Leadership Choice

Leadership is an art. The art of inspiring others to dream bigger, work together based on people’s strengths and achieve results together. The art of applying yourself as a leader in the right way. Based on what the situation and people need from you. True leaders consciously choose to follow or to lead. In a way in which leading and following become a natural dance. That kind of leadership is needed right now. Leadership that inspires and encourages people to rise above themselves. This is how a context for extraordinary performances can emerge and how organizations are created where people can be their best selves. Leadership that enhances the quality of life and health in organizations and creates opportunities for everyone.

1. Leadership mapped out

Leadership is a phenomenon that has been fascinating us over the last 25 years. The topic transcends academic disciplines and therefore cannot be researched like the natural sciences. Leadership is about people in their dynamic relationships and systems in organizations. It means that there is no academic model to describe leadership, such as for gravity. The best academic psychological models only explain about 10% of all human behavior. And leadership is certainly not just a psychological phenomenon. It is mainly about the interaction between people and the context in which it takes place. This makes it challenging to form a simple, unambiguous model. The English say it nicely: 'the map is not the territory'. There is no single map that depicts the leadership domain accurately. Yet we continue to explore the art of leadership, because the impact of good and bad leadership is so big in organizations and society. Leadership determines a culture of trust or distrust, of abundance or scarcity, of shared ambition or division, of focus or fragmentation.

In many organizations, leadership is defined by behaviors that are visible above the proverbial waterline of the iceberg in daily work. This area is observable and therefore easy to discuss. In this area you can make tangible agreements about what you expect from leaders in your organization. We use the following dimensions: providing direction, developing people and driving for results. We are explicitly talking about driving results in others, instead of achieving results, which is easily confused with achieving results yourself. Leaders inspire others to achieve greater achievements.

Often our clients ask us to focus on this tangible and 'learnable' piece of leadership. The more concrete, the better. That is the starting point for an essential dialogue with the client. What leaders show 'above the waterline' must be solidly anchored in what happens 'below the waterline'.

It is our beliefs, feelings, needs and desires that encourage or prevent us from developing our leadership sustainably. That is why we use a fourth leadership dimension: 'leadership from within'. People connect with leaders who are real. Integrity, authenticity and vulnerability strengthen our relationships with people. And yet that is not always the obvious path. It takes courage to do this. It is precisely this deeper layer, the why behind our behavior, that is important for sustainable development. You may recognize this from a New Year's resolution you once had to become a better version of yourself? "I'm going to the gym." or “I'm going to quit smoking,” At work: “I am going to get to know my colleagues better” or “I want to have more courageous conversations”. Most good intentions are given up quickly. This indicates that it takes more to change behavior than observable behavioral goals. The goals will have to be reinforced by deeper beliefs and needs in order to make the development of new behavior sustainable. We often know where we want to go, but it is hard to let go of dysfunctional habits. The same applies to leadership: showing more empathy is rooted in the genuine desire to get to know your colleague better. Wanting to achieve results quickly, may hinder the development of empathy.

Eva Eger’s work (The Choice, 2018) is inspiring to us. As a survivor of Auschwitz camp in WWII, Eva comes to terms with her traumas and describes her coping process of more than 79 years. In her book she describes which self-protection mechanisms block her development. Eva Eger also inspires by showing that she dares to face her traumas. Not just on a number of occasions, but continuously: for decades. She beautifully shows how she learns which self-defense mechanisms are no longer functional in her life after the concentration camp. She grows by becoming more aware of her automatic responses that she learned in the camp to survive. It teaches us that leadership from within (below the waterline) can be developed. As your awareness grows, a moment of choice arises to develop new habits and behavior. This eventually creates a unique leadership signature that is as colorful as Eva Eger or metaphorically: the butterfly, which for centuries has symbolized the profound transformation we are talking about here.

“Leadership Choice: Making courageous choices that help yourself and others to achieve higher goals.”

Leadership reflection questions:

• How do I inspire others to achieve a higher purpose, work together based on strengths and achieve extraordinary results together?
• What beliefs, feelings, needs or desires encourage or prevent me from developing my leadership behavior?

2. Leadership in four dimensions

Three dimensions of leadership deliver concrete results: a clear and appealing strategic direction, extraordinary results and inspired people who continuously develop themselves. The image below shows three sentences per dimension that describe what we mean by that. The fourth dimension: 'Leadership from within' is the key to sustainable behavioral change for the three other dimensions, as we explained before.

