in, or are good at (within a healthy and boundaried structure), offers us a sense of power, autonomy and belonging.
If I am leading emotionally I am shaking the environment around me up a little, so taking the risk and feeling the slight trepidation that all leaders feel in allowing someone else take the lead is part and parcel of encouraging future leaders at all levels. It is also a form of letting go – which is, of course, another emotional element of leadership.
I believe that emotional leadership can enable amazing things to happen that cognitive-only leadership may miss out on.
Our emotions, above all else, make a huge contribution to our personality. That is, how people recognise us. There are so many positive aspects to having personality in leadership that it is important not to, so to speak, iron out wrinkles when we are encouraging others to take the lead. It is in our imperfections that we are good enough – and genuineness, passion and imbuing confidence in taking responsible risks should always be the goal.
To paraphrase Éamon de Valera (also known as Dev), in emotional leadership I believe that there is an element of looking into my heart and seeing what’s good for whatever I am leading, as Dev apparently did from time to time when he was deciding what was good for Ireland).
Having looked into our heart, however, we then need to look for and find support for what is in there. Perhaps there will be no support. In such a case wisdom is needed to acknowledge that indeed what is in our heart is at variance with what people around us seem to want. (Slowing down our speed of processing is helpful here).
The looking into my heart bit is probably a bit old fashioned now in these days of hiring consultants, doing surveys, opinion polls and the like and then employing spin doctors to explain to people the benefits of something that they initially didn’t know they wanted. (Something that I don’t think Dev would have been too bothered with in fairness to him)!
So we might imagine community leadership to be a bit like sailing. We know where we want to go but we need to be aware of what way the winds are blowing and then plot a course to get there. The destination might be the same, but the journey might have many more twists and turns and ups and downs than we first thought.
And it may also involve slowing down so that others won’t be left behind.
Above all, community leadership should be about real change, that is, adaptive change. I referenced a link to this topic earlier and here it is again. As I mentioned already, leadership is about spelling out in clear, assertive and respectful terms what needs to be done, i.e. what needs to change.
And change is an emotional project. Think of the emotions involved in even relatively small changes in our own lives – and then consider the emotions involved in others who we are encouraging to change.
Yes, it takes courage to change and even more courage to promote positive change in those around us if we really believe in our vision.
In this context, the day I won’t take a stand on change (or the day I can’t see what needs to be done) is, perhaps, the day I need to check in with myself to see do I still want to lead.