When we speak about people as leaders, some may perceive us as soft. The modern corporate world is not friendly when it comes to people. In the corporate culture, people and work boil down to numbers on sheets. You rarely hear headquarters speaking about regional or branch offices as having hit the target in workplace happiness or motivation. It is usual to hear talk about the feasibility of business expenses versus financial outcomes.
In some office settings, I walked through dark corridors and dimmed fluorescent offices with no windows. It was functional to the bone stripped of all human touch or emotions. People usually cope with these colorless environments, but when they are treated as assets and depreciated through numbers, it becomes painful and intolerable.
It is one thing to include people’s opinions in your survey of what they see the workplace like, and another to sit and listen to the ideas and aspirations they have. Neocharismatic leaders are very sensitive to the second. The strategy is not just what people do to reach objectives; it is more important what they believe should be done. This means you cannot force people with rewards (and lack of it) to implement the strategy, it means they are the strategy.
Practically speaking Neocharismatic leaders do the following:
- Sit with different people in different times to observe, listen and ask questions
- Empathize through internalizing these needs
- Re-formalize strategy, policy and procedures to suit the needs.
What does that require?
It always requires a shift from egoism (what’s in it for me) to altruism (what’s in it for them). It is a mindset that cannot be personalized but must be learned. Learning means unlearning what you have learned as a leader all your life to become the moral leader who balances their decisions based on the factors that cannot be based only on financial gain. Corporate may seem unmerciful when they hear these things, but the loss of people as more companies adopt a people approach is ripping them off choices to continue the path of the industrial age. Through writing these words, I do believe that the future of our globe lies in the hands of true ethical Neocharismatic leaders.
Coaching leaders bring them closure to be top competitors and possibly considered, as the culture of corporations shift with the rise of ethics and sustainable futures of the workplace. No one wants to lose a job, but no one wants to be withered in a job that opposes their basic core values and identity. Ethical Neocharismatic leaders are the key to sustainability and the hope we hold dear for the generations to come. They make sound decisions balancing between financial objectives and the people’s needs because they are wired to do so through their core undistorted morals.