Leadership – 4 dimensions

‍From within

• Knows personal strengths & weaknesses
• Understands & uses emotional build-up
• Develops a unique & colorful leadership style
• Experiments & builds reflective muscle
  

Provide direction

• Mobilizes & inspires people to create a shared direction, objectives and values
• Defines activities that rally people around realizing the strategy
• Uses emotion in storytelling to unleash energy & ownership among people
  

Develop people

• Listens empathetically & challenges to stretch
• Builds trust, coaches & inspires
• Mobilizes, facilitates & activates
  

Drive results

• Sets realistic targets & ensures people deliver
• Builds winning routines in teams
• Strives for a high performing culture

Leadership impact stems from the congruence between effective behavior and leadership from within: the personal and unique leadership profile that someone develops based on her personal life story, preferences, values, norms, needs and beliefs. These cannot be 'learned', but they can be 'developed'. To explain the difference between the two: you can teach a 12-year-old child to drive a car. In fact, many children have a great fascination with driving a car: steering, accelerating, braking. These observable behaviors can already be learned at the age of 12. Let them try carting, those kids! But the inner development is not yet ready for driving on the road: a sense of speed and danger, understanding the risks for yourself and others and the irreversibility of consequences. And even at 17 or 18 you can technically learn to drive a car well, but the inner development is slower. Insurance premiums reflect this. Rental companies do not rent cars to 18-year-olds. For a reason!

Leadership development is therefore a combination between learning the three visible dimensions of leadership and the development of leadership from within.

The most challenging leadership work is to better understand ourselves as leaders. What was given to you at birth ('nature') and therefore you cannot learn but can understand and develop. First of all, understanding ourselves is mainly asking questions such as: what are my strengths and weaknesses? What are my values, beliefs and motivations? Young leaders often ask: “What is expected of me in this work context?” As seniority and self-awareness grows, the questions shift to: “What do I want to cause and how?” What kind of organizational culture do I want to develop? Good leaders ask less and less about the expectations of the outside world, but address themselves to the questions: What does this organization ask of me and what do I want to achieve here?

An essential part of leadership from within is formed by the role that emotions play a role in human life. Experiences in your youth and adolescence shape your emotional life story. These experiences determine how you attach and now form relationships with others. Understanding your emotional management allows you to consciously build relationships and influence your environment with your emotions. You can also unlearn protective mechanisms learned early and develop further emotionally. That takes courage and perseverance.

“To understand how we choose to behave every day, we must make the journey inward.”

Leadership reflection questions:

• What is my leadership strength in the three areas above the waterline: provide direction, drive results, develop people? What makes it your strength?
• How do I turn my strengths into spikes?
• What does my organization require from me as a leader? What legacy do I want to leave through my leadership?
  

3. Leadership from within

Development of 'Leadership from within' starts with consciously observing yourself. The better you get to know yourself, the easier it becomes to be yourself. We develop ourselves through self-reflection. By consciously stepping out of our comfort zone and undertaking new experiments and organizing feedback loops. One of the simplest, (not easiest), definitions of leadership is: “Be yourself more with skill,” Goffee/Jones, 1996. The authors summarize an academic debate spanning more than 100 years in one sentence. Namely the question of whether leadership is innate or learned. The answer is that leadership is both innate and learned. The “be more yourself” part refers to the innate characteristics that make leadership choices possible. You cannot learn this, but you can get to know it better, use it and therefore: develop it. The other part of the sentence (…, 'with skill') refers to the three visible dimensions. These dimensions of leadership can be learned through reflection, practice and feedback. It's like a muscle that can be trained. Of course, there is a gray area between the innate and learned dimensions of leadership.

'Being yourself' is easier said than done, because we are social beings growing up in cultural contexts with all kinds of norms and expectations. Organizations, families, schools, sports clubs, churches, armies and mosques are all social environments that expect us to behave in certain ways. We all know intuitively how to behave at a cemetery or at a dance party, for example. That behavior has little to do with who we are as a person. You could say that social environments are "educational processes" that require people to adapt to fit in, rather than express who they really are. Once people have been part of certain social environments for a long time, they may wonder: who am I? And who am I apart from this organization? Over time, as the organization and its social norms get under your skin, it becomes more difficult to distinguish what is you and what is the social environment, you are conforming to.

