Heart-centered leadership and team focus develops peripheral awareness to include factors normally dismissed. It affords situated context evaluation from a nonlinear multiplicity of factors. Linear thinking processes greatly limit the scope of comprehension and general acuity of assessment when complex issues arise. Leading with Field Awareness competency help avoid blind spots or narrow vision that so often plagues responding to unexpected challenges. 

When we lead from a place of having empathy with those we lead, of being loving about where team members are coming from, we avail ourselves the greatest gift of engagement – that of people feeling they are honestly heard and recognized in their domains of concern. The practice of Empathic competency is not wishy washy nor invites vacillation, but grounds a learnable process that allows honor and respect for all points of view of relevance in your team. This includes not just individual points of view, but also group fields of view.

The ability to lead with a sense of truth is a Discernment competency enabled by the capacity to “feel into” claims of truth for veracity and vet relied upon assumptions. This is not about having subjectivity supersede objectivity. But the relevance of objective truth is often more correctly appreciated from a heart-centered vantage point. Mindfulness, heart-centered meditative practices, development of intuition, and journaling can all be powerful ways to help improve and hone this innate capacity to assess truth. 

When we effectively “tune into” subtle sensations, we can track the flow of connection and disconnection in ourselves, and in others, in the greater field. Usually dismissed as irrelevant or as distraction in a business setting, awareness of the river of sensations underneath everything can provide critical cues to notice relevant factors otherwise ignored. Ignored factors can become seeds of deeper problems and breakdown in workflows, teamwork, or one’s leadership. This kind of feeling Sensitivity competency is a high value resource to respond to early warning signs, and helps guide the thinking process to be more responsive, effective and open.

When we see only one path forward we live in fundamentalism. The world is reduced to binary black or white decision making, and nuance is denied. If we learn the ability to postulate and evaluate a wider set of possibilities, and exercise our imaginative capacity to dream up different actions and outcomes, with at least 3, if not 5 or 7, alternate choices, it yields better vetting analysis of the courses of action we are considering. Practicing heart-centered Decision Tree competency informs and better justifies choices we make, and better clues us into detecting weak signals on the horizon that help predict action outcomes. 

Heart-centered awareness sees the greater potential in people and things. It affords seeing hidden or lurking opportunity, weakness, and strength. We naturally get angry when true potential is unrealized. A greater range of possibility that can be guided into probability if we develop Potentiation competency. When we stop always presuming to know what is the best course of action, but habitually seek to freshly evaluate and decide, we are more adaptive. Business often resists this, thinking it invites indecision, but it actually can invite recognition of paths to greater excellence.

Scheduling through the exercise of the mind alone fails to identify influential factors that can impact the flow of our energy and our work. This causes unnecessary stress and dislocation in our experience of focused action. The mind can forget the time needed to get things done. We often pack things too tightly together, or worse, avoid being as productive as we might be. Optimal Time Management competency is enabled by heart and mind working together. The mind without the heart is not as intelligent as when the two work together.

Don’t talk behind closed doors or behind people’s backs. Say things to people’s faces that you might say behind their backs. If you think you might fire someone, tell them that ahead of time so they know exactly where they actually stand with you. End all gossip in your company and the world by being a force for honest transparency. Practicing Transparency competency inspires more trust, loyalty, openness, and esprit de corps within your team.

People do not have to be ego driven to be lead or be ambitious, but can rely on heart based Leadership Wisdom competency. Heart-centered people exercise more spontaneous integrity when everyday problems are assessed. You don’t just evaluate issues and challenges with the mind, but work with mental capacities from field coherence afforded by and informed by the heart. Feelings are senses of the heart before they are mentally labeled emotions.

These above examples of heart-centered core competency can be trained, learned and sustained. Methods for adoption include leadership coaching, online and in-person team workshops and courses, personal practice, one-on-one consultation, and more.

Expect easily measurable work productivity gains, improvements in culture, lower employee turnover, and at least 10X return on the cost of adoption.