The Five Graces: A New Way Of Leading In The New Year

To exhibit grace in leadership, we need to show our human side—with greater self-awareness and genuine connection to others.

In my early days as a CEO, a member of our board who was mentoring me, looked me in the eye and said, “I don’t just want you to be successful—I am going to ensure that you are successful.” I was so moved by his words. Looking back now, I see it as a gift of grace.

Unearned and unmerited, grace is the goodwill of human nature predisposed to helping others, and it defines so much of what leadership is about these days. After all, leadership is inspiring others to believe and enabling that belief to become reality.

Today, the challenge is that we’re seeing more change than we have in the past 10 years. As the world tilts on its axis, people are turning to leaders for help and hope, direction and decision, and the best way to respond is with grace.

I’ve had countless conversations about grace in the context of inspiring, motivating, and leading others. Like truth, art, or love, grace is often hard to define. But we know it when we see it. Grace calls us to accountability, responsibility, and action. In our words and actions, we signal, “I care enough to see you.”

An executive recently shared a story with me that really spoke to the importance of truly seeing others. It was early in her career as an engineer at a factory. Her boss, who had worked in that plant for more than 40 years, told her, “It’s gonna be real hard for you to get the respect of the floor.” His advice for her was to start by learning everyone’s name. She took that to heart and started working the line at the factory every day for an hour.

“I asked stupid questions while they got a laugh from putting this young engineer to work screwing in bolts and putting pamphlets in boxes,” she told me. “I learned the names and stories of nearly everyone out on those lines. I was not the smartest or the most talented person working in that plant, but I had the power of true relationships.”

To exhibit this kind of grace in leadership, we need to show our human side— with greater self-awareness and genuine connection to others. In today’s world, it’s about establishing community so everyone can be part of something bigger than themselves.

In the new year, as we strive to be good leaders, better colleagues, and the best of ourselves, we can find our inspiration in the five graces—gratitude, resilience, aspiration, courage and empathy—that together literally compose the word “grace.”

• Gratitude: Grace starts with gratitude, and it’s more important than ever as the connective tissue seems to be fraying for so many people. They want and deserve to be gratified by their work. They want to know that others notice and are grateful for them.

• Resilience: Here we find strength for the journey, propelling us forward. We remind ourselves that over the millennia, humans have faced countless catastrophes—and with far less science and technology than we have today. Our hope is always in the resilience of the human spirit.

• Aspiration: This is our vision—our goal—capturing no less than who we are and what we want to become. As we raise our sights, we elevate others. Aspiration is the knowledge that we can make tomorrow different and better than today.

• Courage: It is not having “no fear,” but rather to “know fear”—and move beyond it. Courage reminds us that failure is usually temporary; it passes like a storm. So why would we let it paralyze us? The bigger question to ask is, what greater accomplishment or goal could we achieve if we never gave into our fears? What might others become if failure became part of our culture?

• Empathy: We meet others where they are and ensure that no one is left behind. Empathy is the catalyst that turns “we’re all in this together” from only words to a feeling and then to an action. We tell others, verbally and nonverbally, “I understand how you feel. Our circumstances may be different, but I’ve been there, too.”

Finally, grace reminds us of a paradox that is always true about leadership: it starts with the leader, but it is never about the leader. Grace is that voice of humility that whispers, “It’s not about you.”  Grace keeps our focus on others.


MORE LIKE THIS

  • Get the CEO Briefing

    Sign up today to get weekly access to the latest issues affecting CEOs in every industry
  • upcoming events

    Roundtable

    Strategic Planning Workshop

    1:00 - 5:00 pm

    Over 70% of Executives Surveyed Agree: Many Strategic Planning Efforts Lack Systematic Approach Tips for Enhancing Your Strategic Planning Process

    Executives expressed frustration with their current strategic planning process. Issues include:

    1. Lack of systematic approach (70%)
    2. Laundry lists without prioritization (68%)
    3. Decisions based on personalities rather than facts and information (65%)

     

    Steve Rutan and Denise Harrison have put together an afternoon workshop that will provide the tools you need to address these concerns.  They have worked with hundreds of executives to develop a systematic approach that will enable your team to make better decisions during strategic planning.  Steve and Denise will walk you through exercises for prioritizing your lists and steps that will reset and reinvigorate your process.  This will be a hands-on workshop that will enable you to think about your business as you use the tools that are being presented.  If you are ready for a Strategic Planning tune-up, select this workshop in your registration form.  The additional fee of $695 will be added to your total.

    To sign up, select this option in your registration form. Additional fee of $695 will be added to your total.

    New York, NY: ​​​Chief Executive's Corporate Citizenship Awards 2017

    Women in Leadership Seminar and Peer Discussion

    2:00 - 5:00 pm

    Female leaders face the same issues all leaders do, but they often face additional challenges too. In this peer session, we will facilitate a discussion of best practices and how to overcome common barriers to help women leaders be more effective within and outside their organizations. 

    Limited space available.

    To sign up, select this option in your registration form. Additional fee of $495 will be added to your total.

    Golf Outing

    10:30 - 5:00 pm
    General’s Retreat at Hermitage Golf Course
    Sponsored by UBS

    General’s Retreat, built in 1986 with architect Gary Roger Baird, has been voted the “Best Golf Course in Nashville” and is a “must play” when visiting the Nashville, Tennessee area. With the beautiful setting along the Cumberland River, golfers of all capabilities will thoroughly enjoy the golf, scenery and hospitality.

    The golf outing fee includes transportation to and from the hotel, greens/cart fees, use of practice facilities, and boxed lunch. The bus will leave the hotel at 10:30 am for a noon shotgun start and return to the hotel after the cocktail reception following the completion of the round.

    To sign up, select this option in your registration form. Additional fee of $295 will be added to your total.