The Heart of the Organization: How Engaging the Heart Center Supports High-Performance Leadership
In our work with leadership coaching, we use as a foundation the three Centers of Intelligence: body, heart and head. The Centers guide the development of basic leadership skills that we condense to an easily remembered mantra:
- STAY PRESENT
- RELATE
- INNOVATE
In this year’s conference presentation we continue to outline our foundational model for coaching high-performance leaders by focusing on the Heart Center and the capacity to RELATE in organizational environments. We recognize that effective leaders know how to be authentic, to recognize the value of diversity, and to keep humanness central to every action and interaction, all capacities of an awakened and well-functioning Heart Center.
When activated and balanced, the Heart Center of the leader resonates with the Heart Center of the organization, where communication, interactions, and relationships form the core of how the mission and systems are implemented. Without active engagement with the Heart Center of the organization, leaders fail to harness the lifeblood that supports its vital movement to keep it alive and thriving.
The essence of the Heart Center is reflected in the three Enneagram types that we find in this Center. Types Two, Three, and Four as generic descriptors hold the energies needed. Type Two as an essential force offers the capacity for connection, compassion, and generosity toward the well-being of the group, enhancing the organization’s ability to function optimally. Type Three as an essential force gives an inherent sense for what will maximize the success of the group and is able to bring resourcefulness, efficiency, and ongoing productivity to help the organization achieve its goals. Type Four as an essential force brings a sensitivity to the individuality of the people who sustain the organization and fosters creative expression of the company’s mission using the unique gifts of the contributors.
On the other hand, without a well-functioning Heart Center, organizations get immersed in competition that is not creative, becoming territorial within the group and within the industry and the global community. From these attitudes stem the self-destructive organizational behaviors we all recognize: stealing credit, over-reactivity, defensiveness and stubborn resistance to change.
Through the Heart Center, individuals and organizations come to find their true identity and learn to express it. As experienced coaches and consultants, we want to explore ways to utilize this Enneagram wisdom in your professional practice and to share our client experiences that bring these concepts to life.
You can reach Belinda at www.belindagore.com or belindagore@hotmail.com and Becky at www.beckygorman.com or becky@beckygorman.com