Three keys, a quote and an invitation
One
Most of us want to feel more hopeful, seen and more secure. Gallup’s latest and comprehensive Global Leadership Report: What Followers Want reveals that followers prioritize hope, trust, compassion and stability from their leaders, and these needs are consistent across 52 countries and demographics and builds on decades of research. Hope (56%) stands out as the dominant need among followers, and trust (33%) is also fundamental.
Two
To face today‘s profound challenges and succeed through uncertainty and instability, leaders must ultimately know three things to succeed, according to the report. (1) Leaders must understand the needs of their followers, such as hope and trust. (2) To be the leader followers seek, they need to have a strong inner compass which comes from self-awareness and critical thinking. (3) And lastly, the best leaders, whatever their sector and roles, succeed by tuning into people and places with openness, and bringing together multiple teams to make great decisions, driving the purpose and performance of their organization.
For all this, intuition is key.
Three
Leading in times of complexity, leaders strive to build creative vitality, mastery and strong agency in themselves and others, while at the same time, tuning into and attaining balance with the external environment. In order to attain this balance and take smarter and wiser decisions, intuition is key. “The more leaders can provide their followers with hope, trust, compassion and stability by leaning on their unique strengths and applying them to the specifics of their role, the more successful they will be,” according Gallup’s Global Leadership Report.
A quote
So, what is hope, and what is hope for?
“Hope is optimism with a broken heart. Hope is an emotional temper that emboldens the heart to be active, it is a condition, a mood, an aura of being. It is a feat of the imagination, both courageous and ingenious, a vitality that inspires us to take innovative action to defend the world. Hope is essential to our survival and our flourishing.“
Nick Cave in Faith, Hope and Carnage and the Red Hand File
An invitation
Wisdom is asking the right questions. Clarity comes with presence and heightened awareness about how and to what we pay attention.
My invitation this week is to remind yourself how it feels (in your whole being) when hope becomes your energy of change.
While we may feel demoralised, exhausted or cynical, hope that recognises what’s broken in our world, rises to attend to the world even still. My invitation this week is to remind yourself how it feels (in your whole being) when hope becomes your energy of change.
Ask yourself these three questions and write down the answers:
- Do I feel demoralised and how does that show up in my thoughts or actions?
- What’s an example of cynicism I witnessed in myself or others this week?
- Now imagine the answers and outcomes of 1 and 2 if love, curiosity, beauty, or openness would have met with these moments.
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With love & respect,
