Heart-Centered Leadership: A Rosh Hashanah Reflection
As we approach Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, it's a once-a-year time for many people to set intentions. As somebody in the business of intention-setting all year round, this Rosh Hashanah I've been spending time thinking about the Jewish perspective on topics that come up a lot in my coaching practice: leadership, living with purpose, and making an impact.
When you put them together, it comes down to leading with heart.
That’s why, as we approach Rosh Hashanah, I’ve been thinking about the Jewish perspective on “heart-centered” leadership. Specifically:
How to cultivate it
Why it can be meaningful regardless of your religious affiliation (or lack thereof)
Why it matters whether you’re at the apex of your career or preparing for your first leadership role
Lucky for me, as I got to reflecting and reading, I didn’t have to look far because there’s a commentary on just about everything in Jewish philosophy. Case in point: there’s even a well-known saying, “ask two Jews, get three opinions.” Heart-centered living and leadership is no exception, and it’s discussed in a compilation of rabbinic ethical teachings called Pirkei Avot, often translated as “The Ethics of our Fathers.”
We can all agree that great leadership is important, but what is the most important virtue that actually makes leadership great? Is it results, authenticity, or rigor? Empathy, intellect, efficacy, or an ability to make tough decisions? Like the old adage of “ask two Jews, get three opinions,” ask 100 leaders and you’ll likely get 100 different answers. Leadership is something we understand universally, and yet live so personally.
There’s a similar conversation among the scholars in Pirkei Avot* about which virtue is singularly most important to lead a good path in our life. As one commentator opined, “One must pick a solitary trait and cleave to it until he masters it...one good attribute can serve as the trailblazer for the overall pursuit of a proper path.” In other words, it’s simply impossible to live every good virtue to the fullest, so which should we invest in as the most important one?
A Rabbi poses this question to his five students and one suggests good eyes to see benevolence in other people. A second suggests being a good friend, while a third suggests being a good neighbor. Yet a fourth suggests one who can foresee the impact of his actions on others. The Rabbi is piqued but unsatisfied until he hears the fifth and final suggestion of a lev tov (a good heart). If we can only choose one, he concludes, we should choose the one that encompasses all the others: that one is a good heart.
So what can a good heart look like in our modern places of work? As you consider this question about leading with purpose and maximizing your impact, consider how you can cultivate the 4 pillars of heart-centered leadership:
Having good eyes: most leaders will tell you they have a solid vision of success, and a good line of sight into their business and their people. That’s just assumed, which is why I challenge you to ask yourself tough questions as you build up your heart-centered leadership: In making an effort to see the benevolence in other people, where are you making bad decisions as a leader because you’ve made prejudgements about certain people? Where have you been afraid or told yourself you’re “too busy” to get visionary on things that might be new and innovative--albeit risky? Lastly, in this moment of racial reckoning in our places of work, it's never been more urgent for leaders to have “good eyes.” Where have you had your blinders on?
Being a good friend: when we talk about friendship, let’s get clear: we’re not defining good leadership as being friends with everybody in the office. In fact, as one commentator in Pirkei Avot opined, “the strength of friendship may be measured by its ability to withstand the strain of constructive criticism,” which is one of the most important elements of heart-centered leadership. It’s also a proven tenet of great leadership writ large.
Apple CEO and Founder, Steve Jobs, was famous for encouraging debate. Similarly, as leadership guru Jim Collins wrote in his seminal book Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t, “Not one major decision as the companies that went from good to great was made at a point of consensus. Every one of those major decisions was made by an executive while there was still substantial disagreement in the air. Your job, your responsibility as an executive, is to reach a point of understanding where you are right and then to make the decision that is right. That usually happens before there is agreement.” To that end, how can being a “good friend”— by increasing your tolerance for disagreement and constructive criticism— make you a better leader?
Being a good neighbor: The best leaders are stewards to their organizations, their people, and the greater goals— not their own egos or personal agendas. As one commentator of Pirkei Avot describes, “Good neighbors provide opportunities to help others even at one’s own personal expense.” As we connect this to modern leadership, does this mean you should be a martyr or a pushover? Absolutely not, that’s terrible leadership. Rather, as you cultivate heart-centered leadership by embracing the tenets of being a good neighbor, I challenge you to ask yourself daily: how are my actions serving the greater goals of my organization, our business needs, and my people? Am I making my best effort to work well with those I dislike?
Forseeing the outcome of your actions: oh, how we all wish we had a crystal ball! While we can’t predict the future, as a heart-centered leader you can consider how everything you do as a leader makes an impact, “A little forethought will enable him to assess whether the immediate gains from a proposed activity are outweighed by any possible loss.” If this isn’t at the crux of every tough decision a leader makes I don’t know what is. As you lead with heart, ask yourself: how are the decisions I’m making today defining tomorrow for everyone else around me?
We all come to work with our own unique values, and show up at different organizations at different points in the leadership life-cycle—from our very first job managing people to that peak leadership experience in our career. It’s one of the things that makes leading with heart so deeply personal, so full of potential, and so dynamic over the course of our career: so what does heart-centered leadership mean to you today and what do you want it to mean to you tomorrow?
As we mark a new year on the Jewish calendar, it's customary to wish people a shana tova u'metukah, a happy and sweet new year. In the midst of a global pandemic, happiness and sweetness are two things we could all use more of, regardless of our religious affiliation. That's why I'm wishing all of my friends, colleagues, readers, and clients—Jewish and non-Jewish alike—a year filled with sweetness, happiness, and heart-centered living.
*Readers Note: all quotations are derived from the 1995 Art Scroll edition of Pirkei Avot, Chapter 2, Mishnah 13, pages 97-101.
Randi Braun is a coach, consultant, speaker, and the Founder of Something Major. Get in touch with Randi via email or social (below). Copyright 2020. All rights reserved.