Whole Leadership

In Head, Heart and Guts the authors contend that “to be a leader in today’s business environment, you need to use your head, demonstrate heart, and act with guts.” The problem is that most leaders rely on just one of these attributes and are not encouraged to develop or use the others. They call for a fresh approach to leadership development that values and develops all three capacities to develop whole and opposed to partial leaders. The downside of not doing so is that “people without head, heart, and guts have a greater likelihood of derailing than those who have these qualities.”

They have found that many business leaders today are “searching for the key personal quality that will somehow make them successful or whole.” Yet, “quite often, what they need already exists within them but is unrecognized or underdeveloped.”

They suggest that mature leaders “often display head, heart, and guts naturally.” Based on years of experience they have developed the wisdom that comes with maturity. They have learned to be flexible and apply the right capacity as the context demands. They note:

Maturity doesn’t mean becoming one-third head, one-third heart, and one-third guts. Everyone has a natural leadership style, and a natural tendency to lean on intellect, emotion, or courage doesn’t change with maturity. What does change is a willingness to consider options that don’t fit in with one’s natural style.

Unfortunately, companies can’t wait for all of their leaders to become mature so they must learn to develop leadership maturity. While there is no one-size-fits-all formula, this process begins by determining the dominate head, heart or gut orientation of the company. From there, the focus should be on “helping the leadership population increase their capacity in the less dominate areas.… [O]ne goal in developing leadership maturity is to help leaders to recognize how over-reliance on their dominate style prevents them from being successful.” This is not always easy as most leaders think they are more adept at moving from one to the other than they really are. The authors suggest ways to help leaders develop their capacity in all three areas.

In today’s environment where the context is constantly shifting, understanding the situation is crucial to success. It is helpful to consider these ideas from a context-versus-content perspective.

Content leaders are classic head types, feeling compelled to draw on their knowledge to add value when they meet with others. Context leaders, on the other hand, add value by recognizing other resources when they enter a room and use them effectively. Operating with a context requires heart and guts; these leaders need to take the risk of depending on others to add value, and they must connect with other people so that they are willing to help them accomplish their objectives…. It is less important to them to be seen as the cleverest person around, than to be able to use their head, heart, and guts as the situation requires.

Posted by Michael McKinney at 11:00 AM
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