At the end of the last blog, I indicated that the star leaders of the future will help their teams feel safe and connected in a virtual world. There are some critical issues that a leader must provide in order to create a safe and connected atmosphere.
Hope
It doesn’t take much reading or watching documentaries to realize that entire groups of people lose their will to live or even attempt to do so when they have lost all hope. Leaders and teams will face setbacks and failures, but they must not lose hope.
Among the things that a leader or individual can do to provide hope include:
- Freedom of choice and free will. Leaders must be careful even when they are well-intentioned. They may think that a solid plan and direction for the future will help people through a difficult situation but they also need to be careful not to stifle people’s ability to input their own ideas and goals.
- The arts and creativity. We all are inspired by various arts (music, paintings, motion, etc) or creativity and innovation. Inspiration can lead to or renew hope.
- Goodness and kindness. These acts of unselfish behavior on behalf of another person will inspire hope.
- There are many other things that can inspire or renew hope. Loss of hope is deadly.
Love
The word love can be greatly misinterpreted. A more useful word in today’s business world might be respect. When people feel respected, even when their ideas may be at the opposite end of a scale, great things are possible. I believe this is one issue that makes our current politics so ineffective. It should be OK to have very different ideas. In fact, it’s powerful and useful to have different ideas if there is respect for the person and their ideas. Unfortunately, different ideas are not accepted or discussed with respect.
Respect is required for great leadership!
Joy
Although there is more to joy than humor, humor is a big part of it. When we’re able to laugh and enjoy the moment with each other (not at the other’s expense) life is so much better. A touch of humor or a lot of humor is a powerful ingredient of joy.
Peace
The opposite of peace is fear. From the dictionary, the opposite of fear can be curiosity, trust, courage, or calmness. What a great list of words. Being curious is fun and leads to learning more than almost any other word. Trust is powerful. Both to trust and to be trusted. How great is it to be both courageous and calm in times of difficulty?
Hope, Love, Joy, Peace. These are the new currency for great leadership in a virtual world (or any world for that matter).