UtenteAuthorMark

Our common and traditional approach to leadership has not significantly evolved since the dawn of the industrial age. When it comes to managing people in a work environment, we’ve always treated workers like any other input: squeeze as much out of them as possible and pay them as little as possible. This idea was introduced nearly 100 years ago when the expansion of the US economy was based on industrial machinery. Workers were required to perform relatively unchallenging tasks and were easily replaceable. Companies motivated workers primarily with money, paying by the piece to reward those who produced the most widgets.

A century ago, workers’ primary goal was to meet their most basic needs for food and shelter. They accepted and tolerated a workplace that was indifferent to them as keeping a job and its pay was their highest priority.

Today the needs in people have profoundly changed. Money is no longer the top motivator for most people. As people now much more easily meet their most basic needs, work has become a place where they’re seeking to fulfill higher needs – for things like connection, personal esteem and accomplishment. More profoundly, people are seeking feelings of personal significance through the work they do each day.
Traditional leadership has not kept up with this evolution. We know through a nearly 25 year ongoing study that half of all American workers hate their jobs; worker engagement also is at a modern-day low.

Further research reveals that what leadership is missing most is heart. What people need from their leaders is to feel valued, appreciated and cared for. They want to grow and contribute and to know that their work matters.

It’s long been believed that bringing the heart into leadership acted like kryptonite. We associate the heart in the workplace as being soft, sentimental and undermining to profitability. We frown on heart.

But we were wrong.

For 300 years, science has believed that the human heart’s only role in our lives was as a blood pump. Very recently, these beliefs have been overturned. Science now knows that the heart is a source of amazing intelligence. It’s the heart, and not the mind, that drives human achievement. Consequently, leadership gestures that positively affect the heart naturally and reflexively inspire people to perform.

I’ve learned and concluded that we need a new model of leadership for a new age – a paradigm that acknowledges the humanity – the hearts – in people. It’s based on our collective understanding that it’s rarely, if ever, an appeal to our minds which inspires any of us to do our best work. It’s also based upon the understanding that when people flourish, organizations flourish.

Mark C. Crowley formerly led investment brokerage sales at one of the nation’s largest financial institutions. After leading his division to all-time record performance, in 2008, he received the firm’s “Spirit of a Leader” award and was named leader of the year.

During an accomplished 25 year career, Crowley held national sales leadership roles in both retail banking and investment services.

Mr. Crowley is a graduate of the University of California, San Diego, in addition to the Pacific Coast Banking School at the University of Washington. He holds five general and municipal securities licenses (FINRA Registrations) and also is a licensed California Real Estate Broker.

He lives in La Jolla, California. Visit his website at www.markccrowley.com