Leadership, at its core, isn’t about you. Instead, it is about how effective you are at empowering other people and unleashing their full potential. This is the starting point of Frances Frei & Anne Morriss’ book Unleashed: The Unapologetic Leader’s Guide to Empowering Everyone Around You. Their practical definition of leadership is that it is “about empowering other people as a result of your presence – and making sure that impact continues into your absence.” The job of a leader is to “create the conditions for the people around you to become increasingly effective, to help them fully realize their capacity and power.”
Their basic formula for leadership capital is that people tend to trust you when they think they are interacting with the real you (authenticity), when they have faith in your judgement and competence (logic) and when they believe that you care about them (empathy). When trust is lost, it can almost be traced back to a breakdown in one of these three drivers.
Their empowerment leadership model detailed in Frances and Anne’s book is build on trust, love and belonging which offers a compelling, clear and actionable model for leaders who want to empower others by building trust. Trust, they say is the foundation for empowering leadership. Love is when a leader empowers people by setting high standards and revealing deep devotion to the people they lead. A leader empowers teams and fosters belonging when he or she champions difference and ensures that everyone can contribute their unique capacities and perspectives.
To me, their empowerment leadership model resonates with my conviction that all organisations are first of all human enterprises and that leadership that is able to connect with enduring human values of trust, love and belonging will undoubtedly empower people and unleash their full potential.
Watch Frances Frei speak on “How to build (and rebuild) trust” in her TED talk.
#leadership #leadersbuildtrust” “leadersempowerothers” “trustloveandbelonging”
