by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
When times are tough, people look to leaders to guide them.
The Commercial Real Estate Women of Jacksonville brought Kanu Kogod of Bridges in Organizations to speak on the topic of “Leadership in Times of Uncertainty” last month at their meeting at the Jacksonville Marriott.
Kogod spoke about a leadership program, Leadership Alchemy, that has been offered at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in the past and is a transformational leadership, women’s empowerment and leadership program.
“Through Leadership Alchemy participants explore a broader range of leadership moves that become second nature by reinforcing learning at the intellectual, emotional, and physical levels,” said Kogod. “You always have to be one step ahead of the people you are leading in order to get them to follow you.”
In this market, being able to have a leadership presence is very powerful. “We lead ourselves and then we lead others,” she said.
Leadership Alchemy is a nine-month transformational leadership program and Kogod said some of the practices used are reading and reflection, leadership presence, appreciative inquiry, emotional intelligence and action learning.
“Leadership is a way of being,” she said. “Warren Buffet, thebusinessman and philanthropist, said that after he lost big in insurance after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. ‘I violated the Noah role. Predicting rain doesn’t count. Building arks does,’ he said. ‘Are you building arks? Are you taking care of your future? We can all predict the uncertainty, but who is building an ark? A way of being is about believing first and foremost in yourself and taking the actions that will lead to different outcomes.’”
The language of leadership is very important as well, she said. You have to sell what you are saying with your words and your body language to support your words.
“Your words create reality,” said Kogod. “Your words give meaning to your existence. Your words reveal how you see the world, yourself and others.”
In other words, you may say you feel great, but if your shoulders are hunched over and you don’t have a smile, your true feelings will be revealed and others will be able to read your body language and know you aren’t being true.
“Non verbal signs are more evident than you think,” she said.
For more information on Leadership Alchemy, visit www.leadershipalchemy.com.