Do you know why leaders should enjoy TEA every day?

There is a strong connection between TEA and Leadership.

In fact, daily TEA is a must for any successful leader.

Good TEA leads to good Leadership.

Now some of you would wonder what is so special about TEA?

Well, TEA in Leadership is bit different to hot cup of Ceylon TEA that we enjoy daily.

Trust
“Trust is willingness to be vulnerable”, says James Davis in his 2014 TEDxUSU speech.

When you are trusted and trustworthy, people around your life are willing to take risks. They are ready to do things that they have never tried before and ready to walk with you to the places they have never ventured.

People wish to do business or like to negotiate or wish to associate with the people whom they could TRUST.

Trust is a catalyst for achieving positive outcome in leadership. It is a lubricant to develop and maintain sustainable relationship.

“You need to be likable and be respected in order to develop Trust” says Jeff Bloomfield, the author of Brain Trust.

It takes longtime to develop the trust but single wrong move could destroy what you have develop over the period. Therefore, you have to be mindful about Trust Busters such as giving misinformation, not maintaining your commitments, letting ego to take over, threatening attitudes etc.(Click this link to read my detail article on TRUST).

Empathy
“Empathy is your ability to understand emotional make up of others” says Daniel Goleman, in his Best Seller on Emotional Intelligence.

In other words, empathy is your ability to understand and feel the situations from others perspectives.

Do not mix this up with sympathy. The sympathy is “feeling for” whereas empathy is “feeling with”.

In simple terms empathy is “seeing with eyes of another, listening with ears of another and feeling with hearts of another”. It is not about you, but about others.

Be careful! Where ego sets in; empathy disappears.

Empathy is famously referred to as “Get into other man’s shoes and walking a mile in it”

This is easy to say but difficult to do.

Do you know why?

Because in order to get into other man’s shoes, we have to get out of our shoes first. This entails willingness to open your mind to understand the situations and see the world from others perspectives. It means opening up your mind, minimizing your pre-judgement and biasness. That is the first step and also the difficult part of empathy.

Authenticity
Authenticity is about how deep you are true to yourself.

It is about real you, true you and original version of you. It is about being who you are. One cannot develop this without deeply involve with process of “self-awareness”. Often this required to find an answer to the question “Why”.

Authenticity is an inner-game. It helps you to walk your talk.

Have you ever watched a TV commercial of a celebrity (actor or sportsman) who tries to promote particular low quality cars that they have never driven, promote baby foods that they never think of feeding his/her own child? How fake are they?

As an entrepreneur, manager, business leader does your products (or services) perform/deliver as you claim they are? Do you remember story of Volkswagen emission scandal?

If there is a gap between saying and doing, people around you will identify them quickly.

Often position and authority is used to move things around and achieve results. However, authenticity will help you to achieve long-term sustainability.

True authenticity comes with alignment of your saying, doing, thinking and feelings.

• What you say with your mouth (Saying)
• What you do with your hand (Doing)
• What you think with your mind (Thinking)
• How you feel with your heart (Feeling)

Remember; as a leader it is not about authority; but about authenticity.

Have you enjoyed your TEA today?