There is a world of training, coaching and psychometric instruments that help people identify their strengths and weaknesses, personality, beliefs, values, motivations and energy givers and drainers. The search for self already starts in high school or during college. The sooner you gain insight into your passion and qualities, the better you can make choices about your focus in education and work. These insights help to explore whether an organization matches your personal purpose. During major life events such as promotions, having children, changing jobs, getting married, divorced, or becoming ill, these leadership questions get different answers.

“Be yourself more, with skill”

- Rob Goffee

“Being yourself in a world that requires constant adaptation, is a huge achievement”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Leadership reflection question:

• What does my unique leadership character look like, (strengths/weaknesses, personality, beliefs, values, drivers and energy givers)
  

4. Your greatest strength is your greatest pitfall

As people get to know themselves better and understand their unique impact, they inevitably encounter the dark side of their strengths as well. Your greatest strength is also your biggest pitfall. Someone who is composed and does not often experience negative emotions, can remain calm in chaotic and crisis situations. Likewise, this person may have difficulty showing empathy for the feelings of others since they are feeling few emotions themselves. Extroverts can be good at creating a positive atmosphere. At the same time, they can overwhelm and steamroll others. A unique strength of Elon Musk is his courage. He has developed risky innovations into successful companies with Tesla, SpaceX. His boldness influences his leadership choices. His unique weakness is also his daring. He regularly makes clumsy and even unlawful statements that do not serve his business interests. His rapid and major changes within X (formerly Twitter) not only led to major layoffs, but also led to the voluntary departure of a lot of good people and companies advertising through X. For those who are still at X, a very unsafe culture has become the new reality. You can get fired any day based on one person's opinion. In the Scandinavian countries this led to great resistance, even among Tesla suppliers and partners.

A first step in your leadership development is understanding your personal strengths and weaknesses. Then also your personal values, mission, beliefs and motivations. The next step is how you establish relationships with others and how emotions play a role in this.

“Your biggest asset is also your largest liability”

– Ginka Toegel

Leadership reflection question:

• What are the shadow sides of my biggest leadership strengths?

5. Leadership and emotions: unleasing energy in others

Leadership is essentially about how leaders connect with others. Leadership is a relationship. Emotions play an important role in this. Emotions connect people and emotions can also create distance between people. Emotions are contagious: when people around you are positive, this affects your mood. If people around you are sad or anxious, this also affects your mood. In service-oriented jobs (flight attendants, waiters, call center agents), a lot of emotional labor is done: employees are expected to be friendly and positive. This is quite an art, because people who call often have a problem or complaint. The friendly and positive mood of the employee affects the customer and the experience they have with the company. Leaders influence their followers in a similar way through their emotions.

Emotional intelligence is first of all the ability to notice emotions in yourself and the group of people around you. Secondly, emotional intelligence is the ability to contain and express your own emotions in a constructive manner and influence the emotional atmosphere in the room. Boyatis describes this as the ability “to unlease energy in others, by using your emotions.” Emotions are energy in motion. That is why it is important to be able to feel your own emotions and empathize with those of others.

Moments when results are achieved, or a positive spirit is created, are moments to strengthen that energy by making space and celebrating together. Moments of loss or setbacks are moments to strengthen solidarity, hope and meaning. Timing, tone and emotional resonance of the message determine how it is received by others. Volodymyr Zelensky showed himself to be a true artist at the beginning of Russia's war against Ukraine in 2022. His background as a comedian and actor helped him to translate the right tone and emotion into compelling speeches that captured the emotion and support of the entire Western world.

“Leadership is a relationship”

“Unleashing energy in others through using your emotions”

- Richard Boyatzis

Leadership reflection questions

• Which emotions (happy, angry, scared, sad, surprised) influence your leadership behavior?
• How do these emotions help you connect with others?
• How do your emotions get in the way of contact with others or good decision-making?
• If emotion don’t bother you at all: how do you connect to others? How do others connect with you?

6. Emotional makeup

Your emotional makeup is linked to personality traits, such as negative emotionality (how you deal with negative emotions such as fear, anger and shyness), extroversion, friendliness and childhood experiences. If someone has experienced their upbringing as loving and safe, this has a positive impact on emotional well-being later in life and on the ability to deal with emotions. If someone has experienced their upbringing as unsafe or unloving, this can affect how they now respond to other people or possible threats. The rational part of the brain, the neocortex, is not fully developed in childhood. The amygdala is active early in life. This is the emotional 'unconscious survival centre', which responds to perceived threats. The amygdala is fast, not accurate. Later in life, the amygdala can still respond to perceived threats based on childhood experiences (insecurity, abuse, bullying) through fight, flight or freeze. Understanding these emotional responses and their origins is a leadership journey: do you respond to perceived threats through fight, flight, or freeze? And where does that reaction originally come from? Is it appropriate in the situation you are in?

