Great interview and great book «The Meaning Revolution: The Power of Transcendent Leadership» by Fred Kofman.
A few ideas:
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People equate leadership with formal authority. They confuse leading with bossing. Bossing is to use formal authority, rewards and punishments, to get people to do your bidding. Leading is eliciting their internal commitment to pursue the mission. Leadership has nothing to do with formal authority; it has everything to do with moral authority.
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Material incentives – salary and benefits – account for perhaps 15% of employees’ motivation at work. The other 85% is driven by a need to belong, a feeling that what we do day in and day out makes a difference.
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According to Kofman, transcendent leaders inspire followers not by relying on carrots and sticks (offering a nice salary, bonus, and tangible perks, or threatening them with demotion or the loss of their job) but by appealing to the belief that they are spending their waking time making a difference in the world.
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Transformative leaders don’t just achieve phenomenal business success. Transformative leaders do something greater. They help organizations, people and cultures experience deep, lasting meaning and purpose from the work and outcomes they produce. These leaders foster a culture that nurtures in people the ability to feel they are contributing at the highest level towards something that is making a true difference in the world.
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As a father-boss, for example, I want my children to do their homework before they play. My strategy is to threaten to take away their phones if I see them using them before their work is done. I add a carrot to the stick, promising that when they finish their homework they’ll get ice cream. By contrast, as a father-leader, I don’t just want my children to do their homework. I want my children to want to do it. I want them to do it because they want to do it, not because I forced them to do it.
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It’s a long process that requires that the leader “dies” (as an ego) while still alive (as a soulful being). All of the barriers to transcendent leadership arise from ego. Think of ego as the part of your psyche that is constantly preoccupied with self-worth and status.
I suggest you to read the whole interview (there are more interesting ideas) by Kathy Caprino at Forbes.
This is the book «The Meaning Revolution: The Power of Transcendent Leadership«
You can also watch his most famous lecture «Vida, libertad y conciencia» here: ¿Somos tigres o somos ovejas?
Finally, here’s another longer interview. Enjoy it and find purpose in whatever you do!
