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I think you will agree that Critical Thinking is an often-overlooked skill and often not completely understood!
To begin, we need a critical thinking definition and an example to make dynamic access to the mind:
Critical thinking is about finding the most important parameter in the decision-making process and prioritizing accordingly.
Example of critical thinking questions:
“What is it that I didn’t change that if I would change will make a critical difference in the way I do business?”
It is important to take into account that Critical Thinking in leadership is a vast dynamic with many parameters and this article is only pointing to one.
What Is Leadership About… In Brief
Leadership is not a title! Leadership is a service, one which gets its merit from leading by example.
The word “leadership” must have the words “by example” attached to it because if it is not “by example” then what kind of leadership is it?
Leadership is all about serving people with guiding principles. Fake Leadership serves itself and uses people for its own end while pretending to serve people.
Authentic Leadership is value-based, while Fake leadership is ego-based.
Recently I conducted a seminar to top executives in Kenya.
It redefined for them what leadership is in their mind and they experienced a paradigm shift in thinking and attitude, which was an eye-opener in what they felt about their responsibility compared with what they thought prior.
Humility & Humbleness – The Duo Of Leadership Empowerment
The critical difference between Authentic Leadership and Fake leadership is to do with the basic character of the leader, specifically with:
Humility, Modesty & Humbleness.
Three qualities that are the pillars of leadership, but have become extremely rare these days.
They guarantee that the decision-making process is not ego-based.
Humility, Modesty & Humbleness can be seen when a leader has the power and doesn’t let it go to his head while deflecting his success to everyone in the organization, and in the process redefining what is a win and what is a success for the people around him. (see Roger Federer).
A natural leader never allows himself to use his power to dominate others or win personal favors.
Such a leader is empowered by people who send him/her special return energy of trust and support, which makes the leader perform at elevated levels.
Because leadership is a function for people, when the leader does the job right he gets the natural energy that goes with “doing the right thing”.
These 3 qualities eventually will connect a leader to all top 10 leadership qualities.
The Ant Principle
Folks, it’s all about energy!
I am sure that you have seen ants at work and wondered how they do it. There is a law of “power inversion” where matter and energy are concerned, which simply means, that big is small and small is big.
You have to think out of the box to get your mind around this concept, and how important it is to your own life leadership. “Much in little” is a known term, used often but, mostly, not understood.
That’s how nature works. The smaller the unit the greater the power. We mostly tend to think that “big” and “a lot” is powerful, while, “small” and “a little” is weak. So it requires a paradigm shift in thinking.
The Ant Principle was first introduced as biblical wisdom spoken by Jesus Christ.
“Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise!” Proverbs 6:6
It’s worth focusing on these busybodies for a while to really perceive this amazing phenomenon, as it can teach so much.
When watching ants at work you can easily perceive that there’s a “Great Hidden Source of Energy”, unfathomable, which in the case of the Ant, enables it to carry a load 50 times its own size & weight with amazing, indefatigable persistence.
It’s that powerful! Where does such power come from…what an enigma!
Is nature trying to tell us a story about Power? Obviously so! Can you perceive the story?
Nature can be a mysterious storyteller and delivers special life wisdom to those in tune, and those who have the eyes to see and the senses to interpret its subtle, yet obvious & profound messages.
A Real-Life Story Of How To use The Ant Principle To Be An Empowered Leader
In the seminar that I am talking about in Kenya, I had a very good example of the difference between Ego-Based Leadership (Fake) and Value-Based Leadership (Authentic) and that’s when the Ant Principle dawned on me.
The difference between the two was all too vivid and so hard to miss!
The Ego-Based leader who happened to be a man, was clearly full of himself without room for anyone else, basking in the delight of the Title of Leadership, not the Service Of Leadership.
Whereas the Authentic Leader, who happened to be a woman, had humility and consideration of others and was being “At Small” (humble), which caused her workers to be Big (the focus), which made her Big (If that makes sense to you…)…but not big ego, big as a human Leader.
The Ego-Based leader, promoted himself at every opportunity, while the Value-based leader demonstrated, in every possible way, that the people in her care were the main stakeholders.
It was evident in her verbal and nonverbal communication, that she was honored to serve as a leader. Her focus, energy, and power were unmistakable.
She loved her job and loved people.
The Ego-Based, so-called leader, on the other hand, made himself Big (focused on himself) and everyone else was made to feel small, which in turn made him Small (If that makes sense to you…)
It was blatantly clear to all, who was the Purposeful, Focused & Empowered leader between the two.
I had to deliver a high caliber training on leadership and I couldn’t let that go by.
This man that got the lesson of his life by me taking the opportunity to demonstrate to him how powerful humbleness can be.
It hit the mark with him, and everyone was winning as a result because of the leadership style I used, which was based on the ant principle
In Conclusion
The paradigm shift in critical thinking in leadership is to realize that to be empowered as a leader by the people you lead, is a key to your success.
The way to do that is by creating Trust around you by adopting the qualities of humbleness & humility, which allow people to see your vulnerability as a human being.
The only way to be truly empowered is to have the kind of humility that holds & hides your greatness as a leader and becoming a people’s person. These are the skills that matter today.
People will feel this and will reward you for being authentic by reciprocating with their own loyalty and ownership that they will take within the organization.
The Thinking Coach leadership training courses and The Life Coach programs create a positive transformation in the whole organization with the power of positivity redefining organizational success.
The Thinking Coach conducts leadership training courses, employee development training and “The Life Coach For The Pros” programs of one-on-one coaching.
A paradigm shift in critical thinking in leadership occurs all the time and it requires a mindset that can adapt and be resilient while continuing to provide the kind of leadership that is up to date and appeals to millennials and generation Z.
Eli Harari
The Life Coach for Professionals™
Humility is too often seen as weakness rather than as a symbol of powerful leadership as you suggest. If more of us sought to lead that way, our world would be a better place. Thanks for such an interesting article on leadership.
Humility and Humanity are very similar words. Yes, i am trying to cause some sanity through my many programs to make the world a better place for those yet to come, through my 10 cents
I enjoyed so much your illustration of a good leader as one who practices humility. Another point you made was that the humble leader is empowered by those around him, when one thinks more of a leader as being the empowerer. Thanks you for such an interesting post, including the story of the ant who realizes that despite his size, his participation is invaluable to getting the work done. He must work with his team. That is probably not the lesson you intended, but it works for me. I also left a comment on the site.
Hi Tanya,
Thank you for your kind words, and you are absolutely right, the next ant lesson is team work, which is an amazing story of nature. You are very astute!
Good on you!
Eli
Yes, you are right, empowerment of the leader by the people in the organization is crucial. often those who call themselves leaders tend to be bullies
Eli,
This hits home with me, I was a leader in all of the jobs that I had since high school. I have seen so many ego leaders fail in business because of their attitudes toward those who they are supposed to lead.
The last company that I worked for did not let their leaders have much freedom to give their opinion. Just do what I say and shut up. This company has a hard time keeping any good leaders.
Great information on those who want to do well.
John
Hi Johh,
Thank you for your comment,
this is exactly what I was trying to convey in this article and am glad that it resonated with you.
All the best – Eli
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