By developing the ability to pause after a perceived threat, you are no longer determined by the amygdala response based on an early life pattern. You now have a choice. This is where Viktor Frankl's famous quote comes from: “Between the trigger and your reaction lies the freedom to choose.” The pause gives you the opportunity to activate your neocortex: is there a real threat, or an old pattern from previous traumatic relationships as we described earlier about Eva Eger? What is a thoughtful alternative to a reactive fight, flight, or freeze response? Reactive emotional choices are rarely wise leadership choices, even in situations of real danger. This isn't as simple as learning a skill. It is an adult development process based on understanding your emotional life story. First the pattern becomes clear and this increases self-awareness. After that, there will be more and more moments of choice, better choices and fewer 'threatening' situations will arise. It therefore enables you to handle greater responsibility or work under bigger pressure.

A deepening insight into strengths/weaknesses, motivations and values ​​can be made by describing someone's personal life history. There is a life stage model that describes the important transitions in our lives: from child to adolescent, from adolescent to adult and from adult to elderly. The first phase of life determines how a child bonds and establishes relationships with others. Often this story is based on whether the child was safe in the early years and welcome in the family. Some life stage changes are marked by physical and hormonal changes such as the first growth of beard and breasts or the onset of fertility at the beginning of adolescence. In the adolescent years, children want to define their unique identity, separate from the family in which they grew up. For some this is a quiet transition, for others it is a 'wild river' with many dangers. In other cultures, these moments are rite passages where the transition to another phase is marked by a ritual, a celebration or an assignment. From the beginning of puberty, Muslims start participating in the entire Ramadan fasting period. In native African cultures, the moment of adulthood is heralded by a 3–5 day stay in nature, without outside help. The assignment is to show independence and consider what role the prospective adult wants to take in his community. This method is now used to conduct an in-depth leadership reflection in a 'vision quest'. There are wonderful personal (leadership) development questions linked to the transitions.

These are listed below in the reflection questions. The transition from adult to elder is still a taboo in many ways. There is more help available for women with menopausal problems, but it isn’t talked about easily in work environments. The declining physical strength of men is still a taboo, although it inevitably shows for professional sportsmen from the early 30’s onwards. Eventually, there is also perspective for those making the transition from adult to the elderly: the wisdom, the humor and the ability to put things into perspective are in great demand in our societies.

“Leadership choice is the ability to choose your response based on every impulse, informed by your emotions”

“From fearless to fear driven to fear informed”

Leadership reflection questions:

• What were your parents' emotional response patterns?
• To what extent have you adopted these reactions or developed a counter-reaction to them?
• Have there been emotional events in your life that still determine the emotions you feel today?
• How does your life story influence the way you deal with the emotions of others?
  

Life cycle reflection questions:

• Child: Was I safe? Was I welcome? How am I attached to my parents (un)safe)? What did I receive from my parents?
• Adolescent: How did I deal with boundaries and authority? What shaped my identity? Who is (or has been) important to my identity?
• Adult: What do I have to give? What do I take responsibility for? How far does my influence reach? How big are my dreams? What is my dream? How do I want to contribute meaningfully?
• Elderly: How do I deal with loss? How do I distinguish what can and cannot be made or changed? How do I put things into perspective? Where is the humor and what is ‘small happiness’ to me? What am I leaving behind?

