by Miriam Garvi
Last night I was listening to a seminar on modern leadership and the importance of setting magnetic goals.
Nowadays we look to the world of elite sports for leadership guidance and inspiration, a world where years of hard work and training are directed towards that single moment where everything must come together in an outstanding performance. So much of leadership practice seems to be bent on «pumping up our emotions», trying to create a positive emotional balance so as to motivate people to achieve pre-set targets.
When business is defined as climbing new peaks, then what we need from leadership really is quite simple: making people believe in the attainability of the seemingly unattainable and motivating people to stretch themselves so as to reach that target. With the help of visualization techniques and positive thinking, it becomes a matter of pumping up emotions as we push for new records.
But where is the guidance in the emotional magnetism of «feel good» targets? Such coaching cannot help us find the right direction, but it can boost our performance once we know where we want to go.
As I wrote in my previous post Sheltered moments, true progress can never be achieved unless we know the whys of where we are heading. And it requires the kind of dedication to a vision that transcends the volatility of our emotions, where people are committed to making a difference even in the face of adversity because they value the sense of meaning that is generated in the engagement.
