Am I a Resonant Leader
Am I a resonant leader? I suppose this is the kind of question I need
to get used to answering in graduate school.
If I say yes I am a resonant leader, will the complex adaptive leader in
me become jealous? Will there be
conflict with the storyteller in me? I was
a leader at some level and in some capacity in military and civilian
organizations for nearly 35 years. I
have had the privilege of witnessing excellent leaders practice their craft and
I have experienced bad leaders embarrass themselves publicly. I have been both of those leaders at different
points in my career. My worst failures resulted
in me not getting the job done and having to stand in front of the person that
believed in me and tell them I failed. Fortunately for me, that was the exception and
not the rule. I was allowed to reflect
on how I had handled the situation, determine what I needed to change, and go
over my discoveries with the boss who would send me back in expressing absolute
confidence in me. The process was much
the same when I felt I did a great job.
The line of questioning was different.
How could I have done even better?
Who stood out as the best worker? Should they be recognized over their
peers? After my first two years or so in
the Air Force, I was blessed with good supervisors.
Today marks the end of the second week of this course
called Resonant Leadership. Two weeks
and one day ago, I had never heard of resonant leadership before. So if I have to answer the question, ‘Am I a
resonant leader?’, right now my answer would be no, how could I be? I have never practiced it nor have I knowingly
seen it being practiced. I have learned
a little about it. Much of it I like,
however, there are a couple of things about it I do not like.
Resonant leadership and emotional and social
intelligence are inseparable. Without
each of the tenants of emotional intelligence one cannot create resonance
(Boyatzis & McKee, 2005). Going
through the workbook was stressful for me.
I have a difficult time evaluating myself for some reason, but I did
it. I have always thought that I am
emotionally intelligent. I am aware of
my emotions, I manage my emotions, and I understand the people and the
environment and interact well. I am not
prone to emotional outbursts or mood swings and I interact well with others on
an emotional level. I have doubts in the
area of relationship management. I do
not establish relationships very easily.
I am shy and awkward when I first meet people. The first impression I leave is I am better
than them. That was a hard piece of
feedback to chew because I feel just the opposite. I feel they are out of my league. The second and third meeting is when I get
comfortable. I have been this way my
entire life. Finally, I am not a dynamic
speaker and I generally fall short of inspirational leadership. Once I know people, things resolve themselves
quickly, everything except speaking publicly.
The final exercise for the reading is designed to help
me determine if and answer the question, Am I a Resonant Leader?
Am I inspirational? No, I can influence,
motivate, and persuade. I have never
been comfortable with inspirational leadership style. So, I really never used it.
Do I create an overall positive
emotional tone that is characterized by hope? I do maintain a positive attitude. I liked being at work, and I loved working on
airplanes. When people were struggling
with a class or with their training, hope came in the form of encouragement and
expressing confidence in their ability.
Am I in touch with
others? Do I really know what is in others hearts and on their minds? I always made
it a point to know the people that worked for me and with me. I can say that I knew what was going on with each
of my people. I knew them and their
families. I spoke to everyone at least
casually every day. I would be able to
detect something wrong in the way they said good morning. But if something was happening, they almost
always talked to me about it.
Do I regularly experience
and demonstrate compassion? I understood the wants and needs of my people well. We talked about those kinds of things every
time we did formal feedback. I cared about
each person and I wanted them to achieve their goals and get what they wanted while
they served. I would adjust schedules so
someone could take a college class and be home with the kids until Mom or Dad
got home from work. The rest of the shop
would do what they could to cover for their peer because they knew it was
reciprocal. They helped each other
because they knew I would do everything I could if they needed help. They gave compassion to me as well. When the phone rang at the end of the day on
Friday everyone knew we had waited just a little too long to leave. Not one of them would leave until they made
sure I was not going to need help.
Am I authentic and in tune
with myself, others, and the environment?
I am me, nothing more and nothing less. My people could tell by observation: what I
say, the tone of my voice, and my gestures all match as usual. If I had been anything other than authentic
and in tune, they would immediately known something was wrong. I quit trying to impress early in my career
and decided to just be myself. As a
leader, being myself is the only leadership style that never failed me.
I believe I could get passed my concerns and create
resonance. But I am not sure that I want
to at this point. Resonance is fragile. A bad day or two is all it takes to no longer
be able to create resonance. All of the
components have to be perfectly in place or the magic simply does not
happen. Resonance promises impressive
results that every leader would love to achieve. But, establishing resonance is hard,
sustaining it (if you can) takes so much out of the leader that it can be
detrimental to their health, and it requires an antidote (renewal) to negate
the effects of resonant leadership.
Not every leader can achieve resonance. “Great leaders are resonant” (Boyatzis &
McKee, 2005, p. 2). Therefore, not all
leaders can be great. “Resonance or
dissonance: the leader’s choice” (Boyatzis & McKee, 2005, p. 4). No leader wants to be bad nor would they
choose dissonance which is not referred to in a positive light in anything I have
read to date. This also implies that
these are the only two choices for leadership at all: resonant (great,
wonderful, and highly revered) and dissonant (bad, destructive, and damaging to
self, followers, and organization).
I have not closed my mind at all on Resonant
Leadership. It is only the second week
in the class. I am enjoying the subject and
truly believe resonant leadership to be sound, thorough, and complete as a
concept. It is the strongest style I
have studied in MSLD to date, but it is not perfect.
~Pete
References:
Boyatzis, R., & McKee, A.
(2005). Resonant
leadership: Renewing yourself and connecting with others through mindfulness,
hope, and compassion. Boston, Massachusetts. Harvard
Business School Publishing.
McKee, A., Boyatzis, R., &
Johnston, F. (2008). Becoming
a resonant leader. Boston, Massachusetts. Harvard Business School
Publishing.
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