You need to lead with your heart!

Academic education, professional experience and some certifications are not guarantees of a good manager. A study conducted by Michael Page, one of the world’s largest players in specialized recruitment, indicates that 80% of resignation requests are related to management, not work routine, meaning people don’t leave companies, they leave managers.

Many managers are so focused on managing the business that they end up forgetting the basics, that business is done between people, not between companies.

Today, more than ever, for businesses to have sustainability it’s necessary that people are the priority, it’s necessary to be close, even being physically distant. For this to be possible, communication needs to be empathetic and monitoring needs to be constant, the leader and led relationship needs to be one of proximity, built with transparency and commitment so that the result is a relationship of trust and not an authoritarian relationship based on command and control.

“Leading” by position is very easy, however, using authority for tasks to be executed results in a cold and short-term relationship, makes the led person not feel engaged and collaborative but just a resource used to obtain a certain result.

The challenge is to lead by example, generate trust and engagement. Leaders are challenged daily to gain and maintain their team’s trust. This trust that is not born overnight, it’s necessary to cultivate with each interaction. It’s essential that the led person trusts their leader and recognizes them as such genuinely.

The leader must be available to their led people, easy access is fundamental for the led person to feel comfortable in contacting the leader when they feel the need. Not only when there’s this search, but in every interaction, it’s necessary to have active listening, demonstrate genuine interest, guide in a welcoming manner and demonstrate empathy, facilitating connection and not just communication.

The quality of connection is determined by the ability to speak and listen, therefore, “listenership” becomes as important for a leader as oratory skills.

Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall”., Stephen R Covey

A study conducted by Harvard Business Review, presented at the Neuroleadership Summit, revealed research and discoveries that explain why leaders should develop the ability to build bonds and personal relationships.

Leaders who demonstrate concern and interest in their led people’s lives create a healthy bond that strengthens the employee’s journey in the company. This study demonstrates that the same brain regions that respond to physical pain also respond to “social pain”, therefore, the absence of the feeling of connection with others creates pain.

The study also reveals that having support figures present during critical and high-stress moments helps us stay more relaxed, which reinforces that strong bonds can help teams overcome challenges and crisis situations more easily, such as the dreaded war-rooms.

Therefore, be closer to your led people, be accessible, know how to listen, dialogue and keep active the connection that involves you. This will only be possible with constant communication, but it needs to be transparent and true, after all the interest must be genuine.

Motivate intrinsically and stimulate challenges, give feedback, be flexible whenever possible and give up control to promote leadership and development opportunities, because the good leader is one who has the ability to form other leaders.

Finally, be brave to lead with your heart and form new mentalities.

If you want to deepen on the topic, I recommend reading the book Leading with the Heart, by Mike Krzyzewski.