• Home
  • About
  • Contact

The Book Chamber

~ J Clay Norton, Ed.D.

The Book Chamber

Category Archives: Compassion

The Heartbeat Of Leadership

28 Friday Sep 2018

Posted by The Book Chamber in Actions, Attitude, Choice, Clear, Compassion, Heart, Honest, Leader, Leadership, Relationships, Understanding

≈ 2 Comments

An agreed-upon statement (I hope)… Regardless of the setting or situation, just like your heartbeat, everything rises and falls with leadership or any relationship for that matter.

“I wish they understood.” “I wish they knew what all was going on.” “Why do they never listen to us?” “I wish…,” “Why…?”

Every one of us, at some time or another, make statements or ask questions like these, leaders and followers both.

What is more important than the above comments?  How they are being answered. How do you as a leader, respond? Often, events happen that can be stressful (and stress is not good for the heart), but it does not always have to be the case. Many times, we create the stress ourselves. We start “over-thinking,” and “reacting” and that becomes the problem.

heartbeat_312284

To make sure your leadership “rises and falls” like your heartbeat and stress is limited, you need to be the following…

BE CLEAR
Do you model the expectations you have for others? Do others even know what your expectations are? As brilliant as people think they are, they are not mind-readers. Too many times, people are left guessing at what leadership wants, and it needs to be clear for all.  At the same time, never believe that expectations are a one-way street.  Others have expectations of you as well.  Allow the road to go both ways.

BE HONEST
It would go without saying; leaders must be honest with themselves and others. Pretending to be a super-leader with all the answers and a “my way” attitude is a quick way to alienate and limit the growth of others. Be honest and humble enough to recognize that others might just have a good idea that is not yours. It is ok to let others know that you are not always the fabulous piece of work that you currently think you are.  It is very hard, to be honest with others if we cannot be truly honest with ourselves.

BE COMPASSIONATE
Being compassionate does not mean not correcting when you have to. However, it does mean having some level of understanding of what goes on in the lives of others. How many leaders do you know that walk around looking for that “gotcha” moment? Usually, when this happens, it is an opportunity for a leader to look better or to put someone down. Too many times a leader will only have “surface” knowledge and not “depth” knowledge of a situation. Being compassionate is not a weakness.  It is a strength that shows you are giving grace and mercy just like you would want to receive.

Are there more or different leadership characteristics? Yes. But if you do not have these three in your leadership repertoire, your leadership heartbeat does not and will not function very well. Your leadership heart will rise and fall in an unhealthy rhythm, causing that stress that is not good for you or anyone else.

The heart drives all three of these characteristics.  When we lead with our heart instead of our minds, we lead with a level of motivation that can be felt by others.

Remember… THINK LEADERSHIP!

©2018 J Clay Norton

Follow me on Twitter at TheBookChamber

Subscribe via email to my blog at the top of the page

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Email
  • More
  • Print
  • Share on Tumblr

Like this:

Like Loading...
Follow The Book Chamber on WordPress.com

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Follow me on Twitter

My Tweets

Archives

  • February 2021 (3)
  • January 2021 (4)
  • December 2020 (3)
  • November 2020 (3)
  • October 2020 (5)
  • September 2020 (4)
  • August 2020 (2)
  • June 2020 (1)
  • May 2020 (3)
  • April 2020 (4)
  • March 2020 (1)
  • February 2020 (4)
  • January 2020 (4)
  • December 2019 (3)
  • November 2019 (4)
  • October 2019 (4)
  • September 2019 (4)
  • August 2019 (3)
  • July 2019 (1)
  • June 2019 (1)
  • May 2019 (3)
  • April 2019 (4)
  • March 2019 (4)
  • February 2019 (4)
  • January 2019 (3)
  • December 2018 (3)
  • November 2018 (4)
  • October 2018 (4)
  • September 2018 (4)
  • August 2018 (4)
  • July 2018 (1)
  • June 2018 (1)
  • May 2018 (4)
  • April 2018 (4)
  • March 2018 (4)
  • February 2018 (4)
  • January 2018 (3)
  • December 2017 (4)
  • November 2017 (3)
  • October 2017 (4)
  • September 2017 (5)
  • August 2017 (3)
  • July 2017 (1)
  • June 2017 (4)
  • May 2017 (19)
  • April 2017 (9)

Categories

  • Achieve
  • Actions
  • Advantage
  • Adventure
  • Affection
  • Agenda
  • Align
  • Amazing
  • Amnesia
  • Anchored
  • Appreciation
  • Assist
  • Attention
  • Attitude
  • Authentic
  • Balance
  • Brand
  • Change
  • Character
  • Choice
  • Christmas
  • Circumstances
  • Clarity
  • Classroom Management
  • Clear
  • Communication
  • Company
  • Compassion
  • confidence
  • Conflict
  • Consistency
  • Contentment
  • Conversations
  • coronavirus
  • Courage
  • COVID-19
  • covid19
  • Craft
  • Crisis
  • Culture
  • Deciding
  • Decisions
  • Decline
  • Desire
  • Detox
  • Dignity
  • Distance
  • Distance Learning
  • Drift
  • Easter
  • Education
  • Educational Leadership
  • Effective
  • Emotion
  • Encouragement
  • Engagement
  • Entertainment
  • Essence
  • Expectations
  • Expertise
  • Expiration dates
  • Facade
  • Family
  • Foundation
  • Freedom
  • Friendship
  • Future
  • Gift
  • Giving
  • God
  • Grace
  • Gratitude
  • Grit
  • Heart
  • Heroes
  • Honest
  • Humility
  • Idealist
  • Ideals
  • Importance
  • Inspiration
  • Integrity
  • Intentional
  • Intentions
  • Intolerance
  • Jesus
  • Kindness
  • Know Your Why
  • Leader
  • Leadership
  • Legacy
  • Lesson Plans
  • Light
  • Listening
  • Love
  • Mandates
  • Mask
  • Maturity
  • Meetings
  • Memories
  • Message
  • Momentum
  • Motivation
  • Obedience
  • Observation
  • Opportunity
  • Passion
  • Passive-Agressive
  • Peculiar
  • Perception
  • Perseverance
  • Pet Peeves
  • Pitfalls
  • Power
  • Preparation
  • Presence
  • Present
  • Pride
  • Promotion
  • Purpose
  • Reflection
  • Relationships
  • Rest
  • Sacrifice
  • Sensitive
  • Servant
  • Sincerity
  • Spring Break
  • Standard
  • Teacher Appreciation
  • Teachers
  • Team
  • Technology
  • Thankful
  • Thanksgiving
  • Time
  • Tolerance
  • Transactional
  • Transformational
  • Transparent
  • Trust
  • Uncategorized
  • Understanding
  • Unity
  • Useful
  • Value
  • Vision
  • Whole
  • Word

Blog Stats

  • 14,400 hits

Blog at WordPress.com.

Cancel

 
Loading Comments...
Comment
    ×
    loading Cancel
    Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
    Email check failed, please try again
    Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.
    %d bloggers like this: