Heart Centered Leadership in Founder Mode
After reading Paul Graham’s blog post on Founder Mode, the word that popped into my head was LEADERSHIP.
In today’s environment, cultural behaviour, generational differences, and the leadership style of the ‘00 and before no longer works. Gone are the days of Jack Welch’s leadership style. Despite him having characteristics of Founder Mode, we have entered, and especially in our industry, the power in human and heart centric leadership — deeply rooted in human nature and high emotional intelligence.
This is a complex concept and one that begs for deeper exploration, however, let’s look at what this means from a high level perspective.
As conscious entrepreneurs building companies with a mission to leave a meaningful impact, you are one step ahead of the game. You are self aware, you know your purpose deeply, and my guess is, that you surround yourself with others who are aligned with your mission, purpose, and energy.
The way you show up in the world reflects mostly how your employees show up in the world. Yet, we are all human. We are all different, coming from different backgrounds, upbringings, experiences, and perspectives. That is what sets us apart, and brings dimension into your company.
However, because we are all different, human and heart centric leadership becomes more complex. How do you ensure you are centered, operating with clarity, while navigating between being a founder wearing multiple hats, deadlines, making hard decisions, or even decisions alone?
This requires a deeper understanding of self awareness, not only of ourselves personally, but how we show up as leaders. Becoming self aware leaders requires us to know our strengths and weaknesses. It also requires a balance between vulnerability, humility, leading with confidence, determination, and resilience. It’s a dance. Knowing when to utilize each characteristic in a given situation when under pressure is what human and heart centered leadership is about. The secret to it all, is more reflection, get curious about your team and asking questions such as: What motivates my team? How do they each show up in the world? What do they talk about? What inspires each of my team members? What are their biggest fears?
This is ever so important as we become fully aware of the speed in which technology is changing the landscape of lives. The awareness goes beyond ourselves and our lives, we must have an understanding on how we want it to affect our business, our teams, and our productivity.
Because, what can be a curse, can also be a blessing.
And with our dependence on technology, and the infiltration on AI and gen AI, our ability to tap into what makes us human, the vulnerability of being human, and our ability to connect with our colleagues, employees, and those who around us on a level that sparks inspiration and creativity with emotion will be what enables us to lead from the heart.
Deeply knowing our capacity, having a fierce moral compass and knowing our North Star will enable us to leverage the power of technology to our advantage, so that we can spend time nurturing those around us, and those who champion for our cause. Because in the end, our community, the collective, and humanity is much more powerful in moving the needle closer to our big vision than we can on our own.
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To your success xx
Photograph: Dovima with elephants, evening dress by Dior, Cirque d/Hiver, Paris, August 1955, Richard Avedon