This week I delivered a half-day session on Charismatic Leadership to The Ella Foundation, established by Brian Chernett, created to inspire more leaders in the not for profit sector to be more effective and successful. Nearly 30 leaders from different registered charities participated in a way that was subtly different to leaders within the corporate sector. These men and women showed a real passionate intensity for their cause that was truly inspiring. Their minds were open and receptive to my techniques meaning that the exercises we did regarding energy were really advanced because their attitude to learning was untainted by cynicism.
Having met Craig Goldblatt, Motivational Speaker, this week, he refers to ‘the need to find our passions and relight our beliefs. That’s why leaders working in the not for profit sector are different. Their driving force and passion for their charity is evident and contagious. Without this, a person delivers a lacklustre performance and the contamination by apathy and negativity starts to spread.
When individuals possess high levels of positive attitude, their resistance to change and personal growth reduces. Equally, when an individual’s positive attitude reduces, this will expand and strengthen their protective wall of resistance towards growth and change.
Within an organisational context, especially in today’s tough economy, employees are being asked to deliver more with fewer resources. Layer this requirement with the threat of redundancy and immediately individuals feel their survival and security is threatened. An aura of fear invades their performance and employees will start to show signs of stress, lethargy and anger. It doesn’t matter what the organisation tries to do to remedy this because the usual corporate influences (new processes, culture, training & development, communication tools) will act like arrows bouncing off a brick wall. According to Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, “what we resist persists”. Fear will have a huge impact on an individual’s self esteem, hamstringing confidence and causing a reluctance to express what they are truly feeling. If an individual can’t see a future for himself or herself they cannot feel motivated.
Organisations know instinctively that workforce engagement is vital for growth and sustainable success and may recognise that they need to tackle attitudes rather than behaviours. That’s why there has been a growing trend for Emotional Intelligence training where individuals are taught the ability to identify, assess and control the emotions of oneself, of others and of groups. Yet the challenge of wanting individuals to become more connected with their emotions is thwarted by the barriers they have erected to protect themselves whilst working in a climate of uncertainty and fear.
Rather than ‘pretend’ organisations can find huge value from recognising that an individual’s attitude can be impacted by working with their internal influences. When people have a positive sense of their self-worth, a clear sight of their future within the organisation they dissolve the barriers to emotional connectedness and inner motivation. This naturally boosts their energy, fuelling levels of positive attitude that naturally reduces resistance to change and growth. This process of internal awareness is the state of charisma, a state when an individual’s true essence can be expressed without fear and their performance and contribution to the organisation expands.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Hungarian Pschology Professor claimed “repression is not the way to virtue”. He introduced the concept of ‘Flow’ – a mental state of operation in which a person in an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energised focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity. Sports psychologists refer to the concept of Flow as ‘being in The Zone’. Organisations refer to this as ‘engagement’. Having devoted over 30 years of my own life to this state, I refer to it as ‘Charisma’ – when an individual is being themselves and they are loving what they do, they shine.