7. Leadership skills

Then there is a skill part to the definition: “Be yourself more with skill”, which we discussed in paragraph 3. There are trainable skills that allow you to show competent leadership behavior. There is a range of leadership skills that help to build relationships: listening, empathizing, asking questions, summarizing, collaborating, coaching and facilitating. There is a different set of leadership skills that help to drive results: setting goals, providing direction, providing feedback on performance, clarifying responsibilities and having courageous conversations. These 'fundamentals' are easy to train with simple models, (online) explanations and training, books, podcasts, checklists and, above all, practice, practice practice. First crawl, then walk, run and sprint. Just like learning a language, learning to swim or drive a car. It is actually surprising that we know how to automate basic skills in sports, in theater and at school so well, whereas in organizations we expect the fundamentals in leadership to be in place after these have been explained to us once. We are a great advocate for ongoing skills training at all levels.
More complex leadership skills require a combination of result- and relationship-oriented behavior, such as negotiating, influencing, conflict management, dealing with dilemmas, stakeholder or performance management and inspiring with a vision. In fact, the same applies here as with the simpler leadership skills: practice, practice, practice: making progress in practice. Almost everyone finds it difficult to conduct a first bad news conversation or tel a story about a vision in an inspiring way. It is heart-warming to see how much progress you can make by, for example, practicing 'inspiring with a vision' with the guidance of actors and performance on stage. You then put your skills into action. If you do it regularly and ask for sincere feedback, you are on mastering the skill and expert levels.  Muscles have a memory, but the brain also benefits phenomenally from rehearsal. New habits eventually become automatic.

Combined relationship and results-oriented leadership skills are often a better response to situations than results or relationship skills alone. Many situations require leaders to build relationships and results at the same time: challenging AND supportive. Leadership thinkers came up with specific expressions for this: 'tough empathy' (Goffee/Jones), and 'care to dare' (Kohlrieser). That universal principle applies to all more complex leadership skills. Leadership choice means assessing the situation and choosing: what leadership behavior is needed here? How can I use myself to bring others in position to excel.
You can only use these skills, by making them personal. Fitting them into who you are as a person. That is the magic when it comes to authenticity and congruence: can you master leadership skills in such a way that they fit your unique leadership style?

“The sequence of: Crawling, standing, walking, running, sprinting, applies to all skills”

“Use it or lose it”

Leadership reflection questions:

• Do I tend towards results- or relationship-oriented leadership behavior?
• In which practical situations can I learn and hone the skills that do not come easily to me? Who can show me that? How can I get feedback and help from others on this?
• What do I avoid in my leadership?

8. Leadership reflection

Heifetz (Leadership on the line, 2017) uses the metaphor of “the balcony and the dance” for leadership reflection. Top athletes are able to play their game and at the same time watch the game from 'above the field' looking down. According to this analogy, leaders can learn to reflect, while they are leading. In this way they learn to better understand their leadership choices. The broad understanding today is that 70% of all leadership development efforts should take place directly in the workplace. This idea hinges on the person's ability to reflect during their interactions as a leader. Without reflection, workplace learning is meaningless. Coaching, observation and peer coaching can help deepen the reflective process. HR Business partners are increasingly fulfilling the role of active sounding board and thereby encourage the rest of the management team to do the same to each other. Partners, friends and family (children!) can be an essential, supportive and challenging mirror. They often know exactly what is neatly written down in a psychometric report. “I've been saying that for years,” we hear partners, friends and children say after reading the profile of their partner or parents.

Leadership choices are always about the daily choices to adapt yourself to your environment, or to stand up to change it. You choose, based on self-reflection, to integrate into an organization to belong, or to keep your distance so that you can change it. The ability to switch (effortlessly) from the dance of leadership to the balcony of reflection and back during work every day increases the ability to make good leadership choices.

Leadership choices are about the daily choices to adapt yourself to your environment, or to stand up to change this environment. You choose, based on self-reflection, to fit in or stand out in the organization to either belong, or change the situation. The ability to switch effortlessly from the dance to the balcony during work every day, increases the ability to make good leadership choices.

Leadership reflection questions:

• What was the most recent valuable leadership feedback you received?
• How did this feedback encourage you to develop?
• What progress did you make so far?
• Can you combine the balcony & dance act as a leader? When, at what times is it hard?
• How often do you provide valuable leadership feedback to others?

9. Embodied leadership

“In order to feel good, you must be able to feel really well,” is the beautiful Dutch saying that explains the importance of body work. It is more and more accepted that leadership requires a sharp mind, AND also an open heart and relaxed body. If your senses are relaxed, they enable you to perceive your emotions. Meditation, yoga, connected breathwork, Aikido and Tai Chi are all forms of bodywork have all become a standard practice. They are essential maintenance of your health and well-being and strengthen the connection between your head, heart and body. These forms of bodywork increase your contact with your body and help to notice your emotions. Those who observe well, can better determine what they need and, in contact with others, understand what the other person needs (empathy). Bodywork often provides access to current emotions, but also to emotions from earlier phases of life. Our childhood often determines the extent to which we can perceive and express our emotions. Understanding your emotional makeup gives you a better understanding of which emotions you are more or less familiar with. This influences your leadership behavior. Learning to sense your emotions better means that you also learn to listen better to other people's needs and emotions and can be more supportive and reflective in this.

