What is common between solar water heaters and Leaders?
Solar water heaters capture sunlight and heats water spontaneously. They capture warmth to spread it with spontaneity. So are great leaders- they capture the warmth of their followers only to spontaneously and effortlessly warm them up more than before.
This thought of correlation popped up following reading two posts by Elena Gabor and then by Aldo Delli Paoli.
Elena shared Japanese wisdom that reads, “One kind word can warm three winter months”. I commented, “Kindness is a renewable source of energy”.
Renewable energy is self-renewing and does not deplete. Great leaders are the same.
The post by Aldo “Is Full Leadership Achieved with Respect”? Was a great illumination. Aldo wrote in it “The secret (for them at least) lay in the ability to make men and women identify with the leader’s “struggle”, that is, being able to lead by example and respect.
This is the case of those people who have dedicated themselves for years to reality, leading it to grow and improve and, even how they did it, have managed to obtain what is now a truly rare commodity within companies: respect precisely!”
I commented on this post as follows “Great leaders I say are spontaneous leaders. By this, I mean because they act with empathy, integrity, and credibility they spontaneously spread their influence to followers and make them grow by acting their leader’s example.
Leadership and spontaneity is a topic that started percolated in my mind reading this very insightful post”.
Real leaders are spontaneous in their effect to warm up followers. They glow with ideas they receive from their followers and radiates them with illumination, empathy, and gratitude without even thinking that they need to behave this way.
Great leaders enrich their minds and hearts by growing their followers and make them shine.
Great leaders are not commanding leaders forcing their way. They realize that exercising this will only weaken their followers and may them shrink rather than expand.
I read a post by Reg Connolly titled “Strong Leaders Make Weak Followers”. This is not a paradox and is in line with my recent posts that excessive control leads to less effective control. The post reports these findings based on field experimentations and observations.
Great leaders are influencers by nature because they radiate influence spontaneously with warmth and understanding and not by controlling followers only to make them weaker.
Humans bond strongly with naturally glowing leaders. These are the real ones.
I like your ability to always find a metaphor that clarifies the concept. And thanks for the quote.
I absolutely agree. There is no doubt that the suggestions are worth considering.
A good leader is the one who is followed by the team, in a spontaneous, harmonious, sincere way.
I believe being a leader is about being a witness.
Because leaders create value by modeling.
Thanks for shining your light on leadership Ali.
blessings,
Cynthia