Business leaders often become “human doings” rather than “human beings,” ignoring the inner landscapes that inform their decisions. In 4D Leadership, Dr. Alan Watkins presents the Enlightened Leadership Model, a framework that takes four dimensions of leadership into consideration: being, short-term doing, long-term doing, and relating. Multidimensional leaders who excel in all four areas are not just better at business–they are happier, healthier, and more fulfilled.
The author believes that:
- Business leaders face increasing volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (also known as VUCA). As job descriptions change and organizational pressures mount, executives face burnout and fall out of touch with their inner lives.
- Effective leaders excel in four dimensions: personal performance, commercial performance, market leadership, and people leadership. Too often, executives are evaluated only on their external actions and not on the foundational skills that they should cultivate.
- Turning down the pressure can actually turn up performance in executives. Today’s corporate environment often relies on a pressure-cooker atmosphere at the expense of the mental and physical health of workers. This means that workers waste precious time and energy trying to meet unrealistic expectations instead of cultivating productive business relationships.
- Leaders’ internal worlds are just as important, if not more so, than external actions. Sophisticated internal landscapes underlie all great leadership decisions. However, the interior is often ignored by both leaders and organizations.
- Relationships are the most underrated facet of business leadership. Leaders should try to develop second-person perspectives instead of first-person outlooks.
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