Are You a High-Performing Leader?

I interviewed Dr Manfred F.R. Kets de Vries, Professor of Leadership Development and Organizational Change at INSEAD, many years ago when I was still testing the RYD Hypothesis that it's only in the integration of Leadership Depth, Business Excellence and Craft Mastery that great leaders and great businesses would be birthed and nurtured.

He is a thought leader in the space of Leadership Development who relies heavily on Psychology for developing business leaders and CEOs. He chose to be a psychoanalyst and integrate that into his work.

I believe therapy and healing (which is about clearing the past) is directionless without coaching and coaching (which is about creating a bright new future in alignment with our impossible, unimaginable, crazy dreams and making a massive impact) is ineffective without therapy and healing. That is why, we have integrated psychotherapy for our coachees' ongoing inner work to go to dark places within that they don't want to go to and even to dark places within that they didn't even know existed to live in the expression of their undeniable greatness, their Inner Light and realize their highest potential. That is why Centre for Coaching Excellence, an RYD channel of impact for training and developing RYD Coaches, has psychotherapy as part of its Leadership Depth curriculum.

In Gear 0, high performing leaders are either:
1) Rescuer Leaders creating dependent, ineffective team members
2) Avoider Leaders creating stressed-out, ineffective team members
3) Critical Fighter Leaders creating under-confident, ineffective team members
4) Victim Leaders creating directionless, ineffective team members

Since a leader, a coach and a parent have the same 3 roles to play in order to support their people, coachees and kids to  joyously realise their highest potential - nurturer, leader, coach; you can replace leaders with parents or coaches and team members with kids or coachees; the above 4 statements would be equally valid.

Here's an interesting article on Rescuer Leaders by Dr Kets de Vries in HBR - The Dangers of Codependent Mentoring 

Are you a Gear 0 High Performing Leader; or a Peaceful Warrior Super Performing Leader on your Hero's journey from Gear 1 to Gear 5? 

Raising our consciousness is an endless journey but it is possible to raise one's consciousness all the way to at least Gear 3 before we step into conversations with our team members or kids, irrespective of which gear we may currently be at. That is what Conscious Leadership and Conscious Parenting is all about.

Here are few Distinctions with respect to Communicating Powerfully in the World of Others (Gear 3 Leadership Muscle). A Distinction is a distinct point on the Ball of Perspective that give us Power to Create our Reality in alignment with our impossible, unimaginable, crazy dreams.

1. In Gear 1, we relate to our own self as extraordinary. In Gear 2, we relate to other people in our Space as extraordinary. It's only in Gear 3, other people begin to relate to us as extraordinary. All of us want to be in Gear 3 but to get there, one has to go through the fire of Gear 1 and Gear 2. 

Interestingly, by the time we reach Gear 3, other people admiring us doesn't even matter anymore because we have become an empty space for other people to discover themselves; a channel of impact for people to draw from the Universe through us what would most serve them.

2. Ego is nothing but a human being's self-defense mechanism to protect oneself from the pain of one's own Hole in the Soul:
i. I am not good enough.
ii. I am not important.
iii. I am all alone. No one loves me.

Let this understanding support us to be loving kindness to all people in all our conversations because we know the pain of the Hole in our Soul. 

3. The 3 growth levers equally exercised supports us in our good to great journey to realize our highest potential - Leadership Depth, Business Excellence and Craft Mastery. As a leader, our job is to support our people to realize their highest potential. By being clear which growth lever is not fully strengthened for our people, we can help them understand the barrier in their growth and help them build their structure of success to maximise their growth and therefore, their happiness and fulfilment.

4. If people are not on their good (Gear 0) to great (Gear 5) journey, they would be operating from Gear 0, from the hole in their soul. Our highest contribution to them would be to raise our consciousness to Gear 4 (Delivering on Our Word leadership muscle) which helps them to step up to Gear 1 (I am extraordinary and I love myself) in our space, helps them to experience their own greatness in our space; supporting them to learn, grow and contribute much more effectively. 

Gear 4 is the domain of Integrity. Gear 4 is also the domain in which when I say - I believe in you, you will viscerally feel my belief in you. That creates the space for you to step up to Gear 1 in my space. But, if I have broken words in our relationship, it will come in the way for me to step up to Gear 4 in our relationship. So, restoring my broken word to you supports me to step up to Gear 4 in our relationship, which is when I can look straight into your eyes and say - I believe in you; and you will experience my belief in you and relate to your own self as extraordinary.

5. Happiness and Fulfilment is an experience of growth. If we are not growing, we are dying. The highest growth available to us is in realizing our highest potential. We define and, therefore, limit our highest potential by our dream. More impossible, unimaginable, crazy our dream; more growth we have gifted ourselves this lifetime; provided we play the game to realize our dreams. Help people discover their impossible, unimaginable, crazy dream that scares them a bit because if their dream doesn't scare them, then their dream is not big enough. Support them to build a structure of success for realizing their dreams and help them to identify the first tiny step to take from their structure of success. This is a foundation for communicating powerfully in the world of others.

My dream is that RYD Circle of Love nurtures 60 Indian businesses to be Fortune Global 100, 300 Indian businesses to be Fortune Global 500 and 1000 Indian Businesses to be Forbes Global 2000 enabling India to be the world's most developed, beautiful, greenest nation; with her citizens happiest, healthiest and the most prosperous in the world.

What is your impossible, unimaginable, crazy dream that scares you a bit and yet brings stars to your eyes, joy to your heart, dance to your feet, a song on your lips, peace in your mind, energy to your life and lights up your soul? 

Dream Big. Create Big. Impact Big 💜

Loving you,
j.