In broad terms, there are two leadership schools of thought. The first is those who believe that one should lead from the heart, while the other school’s focus is leading from the head.
Leading from the heart
Those who belong to this school of thought seem to take a cue from Eleanor Roosevelt, former American First Lady, who says “to handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart.” Those who lead from their hearts, though concerned about the work, are more interested in the wellbeing of the worker. They strive to build an enduring relationship with their staff and do all in their power to remove all barriers to a friendly atmosphere in the workplace. They go beyond the call of duty to see to the welfare and comfort of the staff. They build rapport with their staff by giving attention to them.
Those who lead from the heart are never too busy to listen to their subordinates’ complaints; they are sensitive to the needs of those who work with them. They never let their staff go away with the impression that their views do not matter or that they constitute a burden. Those who lead from the heart are not domineering. They are neither boastful nor ego-driven. They place more value on the individual than the job he does.
Those who lead from the heart are compassionate leaders.
Thupten Jinpa, one of the foremost Tibetan scholars, defines compassion as a mental state endowed with a sense of concern for the suffering of others and aspiration to see that suffering relieved.
He goes ahead to say that compassion has three components viz; the cognitive, which communicates to the other person the message: “I understand you”; the affective, which relays the message “I feel for you” to the other person; and the motivational component, which tells the other party: “I want to help you”.
The three components of compassion, as construed by Jinpa, are what those who lead from their hearts seek to convey to their staff at all times. Coming from the viewpoint that every staff member wants the best for the organisation, they are not unduly worried when a staff member fails to hit target. They show understanding and express the belief that the staff with a dismal performance now could have a better outing next time. Like Henry Ford, they are not interested in finding faults and apportioning blames, their concern is finding a remedy.
Apart from showing understanding, they also empathise with the staff by letting him know that they feel his pains of disappointment and are willing to do anything to help him overcome that challenge and be an employee that the organisation can be proud of.
Other attributes that define compassionate leadership are gentleness, frugality and humility. These are captured in the famous saying of Lao Tzu, father of Taoism, thus: “I have three precious things which I hold fast and prize. The first is gentleness; the second is frugality; the third is humility, which keeps me from putting myself before others. Be gentle and you can be bold; be frugal and you can be liberal; avoid putting yourself before others and you can become a leader among men.”
By exhibiting these attributes, a compassionate leader creates an atmosphere of freedom which enables the employees to give their best to the organisation. Knowing that the organisation will not ask for his head if he makes a mistake, gives the worker the confidence to try new things which may turn out to be the game changer for their companies. Compassionate leaders agree with John Wooden, who says, “If you are not making mistakes, then you are not doing anything.” But they go beyond just allowing their staff to make mistakes by encouraging them to learn from such mistakes and be better people.
Compassionate leaders are relational, motivate their staff and build a bond that transcends the workplace with them. They are more particular about building people than they are in building structures. Consequent upon this, their staff go the extra mile to get the jobs done. They have come to trust and like the leader so much that they cannot afford to let him fail.
Leading from the head
Those who lead from the head are unemotional and impersonal. The work comes first, second and last, every other thing is subjugated to it. They are calculative and result-oriented. They stop at nothing to get the result agreed upon. They are not interested in building a relationship; their focus is to make the organisation better and improve its performance as well as the bottom line.
Those who lead from the head are seen as highly effective and competent because they get maximum result at minimum cost. This gladdens the hearts of the board members.
Features of those who lead from the head:
They are strict
This class of leaders brooks no deviation from laid down rules. They take time to spell out their expectations to their subordinates and expect nothing short of maximum compliance. They do not excuse failure; they drive their subordinates to bring out the best in them.
They are innovative
One of the strong points of this type of leaders is that they are strong on creativity. They think on their feet and are able to turn around the situation in their organization sometimes with just their presence. They feel the system; they have an innate understanding of the operations of the organisation and they are able to solve problems.
Because they are so talented, they expect others to have the same quality and are unable to stand anyone with less talent.
Have no time to groom
These leaders do not make time out to groom subordinates; they make use of trained and already established people. Hence, they go all out to recruit the best hands available in the industry. They are unwavering in their focus, which is to produce sterling results. So, they get on board people who share their kind of drive and possess the type of competence they want. Leaders in this category have a high rate of staff turnover because of their impatience with less than satisfactory performance. They keep easing out staff members until they get the right kind of staff that can give them the type of result that they want.
Reward extravagantly
As much as these leaders drive their staff, so do they reward them. They pay a premium to those who work with them and produce the expected result. Apart from generous emoluments, the leader regularly expresses his appreciation to members of staff who hit the target set for them by giving them bonuses and incentives.
Visionary
Being quite skillful, they are able to project into the future and cast a vision for their organizations. Thus, organisations led by such people usually perform excellently.
Optimistic
They are full of optimism and energy and are of the opinion that there is no task they cannot accomplish. They keep trying until success is achieved and once a task is accomplished, they set higher targets.
Organised
Leaders who fall into this category are very organised. They are prim and proper and leave nothing to chance. They pay attention to details and mobilise all resources at their disposal to achieve set objectives. They put themselves in a position that enables them create their own future.
Aggressive
They are always pushing themselves and never resting on their oars. They are guided by the principle that whatever opportunity they fail to seize would be capitalised on by others. So, they keep driving themselves and those who work with them to do more.
Undeterred by setback
Despite being highly optimistic, they are never put down by failure. They use failure as a learning curve and move on to do more.
Between the heart and the head
Experts are divided over which of these two options is better; is it more rewarding for an organisation to have leaders who lead from the heart or to have those who lead from the head? It has been difficult to agree on which is better because both produce result and each has to do with the personality of the leader.
Combining head and heart
Will a hard-driving leader be less effective if he becomes a little more humane? Will the demonstration of care to those working with him impact negatively on the bottom line? Will creating a friendly atmosphere not enhance employees’ productivity?
Similarly, will insisting on adhering strictly to the agreed deadlines make a compassionate leader lose his compassion? Will tasking subordinates to demonstrate more creativity or aggressively pursue a vision affect the camaraderie that exists in the workplace?
Irrespective of the personality trait of a leader, combining the two will work better than just holding on to either. While the importance of getting results cannot be over-emphasised, since workers spend most of their waking moments in the workplace, it is of utmost importance that a friendly atmosphere should be created in the workplace to make workers gladly look forward to going to the office on a daily basis. It is only then that the organisation stands a chance of getting the best from them.
Last line
The best of leaders maintain a healthy balance between the desire for great results and their love for the workforce.
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