“The wicked leader is he whom the people despise. The good leader is he whom the people revere. The great leader is he of whom the people say, ‘We did it ourselves.'” —Lao Tzu
1: Is there a difference between rowing and sailing?
You bet there is.
“A boat moved by mere muscle is no match for one moved by wind,” Fred Kofman writes in The Meaning Revolution: The Power of Transcendent Leadership.
Why? “Because a boat propelled by the wind flows in harmony with the natural forces,” Fred explains.
The metaphor also captures the impact of different leadership styles.
“An organization that moves forward by formal authority is like a rowboat,” he notes.
“One moved by a transcendent purpose is like a sailboat with the wind behind it, filling its sails.”
2: Yesterday, we began exploring what Fred calls transcendent leadership.
As leaders, if we want to make accountability and cooperation occur simultaneously, we must “inspire people,” Fred explains, “and create a culture of commitment and connection to a larger purpose.”
Because when this occurs, team members look beyond their silos and limited perspectives. Instead, they “align their best efforts with the organization’s in natural ways,” he writes, “that other systems can’t lead them to do.”
Transcendent leadership “inspires people with a new sense of possibility,” Fred suggests. We “illuminate the organization in a way that reveals its ultimate gift: meaning.”
This type of leadership “dissolves the hardest organizational problems,” he writes, “in a liquid mix of significance, nobility, virtue, and solidarity.”
Team members follow the purpose. Not the leader.
Transcendent leaders don’t rely on carrots and sticks, i.e., big salaries or perks. They don’t threaten. Instead, they lead by appealing to people’s desire to make a difference.
They “work to align the individual purposes of those under them into a larger collective purpose that makes each individual larger as well,” Fred explains.
Transcendent leaders “inspire others through a common purpose, a strong set of ethical principles, a community of like-minded people, a feeling of unconditional empowerment, and a passionate drive to achieve,” Fred writes.
“These are not easy tasks, but meaning has nothing to do with ease.”
3: How does one become a transcendent leader?
It starts by looking deeply inward. “Often,” Fred notes, “leaders must find their true selves through a ‘hero’s journey’ and share their hard-earned personal awareness with others, with humility, wisdom, and compassion.”
In some instances, this introspection follows a brush with death, like Mark Bertolini, a senior executive at Aetna, who lost control of his skis, crashed into a tree, broke his neck, and nearly died.
But it doesn’t require a near-death experience.
All that’s needed is the ability to ask ourselves: Why am I here? What difference am I making? What will my legacy be?
Because when we take these questions seriously, we “come to realize that every ticking second, every opportunity to do good in the time we have left, becomes more meaningful. We want to make the most of the precious time we have, appreciating beauty and creating joy.”
What we don’t want to do?
Spend our days doing work that feels trivial or lacks meaning.
“Once we tap into this realization, I’ve found, our true nature is allowed to shine through,” Fred observes. “We have the ability and reason to become a transcendent leader.
“We breathe this rich understanding of what a life well lived really looks like out in the world.”
More tomorrow!
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Reflection: Why am I here? What difference am I making? What will my legacy be?
Action: Set aside some time to journal my answers to these questions.
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