THE 8 ASCENTS OF THE ULTIMATE LEADER (Continued from Part
I) are the Psychological foundations of what makes a great
Leader, they are…
1. Master Your Rules of Engagement
• In War, “Rules of Engagement” are what you do when you
engage the enemy.
• The enemy in this case is experience of when your
surroundings don’t match your perception of ‘what should be’
• Psychological “Rules of Engagement” exist as reaction
responses to these surroundings and the experiences, if you
become more aware of what they are, you will have a
foundation to influence your actions and reactions, you
will Master your Rules of Engagement
2. Increase Your Circle of Tolerance
• This is the measure of your ability to deal with things
“intelligently” and without reaction. The more rules you
have about the way things should be, the smaller your
Circle of Tolerance
• If you have a large Circle of Tolerance, you can deal
with more situations intelligently and make better
decisions.
• Things that happen outside of your Circle of Tolerance
usually trigger your Rules of Engagement
3. Remove Your Colored glasses
• There are 4 primary “Brain Processors” that interpret the
world in very different ways. A “Colored Brain” perception
is like looking though colored glasses. A leader who can
remove his colored glasses, can see past his own
perceptions and bring out the best in others who process
differently.
• To discover what colored glasses you are wearing, take
the complementary Colored Brain Communication Inventory
(CBCI) at the Directive Communication website.
4. Stop Need Sucking
• When we are in charge of others (and sometimes when not),
we unconsciously make decisions that leave others
questioning our motives or are left unfulfilled in their
jobs or tasks. This is because each person has specific
emotional needs and gratifications that doing or completing
a task provides. When someone takes those gratifications
away (even accidently) this is “Need Sucking”
• To stop Need Sucking, leaders must take care not to take
too much of the following emotional needs from a group:
i. Control or security (the less control one has, the less
secure)
ii. Recognition or significance
iii. Diversity in tasks or job
iv. Sense of completion or achievement (let people finish)
• The more of these emotional gratifications a leader takes
for themselves, the less there is for everyone else,
translating to less fulfillment
5. Command your Leadership Postures
• Postures are the connection between Body and Mind that
influence our moods. We are constantly using Postures
without realizing it and they are affecting our emotions,
our focus, and the type of influence we have over others.
• Controlling your primary postures: Warrior, Child, Lover,
and Emperor, will allow you to command the suitable energy
to affect others on an emotional level with greater
effectiveness.
• Identifying postures on others will give you greater
power to influence and inspire the best in them.
6. Map your world
• Each workplace has defined areas that create your “Work
Process” these could be for example: Meetings, Working
Alone, Working in Teams, Directing others or being
Directed, Social Elements of Work
• By defining our motivations, frustrations, processes, and
the importance we assign to these areas, we can clearly
define our expectation and determine, by comparison to
others, if they are realistic.
• When our “World of Work” is mapped, it becomes easier to
navigate through the emotional turbulence of leadership to
smoother sailing and greater effectiveness as an inspiring
leader who is prepared for anything.
7. Align your Leadership Values to the Environment you
would Create
• As an individual, you have specific values, these values
are reflected in your leadership.
• Do you know what these values are? Are there any
differences between your personal values and your
leadership values?
• As a leader, your success will come from cultivating an
environment conducive to your vision, and to inspire that
environment to enthusiastically participate in that vision.
To achieve this, your values as a leader MUST reflect the
values of that the environment that will create the vision.
• The values aligned with the vision alone is NOT enough;
identify what the diverse people in your organisation need
to “FEEL” for inspiration to take place?
• What values do you need to change to make those feelings
happen?
8. Cultivate your Leadership Identity
• Leaders are the greatest influence to an organization
corporate culture. Leaders may not be aware of the
psychology of why their “Leadership Identity” may often be
an obstacle to an inspired and effective organization.
• The realizations and awareness gained through the first 7
Assents will influence decisions that affect culture. They
are the essence that determines our ability to consciously
decide and “Act” intelligently instead of “React” to our
environment. A leader must act and create.
• To cultivate YOUR Leadership Identity. Reflect of the
first 7 Assents and write a definition of Who You Need to
Be as a Leader! Then live by this Leadership Identity and
ascend to the level of Transformation
When a leader has mastered the 8 Assents, he can shape the
structure of his/her leadership to cultivate a effective
and fulfilled work environment. The next step in
transforming the group’s or organisation’s culture is the
development of the 5 Pillars of Transformation for his/her
teams.
These are revealed in Part III of this article.
—————————————————-
Arthur F Carmazzi is the principal founder of the Directive
Communication Psychology and a renowned Speaker and Author
in the Asian Region. For more information and articles,
visit the Directive Communication website at:
http://directivecommunication.com
- Or Arthur Carmazzi’s personal web at: http://carmazzi.net
Comments on this entry are closed.