“In order to feel good, you must be good at feeling.”

Leadership reflection question:

• How do stimulate the connection between body, heart and mind?
• How do you open up to what you feel and need?
• How do you open up to what others feel? How do you support others in becming more sensitive to what they are feeling?

10. Leadership and culture: creating a safe and stretching workplace

“A culture in which people dare to share their good ideas, concerns, complaints, bad news, mistakes and criticism, freely”. It sounds so obvious. In recent years there has been an ongoing stream of incidents of transgressive behavior in sports, in the cultural sector, in government and in business. We tend to forget that the results that people strive for in organizations are inherently uncertain. Therefore these results do cause fear and tension for people. The same applies to the power relationship between managers and employees. Whoever has position power as a leader should handle that with integrity and only for the greater good. Anyone who is dependent on that power must be resilient and dare to stand up for themselves. This is not obvious, nor easy. That makes the 'fearless organization', a term coined by Amy Edmundson, a challenging task. Here are the 'fundamentals' from a leadership perspective.

Leaders work in the natural tension between learning and performance, between development and assessment. A foundation of trust is created when mistakes are allowed and when there is room for experimentation and openness to evaluate results. But there is a limit to learning and development. If performance lags behind, or if mistakes are repeated at high reputational or financial cost, social safety comes under pressure. Courageous conversations make all the difference in these situations. Conversations in which the relationships between leaders and their people are strengthened AND disappointing results can be discussed together: were the objectives clear? Was it clear which projects could achieve those objectives? Was there enough help from me or others? Has your development been specific enough? Are you in the right place? In a team: is the division of tasks clear? Do we speak to each other, if agreements are not met? These are personal conversations that you can have, if there is a good relationship in place. You are prepared to get to know each other better and speak from your heart. Taking the time and choose the right moment to have courageous conversations makes all the difference. Courageous conversations require empathy and clarity, 'care' and 'dare'. And without a solid relationship, these conversations are almost certain to fail.

In courageous conversations you constantly switch between reason and emotions. You need to know your own emotions and manage them in the conversation. Next level is to explore and bear with the emotions of others in the conversation. A big part of humanizing organizations is creating an environment where all emotions are accepted. An environment where people can bring their whole selves to work. Emotions influence people and bring vibrancy to the workplace. When certain topics or emotions are suppressed, they still affect people's performance and engagement. What is not discussed becomes the blockage in the relationship. This weakens relationships between people.

In the workplace, fear is the least discussed emotion, even though it has the greatest impact of all emotions. Fear contains important information. Your fear ignites the other person's fear and vice versa. It requires taking a step back to understand the message of fear. Taking time to figure out a more constructive way forward, informed by the fear, but not guided by the fear. This is how you break the pattern. Behind our fears lies the path to development. What's holding you back? Fear of uncertainty, fear of failure, fear of rejection or fear of uncomfortable situations? If no fear holds you back, what is the risk for your (entrepreneurial) decisions?

“Courageous conversations require empathy and clarity, care and dare.”

Leadership reflection questions:

• What do you do to create a safe and challenging workplace for everyone?
• How courageous conversations have you had in the past month? What were the results?

Finally: Develop a unique and colorful leadership style!

That doesn’t mean: perfection, but real, unique and human. Based on a positive self-image, with compassion for your own weaknesses. Nurture your development by continuing to ask for feedback and bring yourself in position and out of comfort to learn in new situations that help you grow.

Bibliography

• Amy Edmondson (2018) The fearless organization
• Eva Eger (2017) The choice, embrace the possible
• Viktor Frankl (1946) Man’s search for meaning
• Rob Goffee & Gareth Jones (2015) Why should anyone be led by you?
• Daniel Goleman (2011) What it takes to be an authentic leader
• Daniel Goleman (2011) Leadership: the power of Emotional Intelligence
  George Kohlrieser (2012) Care to dare, Unleashing Astonishing Potential Through Secure Base Leadership
• Maxwell (2015) Intentional Living: Choosing a Life That Matters
• Meyer & Meijers: (2018) Leadership Agility, developing your repertoire of leadership styles
  

Previous versions of this article were created with the inspiring ideas of Erik Jan Hoekstra of The Thrive. Thank you EJ!