Leaders have always faced the daunting task of making decisions that impact those around them in significant ways. Leaders today are asked to do this at a rate that surpasses what was expected even a few years ago, due in part to rapid advances in technology. The intense pressure to perform NOW can have negative effects on an individual over time. This push to generate solutions immediately pushes us into oppositional thinking, a hallmark of operating from a win/lose paradigm where we play the game of hot potato with blame. This is destructive for organizations. Additionally, the demand to respond to whatever problem screams loudest or has the most risk associated with it creates a ping pong mentality where leaders tend to bounce from one urgent issue to the next. Initially motivated by underlying a desire to avoid failure, it doesn’t take long to become hooked on the positive accolades often offered to leaders who excel at multi-tasking, problem solving and fire-fighting. Unfortunately, it is a vicious cycle. As a result, attention and focus become fragmented. Our brains literally don’t work as well when we are starting and stopping, operating on parallel tracks and running on adrenaline. Over time the result is decreased effectiveness, not to mention interpersonal and health related problems that result from a scattered and stress laden approach.
Integrated Leaders
An alternative to doing more with less is to embrace the practice of personal integration as a method to consolidate energy and increase impact. So what is Integrative Leadership, exactly? And what might an Integrated Leader look like, or do, that’s different from all the other leadership formulas?
An integrated leader is someone who actively balances their internal competing values and is able to choose to operate out of preference, or bolster themselves with someone who has that preference, in a way that consistently enhances their effectiveness and just expressions of their power.
In other words, an integrated leader makes collaboration, cohesion and effectiveness their priorities, not compromising, placating or affirming their own ego. They empathically understand multiple sides of a situation and they are motivated to find creative, mutually beneficial solutions wherever possible. They operate from within a win-win paradigm.
An integrated leader has a firm understanding of competing needs and the art of working with, and living within, polarities. They understand the tension created by that which appears to be mutually exclusive. They have highly developed emotional quotient (E.Q.) skills. They are practiced at regulating their emotions and engage in conflict with considerable interpersonal skill. Integrative leaders are adept at broadening their awareness in the moment to more fully understand complex situations, not the least of which involve their own thoughts. They use this ability to support all other leadership skills.
There are four key attributes of integrated leaders.
- An integrated leader has a clear sense of purpose. This is equally true for the big picture “where is this division going” questions as it is for the small scale “what are we going to accomplish in this meeting”. And their small scale goals are aligned with their big ones. They spend time crafting where they are going and what they intend to accomplish.
- An integrated leader is aware of their own habits and patterns. They actively work on increasing their awareness to shed light on their own beliefs and resulting behaviors that block them from achieving their stated goals. We all deal with internal resistance. The integrated leader works with their resistance, not against it, via some formal awareness practice. Practicing this for themselves has the added benefit of improving their ability to understand complex organizational dynamics. Awareness is a highly transferable skill.
- An integrated leader intentionally engages from all the power bases available to them. Doing so requires a broader understanding of their ability to affect change than title-based power. An integrated leader puts more emphasis on personal power than positional power because they are more focused on being who they are than being who they might be expected to be. They trust themselves and it engenders trust from others. Engaging this way focuses constructive energy on the desired outcome.
- Integrated leaders have a high degree of alignment flowing between their Values, Goals, Thoughts and Behaviors. And when disrupting events occur which trigger thoughts that generate undesirable emotion states, integrated leaders use awareness to act intentionally and respond rather than act based on their emotions. They lean into their desire to be effective when faced with anger, fear, sadness and shame internally or from their external environment.
As leaders include integration practices into their daily life they become a more focused beam of light. They arrive at their goals more efficiently. They experience less stress overall and greater appreciation for their lives. They typically handle challenges with less distraction. They have the energy to keep going when disruptive events occur. They make substantive impact in the lives of those around them. Their professional offerings have more universal positive impact. And they illuminate the path of empowerment for those around them.