Are you a resonant leader?

There is a saying that we can’t choose our bosses. So we have had our share of bosses in our life. If we were to think about all the bosses that we have had, give yourself a moment and think who the best Boss was and vice versa.

Do you recollect their names and their faces? Almost instantly these two names and faces would have come to your mind. Let’s say the good boss was Mr. A and the bad boss was Mr. B. What do you think qualified Mr. A in your scrutiny as ‘Good’ boss and Mr. B as ‘Bad’ boss?

I recently completed an e-learning course by the name ‘Inspiring leadership through emotional intelligence’ by Dr. Richard Boaytzis. The course was offered by Case Western Reserve University on an e-learning site Coursera (www.coursera.org). The course has many interesting and insightful concepts. One such concept is ‘Resonant Leadership’.

Let’s see if Resonant Leadership is one important aspect that qualified Mr. A as a good boss in your books.

Resonant leaders use emotional and social intelligence skills to renew themselves, create positive relationships, and foster a healthy, vibrant environment to engage others towards a common goal.

What words did you mark? Renewal, Positive relationship, Vibrant environment?

So how have they become resonant leaders?

They have adapted to the concept knowingly or unknowingly and they constantly demonstrate the resonant leadership principles.

 The resonant leadership principles are mindfulness; hope and compassion.

Mindfulness
These leaders are aware of what is happening within the body, mind, heart and spirit, while paying attention to what is going on around you.

Hope
They chart a course of action on clearly articulated goals, believing that the goals can be met and eventually achieve them with the sense of well-being.

Compassion
They demonstrate empathy in action – not just caring, but helping others to discover their dreams and supporting them in achieving it.


Did you see all or some elements of these in Mr. A? Did you notice that he was aware of self (better than Mr. B)? Did you see he articulating the goals clearly and Importantly instilling the belief that it can be achieved as a group? And did you notice that this person valued your dreams and supported you in fulfilling them?

You may refer to the below link for more details on resonant leadership.

http://www.teleosleaders.com/assets/pdf/Ivey_Mindfulness.pdf

When I did this Mr. A and Mr. B activity myself, I found that Mr. As exhibited all the three principles in their leadership style. So much so that these principles have become their second nature.

Here is a quick understanding of resonant and dissonant leadership style :

Reaonant leader (RL) creates feeling of harmony
Dissonant leader (DL) operates more on authority

RL focusses on team and their development
DL maintains greater social and emotional distance

RLs are visionaries, coaches, affiliators and exhibit democratic style of leadership
DLs are more commanding and pace-setting

You can find more details on resonant leadership in a book “The Primal Leader’ written by Daniel Goleman.


Can we develop or enhance resonant leadership?

Yes. By observing people who we admire in this area and to whom we have access to. Access will allow us to observe their choice of responses and reactions in various situations. Idea is not to keep evaluating them through the frame but to see if we can embrace some of it that suits our personality.

Where and when can we start using it?

The principles or characteristics that we discussed i.e. mindfulness, hope and empathy does not require us to be in any particular situation or at a particular leadership position. We can start using it wherever we are by demonstrating it with people who we are presently dealing with.

It will be fun to consciously try and embrace the new change.