Embracing Wholeness: The Path to Leadership Excellence
There are a variety of schools of thought and research on leadership. Two possibilities are the rather-than leader, or a both-and leader. High-level leaders tend to be extremely focused and goal-driven. But can that focus be aimed in a particular direction or aimed in the wrong direction?
The short answer is yes. The long answer…
Leaders may be focused on achieving business goals and maximizing profits RATHER THAN professional growth and well-being (of themselves and others). This is a choice often made by stakeholders’ values driven by short-term needs.
Leaders tend to prioritize hierarchy, authority, and control RATHER THAN collaboration, empathy, and inclusion. Leaders may choose technical skills and strategic thinking RATHER THAN emotional intelligence and greater self-awareness. All of these choices, conscious or not, result in less meaningful outcomes given today’s work environment, diverse cultures, and cross-generational workforce, which causes much more harm than good.
This is because leadership excellence does not exist only in individuals – it is always in the context of the organization (and its capability to lead more systemically). Drawing from Gestalt theory, we can begin to look at multiple levels of the system: leader, team, and organization.
When leaders have this systems perspective, they can begin to:
recognize multiple realities
better understand forces affecting change
connect with self and others more intentionally
communicate and create change work more efficiently
be more effective as a leader of their team and the organization as a whole
This is Wholism. It is not an end. It is a continuous practice.
“My experience is what I agree to attend to.” –William James, The Principles of Psychology, Vol.1
When a leader is arriving at work whole, she or he is healthier. When a team is whole, its members become more synergetic. When an organization is whole, it both performs and out-performs itself.
So let me ask you: As a leader, to what degree do you give attention to the Whole?
When you ask yourself “Did we maximize profits?” are you acknowledging that this answer exists within the same context as “Did we truly maximize well-being?” This is the shift that’s needed for organizational success. If it was being practiced to a full extent, phenomena like The Great Resignation may not have so easily taken hold.
Wholism, the practice of being a BOTH-AND leader rather than a RATHER-THAN leader, signifies a shift beyond primarily relying on technical skills. It entails recognizing the significance of self-reflection, emotional intelligence, empathy, humility and cultivating a positive organizational culture. While often referred to as soft skills, these aspects are essential for sustainable effectiveness of hard skills. In fact, they play a crucial role in distinguishing between organizations that experience short-lived intensity and those that achieve lasting success. By prioritizing these elements, leaders are able to build retention, foster longevity, and elevate overall performance, ensuring organizations thrive in the long run.
So how do you make a change?
Up until now, personal growth and self-reflection have been seen as separate from professional success when actually, they are integral to effective leadership. Wholeness, in the context of leadership, entails recognizing that your organization is an intricate system composed of interconnected parts.
Instead of viewing challenges in isolation, leaders can benefit from understanding the interdependencies and relationships that shape their organization’s dynamics.
While this can sound abstract, it is really a matter of what you pay attention to, which you do in fact have control over moment to moment. When you broaden your perspective, when you look at your actions and the actions of your team within the context of the larger systems, we begin to recognize patterns. We see the effects of a single focus and when we shift that attention, we see new results.
At a second level, after beginning to recognize patterns, dynamics, and the culture we operate in, we begin to understand the state of our capacity to do more or make changes. And then (you guessed it), we make changes that give us greater capacity for what matters.
Do you have the capacity to lead this organization in a way that meets those business goals AND creates a healthy organizational culture? Or is capacity and limited focus leading you to be a RATHER-THAN leader? Cal Newport in his book Deep Work says,
“Like fingers pointing to the moon, other diverse disciplines from anthropology to education, behavioral economies to family counseling, similarly suggest that the skillful management of attention is the sine qua non of the good life and the key to improving virtually every aspect of your experience.”
And, even further, from a neuroscience perspective, Winifred Gallagher in her book Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life, shares that,
“All day long, you are selectively paying attention to something, and much more often than you may suspect, you can take charge of this process to good effect. Indeed, your ability to focus on this and suppress that is the key to controlling your experience and, ultimately, your well-being.”
By embracing wholeness, leaders can foster a culture of trust, collaboration, innovation, leading to improved performance, reduced turnover, and enhanced employee wellbeing.
As a leader myself and a consultant to leaders in organizations, my thoughts are:
How often do you ask yourself the same questions, and how often do you expand the meaning into the emotional, self-reflection, and even the spiritual?
Do you know what you give the most attention to and the least attention to? Do you acknowledge the importance of each interconnected part of the system?
Today, your effectiveness as a leader lies in your ability to be Whole and promote Wholeness within the system.
What is more frightening than opening up, taking down barriers, de-compartmentalizing, and becoming Whole? Perhaps it is the thought of what remaining stagnant and seated will do to us, our connected people, and the systems we wish were better.
Perhaps our desire for positive transformation can outweigh our fear of change. Perhaps, they are one and the same.