Are Your Leaders Environmentally Friendly?

In a world where information travels faster than ever, the expectations of work and leaders have changed significantly in just a few years, and, with those expectations, the emotions and motivations that affect our jobs and our lives also have changed. The goal? To develop leaders rather than followers.

With so many distractions, not to mention the lure of instant emotional gratification, average employees wait to be told what to do. Worse, they often do not see, feel or understand the bigger picture of their roles in an organization. Some leaders chalk it up to poor attitude or mentally challenged employees. The reality may relate more to a poor environment created by leaders who are unaware of the psychology of modern society. To cultivate leaders in an organization and lead them to greater achievement, consider applying a psychological form of leadership called environmental leadership.

The Psychology of Environment

Individuals have various environments that bring out different facets of their identities, and each is successful in one area or another. The key differentiators are the emotionally charged perceptions within each environment. The environmental leader creates a platform through education and awareness where employees fulfill each other's emotional gratifications and become more conscious of when and how they affect the group dynamics in positive or negative ways. This sets the foundation for the talent leader to cultivate a unified culture where employees feel they are important parts of achieving a greater goal and their roles in attaining that goal also serve them on a personal level.

Essentially, an environmental leader is the sculptor or an organization that promotes confidence and responsibility to act on what needs to be done to achieve business objectives in ways dictated by the culture.

Environmental leadership is not about changing the mindset of the group or individual; it's about cultivating an environment that brings out the best and inspires the employees in that group. It is not the ability to influence others to do something they are not committed to. Instead, environmental leadership nurtures a culture that motivates and even excites individuals to do what is required for the benefit of all. It is not carrying others to the end result; it's establishing the surroundings to develop qualities in employees so that they can lead each other. In other words, an environmental leader implements a psychological support system that fulfills the emotional and developmental needs of the group while simultaneously nurturing self-leadership.

The path to becoming an environmental leader is founded on a bed of self-discovery and laid with the tiles of group psychology. Only when we have an understanding of how leaders affect the system of a group, and how that system affects us, can we evolve to environmental leadership.

At first glance, it may seem like a daunting journey, but this path has an applicable structure that can be followed to create specific results. The first step is to realize that every action a leader takes, every decision made, no matter how small, will affect the group and will impact the organizational culture. Whether it is positive or negative, there will be an effect. Second, when any individual in a group reacts, it will affect the leader and each of the other members of that group, and this how a corporate culture is created.

Again, a leader's actions and reactions not only affect the psychology of individuals, but the entire culture of the organization or group. An environmental leader manages seven key psychological influences - two keys of personal awareness and five pillars of transformation - to cultivate a group and a culture that effectively supports the greater abilities, fulfillment and passion of the members of that group and nurtures leadership within.

Trust is a common fundamental for leadership, and while there are many facets of trust and many different ways to build it, one crucial way to do so is in simply sharing information. Group dynamics are best established by getting the group involved. The environmental leader does not develop followers; he or she nurtures leaders and leadership in their group or organization. To facilitate this, exactly how to be an environmental leader must be common knowledge disseminated throughout the organization. The more people there are who understand the essence of how they can become environmental leaders, the easier it becomes to cultivate a leadership-enriched environment and the better results everyone will attain.

The Two Keys

Cultivating a corporate culture where leaders develop leaders and decisions are competently made to achieve organizational objectives is an achievable outcome. It starts with understanding the seven key psychological influences an environmentally savvy leader manages in order to cultivate a group and a culture that effectively support the greater abilities, fulfillment and passion of the members of that group, while nurturing internal employees who have strong leadership potential.

Self-awareness leads to the recognition of two keys of personal awareness that must be accepted before the environmentally savvy leader can build the final five pillars of a transformational environment. The first step is the ability to realize that we will consciously or subconsciously make others wrong to support our ego, which leads to blame and discourages growth. Learning about our encoded assumptions, our rules of engagement and our circle of tolerance can help us recognize the reactions that may be preventing speedier growth for ourselves and those around us.

Thus, the first key is: Concentrate on growth and results; do not blame or make others wrong.

The next step is making others right, making leadership decisions and taking actions that help others to succeed and develop their abilities. And when they do succeed, specifically acknowledging their success and why they were successful. Learning how our genetic processing affects the way we perceive the world and approach tasks and decisions and what that means in manifesting our natural talents not only makes this easier, but also gives us a better platform to understand, cooperate and communicate with others.

Thus, the second key is: Create opportunities to make others successful, and positively acknowledge their specific actions that lead to that success.

The Five Pillars of Transformation

The following five pillars are the cornerstone of a leader's ability to modify group dynamics and to nurture an environment that inspires and brings out the best in others. Further, it is the process of constructing the five pillars itself that enables the leader and his or her team to embrace the two keys of personal awareness. This course of creation acts as a leadership catalyst to the keys' implementation, and modification of the leader's own behavior advances that individual's development into a more powerful, environmental leader.

1. Have a greater purpose.

The team must have a purpose that is greater or nobler than the personal goals of each individual. Yet realization of this greater purpose should be equally fulfilling to each individual.

The role of an environmental leader is to inspire this noble idea. The leader should make the group or team want it and be willing to take action to achieve it for the cause, for the promise of a greater working environment and to create a greater self.

2. Have a methodology that can make change.

The team must believe that change can happen and that they as a group can make it happen. They must believe that their own behavior can be improved and that they, as human beings, can be better people. They must believe that there is a way, through a common wisdom in the group, in which they can become powerful enough to change the organizational culture into a more fulfilling environment for all and, equally important, for the betterment of their own lives.

But to believe any of this, employees must have, and must recognize, a psychological methodology that can effectively make change happen.

3. Speak a common language.

The methodology carries with it a specific language. The language reinforces the learning and the higher purpose. It sets a foundation to understand and explain awareness, change and a higher level of living and working in a concise and effective way.

The role of the environmental leader is to use and reinforce the use of language in the group. Essentially, this individual should set the example by applying or using communication that supports the greater cause.

4. Have a unified identity.

The label or name given to a cause provides a psychological reference to a common goal and a common identity. The role of the environmental leader is to solidify that identity, to facilitate the team's efforts to associate or align itself with that identity and everything it represents. The environmental leader should be able to distinguish those who are a part of the greater purpose and simultaneously give them a group vision.

5. Maintain a supportive, internal environment.

The role of the environmental leader becomes to nurture and develop other environmental leaders within the team and the organization.

At this stage, the environment created will fulfill many of the constantly expanding emotional gratifications. This environment provides greater substance and meets the greater expectations of the modern world. Yet it cannot be developed without the right leadership. Environmental leaders must go into this knowing that as the process matures, they will no longer be as essential as when they started.