(photo credits: cottonbro-studios)
There is no true leadership without influencing. If you just exercise the power your hierarchical position gives you to hire, fire or attribute budgets you might as well stop reading here. Soon people will ‘quietly quit’ and look for greener pastures.
Positively influencing peers, bosses, clients, colleagues happens through the words we choose, but to a much larger extent it happens below the threshold of our conscious awareness: there are no less than 27 documented forms of nonverbal communication, most of them unconscious.
Self-leadership, the ability to keep one’s emotions in check in high-stress situations avoids bad outcomes, whether in a cockpit, a boardroom, or a tennis court. But can we create positive, tangible outcomes through the sole power of our convictions and beliefs? Is there such a thing as ‘self-influencing’ or even ‘self-manipulation’? Can our non-material mind change our material body?
Anyone who has admired the speed and effectiveness of chamber maids cleaning and tidying up hotel rooms will appreciate that they move around a lot, and generally fast. Yet, the average health indicators of chamber maids in the US match those of people in similar socioeconomic groups across all job categories: excess weight, elevated blood pressure levels or cardiovascular problems are common.
This caught the attention of Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer. She invited hotel chambermaids to participate in a study to prove that the Cartesian distinction between ‘mind’ and ‘body’ is utterly artificial. Chamber maids, as Ellen Langer learned from them, do not perceive their work as exercise, but, unsurprisingly, as hard work. Some of them told the researcher that they would like to get in shape but coming home from work they were simply too exhausted to go to a gym.
Langer divided the chambermaids into two groups. The first group was informed about the physical benefits of their work, such as the number of calories burned and muscles exercised. Doing a kingsize bed burns 40 calories while exercising arm, back and neck muscles while cleaning a bathroom is the equivalent of a five-minute workout on a elliptic trainer. The second group received no such information and continued their work as usual.
After a few weeks, comparing the health data of the two groups, the researchers found significant differences. The group that was educated about the health benefits of their work showed improvements in various health parameters, including loss of weight, decreased body fat percentage, reduced blood pressure, and improved waist-to-hip ratio. In contrast, the control group, which remained unaware of the exercise benefits, showed no significant improvements.
Mind does change matter and mindset changes health – and reality in a broader sense.
Here are the top 3+1 implications for influence and leadership:
- Good leadership is not about exercising power, it is about creating a positive vision for the future that people can believe in;
- Your attitude towards tough challenges determines not only how, but whether you will overcome them;
- Health and resilience are a matter of diet or exercise – but also of positive thinking;
+1: For change leadership to be effective, people should be told, at an individual level, what concrete benefits the change will or might bring for them (while honestly addressing their concerns regarding the negative implications).