Leadership: An Epitaph
Or, Welcome to Empathy Leadership
By the title, you would assume that I think leadership is dead. Far from it. It’s the leadership of old that’s dead.
New leadership has evolved into an empathy leadership approach. Today’s leaders place empathy at the heart of their leadership principles, ensuring a more humanized approach to our current world.
The metamorphosis over the last decades has resulted in the realization and appreciation that true leadership comes from having vulnerability and admitting one’s humanity. Leadership is redefined by the shifting sands of time and the technology, access to information and the sheer amount of material on the subject that has been produced.
When you look at the leaders of the previous generations you see people that were larger than life: General Patton, FDR, John Kennedy, Winston Churchill and the like. These men were not exposed for their weaknesses until after their death, and even then it was done in whispers and rumors.
The tome Patton on Leadership by Alan Axelrod is a great example. Axelrod takes quotes from the addresses, notes and letters attributed to General Patton then gives a brief analysis on what was meant and what we can learn from each nugget of wisdom. This is one of the many books in my library that I review time and time again.
I noticed during my most recent reading that I disagree with Axelrod on his analysis for one simple reason: experience.
Learning is the combined experiences of someone being applied to the lessons at hand. It’s innately empathetic in that it implies human growth from the past self. For me, all of the triumphs, failures, successes, and disappointments in my life act as a filter to what and how I learn. This is why I can read something and get absolutely nothing from it, and you can read the same thing and be transformed.
#13 in the Axelrod book is the quote from General Patton “Generals must never show doubt, discouragement or fatigue.” So don’t show you are human? That may have been true for the greatest generation, the ones that fought the Third Reich but does not play well today.
It’s critical that you bring empathy to your business operations. Empathy leadership is essential for our negotiation and mediation services at Phoenix Consulting, And it’s helped me grow as a leader in my business and beyond.
Empathy leadership starts with yourself. You have to give yourself some empathy and compassion in order to truly provide it to others. So continue striving to be human, accept the human-ness in others, and practice empathy leadership in your businesses and throughout your life. You’ll be very glad that you did.