12th Installment of our Self-Coaching Process
Blueprint for real transformation and success for individual employees/executives, teams and organizations
CONCLUSION
Everyone is only too aware of how many or most organizations are run; how, very often, there is very little focus on the individual and too much attention given to making profits, sometimes at the expense of people.
As Alan Briskin in The Stirring of Soul in the Workplace wrote, “In organizations, we talk about empowerment and individual respect. But so often these are just words to distance ourselves from the individual’s inner world of experience.”
It is only possible for leaders to genuinely support the real empowerment of everyone working in their organizations, if they themselves have the courage to look within and to do so consistently and honestly. When they do and evolve in the process, they will bring an authenticity to their form of leadership and set an example for other leaders down the line to do the same.
Perhaps, it is James Hillman in Kinds of Power who sums it up beautifully for me, “The monotheism of the profit motive can be loosened so that it makes places for other kinds of profitability: profitability for the long-term continuity of life and future generations, profitable to the pleasure and beauty of the common good, profitable to the spirit. The double bottom line of social and ecological responsibility extends profitability only part way. The idea of profit itself needs pluralizing.”
And, perhaps even more so, Tom Chappell in The Soul of a Business writes, “You don’t have to sell your soul to make your numbers” as well as in Managing Upside Down, “Business is not social work…it’s about making more money…But what I also know, firsthand and beyond a doubt, is that I have been running our company, Tom’s of Maine, according to a mission of respecting customers, employees, community, and the environment, and we are creating more products and making more money than I ever dreamed.”
Indeed, my key message to you is: You can be an exceptional leader by being ethical and compassionate, and yet make huge profits at the same time! In fact, you get so much more out of people by putting them first, including yourself. You need to engage the hearts and souls of people, including yourself once again, if you want the maximum out of them. Putting People First makes good business sense; and it makes work a lot more fun!!
I leave you with the following questions:
Call us at 64455078 or drop us a line at enquiries@leeheiss.com; we’d be delighted to help! Let’s create an amazing 2010 together!!