The Human Side Of Leadership

Building great leaders for the future of work

In order to design business solutions today, we need to access deeper and more innate parts of our intelligence and humanity. When we connect more fully to our intrinsic wisdom and consciousness, we are able to imagine and innovate beyond what has been possible before. This way of creating requires us as leaders to enhance our capacity in order to meet the demands of our world and time.
 

The human aspects of development augment and amplify the technology that has been transforming us so far. At Intune, we see the human side of leadership as the key to creating balance across all four business intelligence: Functional, Analytical, Relational and Emotional. Most adults are really good at the first two — our content expertise and analyzing information pertinent to our success or survival — and yet need support cultivating healthy relationships and understanding, being comfortable with, and regulating our emotional selves. By developing the Human Side of Leadership, we build our capacity to optimize our success despite complexity, fast-paced growth and change, and the unknown.

Conscious leaders inspire and lead by blending their analytical minds and their energetic hearts. They balance their left-brain — science, logic, and analytics — and right-brain — creativity, intuition, empathy, and metaphorical thought — for the benefit of developing better people, products, purpose, and overall, a better world.
 
This article shares skills that build awareness and the relational and emotional intelligence needed to be more effective leaders.
 

1) Self-Awareness and Growth Mindset

Leaders in this new world of work must have the skill of self-awareness: The ability to honestly evaluate, recognize, and regulate their own beliefs, patterns, and actions; and discern the impact of these patterns on others.

2) Empathy and Compassion for Others

Empathy is the capacity to feel what another person is experiencing and compassion is the desire to help ease their pain, sending is the sensitivity to assess and detect feelings and emotions that are not expressed but can be felt.

3) Humility + Humanity

While humility is not the first or even the third trait that comes to mind when thinking of successful  business leaders, it anchors conscious leaders’ ability to rise above one’s own needs in order to better serve others.

4) Transparency +Truth

Truth is the state of being true or honest. Transparency is the practice of sharing truth. Top-level modeling of truth and transparency is essential to have a culture that reflect these values. The payoff is higher commitment and productivity.

5) Resilience + Emotional Intelligence

Resilience is the ability to bounce back after setbacks and emotional intelligence is the ability to regulate one’s emotions as well as assess others’ emotions.

6) Purpose

When we leverage individual purpose and tie it to a team or organizational purpose, it serves as a north star that can generate higher engagement, improved morale and collaboration.

7) Servant Leadership

Servant leadership was coined by Robert K. Greenleaf in The Servant as Leader - An essay that he first published in 1970. Servant leaders share power with their people, put the needs of employees first, help people develop and perform, and exist to serve them.

There you have it! 7 skills to cultivate as a leader for greater impact and relevance in these times.

Feel free to check out the entire ebook here to learn more about each skill along with applications and micro-practices to integrate these skills into life and work.

Author Bios

	Christine Hildebrand is the CEO of Intune Collective, LLC. She is a management consultant, strategist, and executive leadership coach.
	Wendy Horng Brawer is Chief Learning and Development Officer at Intune Collective, LLC, DEIB consultant, team facilitator and leadership coach.
	Sofia Chancey is Chief Strategy Officer at Intune Collective, LLC.
	Lisa Hardy is Chief Brand Officer at Intune Collective, LLC.