The Emotionally Healthy Leader

By Gayle Hardie and Malcolm Lazenby

The Emotionally Healthy Leader challenges current thinking about leadership development and introduces a unique way of achieving this.
It intends to both inspire and stimulate your development through exploration and experimentation in increasing emotional health levels.
It is likely to change how you see, respond to and interact with the world, and
the way you engage and work with others, through better understanding of yourself and the impact you have.

This book will strengthen your value as a leader, simplifying the pathway you create for others through the work you do on yourself.

Great leaders know they need more than skills.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Global Leadership Foundation
• Release date: Oct 19, 2016
• ISBN: 9780994429339

Gayle Hardie

As the co-founders of Global Leadership Foundation, Gayle Hardie and Malcolm Lazenby are passionate about and committed to making a positive difference to people, organisations and communities – both locally and globally.Along with their enthusiasm, they each bring over 30 years of experience and internationally recognised expertise in developing, strengthening and transforming individuals, teams, organisations and communities.Gayle and Malcolm’s work on the emotional health levels of leaders and their “translation” of the Enneagram into practical and tangible business applications are recognised across the globe as both innovative and groundbreaking.Gayle and Malcolm are also committed to continuing their own professional and personal development as leaders and use their insights from this to strengthen and enhance the work they do with others.

Book preview

What they say about The Emotionally Healthy Leader

"In this easy-to-read and absorb book, The Emotionally Healthy Leader, Gayle and Malcolm show their deep commitment and passion for developing leaders who are aware, responsible, authentic, adaptable, self-mastering, and conscious. Emotionally unhealthy leaders can destroy an otherwise viable organization in less than 3 months, and it can take years to repair the collateral damage. This book serves as an inspiration and guidepost for leaders who want to grow deeply, intentionally, and in ways that transform both themselves and their organizations."

Ginger Lapid-Bogda PhD ~ international Enneagram teacher and author of 4 Enneagram books, including Bringing Out the Best in Yourself at Work, What Type of Leader Are You?, Bringing Out the Best in Everyone You Coach, and The Enneagram Development Guide.

"The Emotional Healthy Leader is an important book for all leaders to read. It puts the focus on a more or less missing part in leadership development. The topic of this book is more important than ever for all of us, but especially for leaders. Leaders greatly affect their surroundings with their behavior and their decisions every day – in a more or less unconscious way.

The topic is explained in an easy and uncomplicated way. You get a very good sense of ​​how and why emotional health is important, and tips on how to put it into practice and be more conscious about your behavior and responses. It is so nice to see that it is possible to write a book with a very clear message without the need of 500 pages to do it. The size and the number of pages make this book suitable for use in leadership programs as mandatory reading."

Bente Boe, Founder and Partner, Leadership Development Unlimited, Denmark

"I really enjoyed The Emotionally Health Leader. I found it most thought provoking, not least because of various events that have been occurring around me lately. I'm doing a leadership and management course through work at the moment, of which the next module is an ‘Introduction to Leadership’. I’m sure I’ll be all over it after reading this book. I really liked the way that the first part consisted of the three case studies. Getting real examples of the challenges that the leaders had was really illuminating."

Scott Saunders, Electronics Engineer, Portsmouth, England

A deeply thought-provoking and practical book that explores leadership in a non-traditional manner. Its clever structure makes for a captivating read and allows the content to flow smoothly, maximising impact and the new-world wisdom discussed. Using thoughtful case studies and clear examples from the three chosen emotionally healthy leaders, the book allows a clear grasp of some challenging ideas within different situations. ‘Catching your reactions’ is a powerful concept that I have been applying immediately. The most enlightening book that I have ever read on leadership..  

Mark Waller, Process Team Leader, Energy Production sector, Australia

THE EMOTIONALLY HEALTHY LEADER

Gayle Hardie and Malcolm Lazenby

First Published in 2013

This revised edition 2016

by Monterey Press

PO Box 319

Carlton North  VIC  3054

Australia

www.montereypress.com

Smashwords edition

Copyright © Gayle Hardie and Malcolm Lazenby, 2013, 2016

Author contact: [e-mail]

Website: www.globalleadershipfoundation.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers and copyright holders.

Gayle Hardie and Malcolm Lazenby assert the moral right to be identified as the authors of this work.

Cover artwork by Trina Stanway

Designed and typeset by Scarab Blue Design

National Library of Australia

Cataloguing-in-Publication entry

Author: Hardie, Gayle, author.

Title: The emotionally healthy leader / by Gayle Hardie and Malcolm Lazenby.

ISBN: 9780994429339 (epub)

Subjects:    Leadership.

Mental health.

Emotions.

Social interaction.

Other Authors/Contributors:   Lazenby, Malcolm, author.

Dewey Number:       658.4092

Dedication

The Emotionally Healthy Leader challenges current thinking about leadership development and introduces a unique way of achieving this.

It intends to both inspire and stimulate your development through exploration and experimentation in increasing emotional health levels.

It is likely to change how you see, respond to and interact with the world, and

the way you engage and work with others, through better understanding of yourself and the impact you have.

This book will strengthen your value as a leader, simplifying the pathway you create for others through the work you do on yourself.

Acknowledgements

We value and appreciate the amazing support of a number of people in making this book possible:

The three leaders (Chris, Karenza and Graeme) who provided the context and content for the book and are wonderful examples of emotionally healthy leadership – and yes, they have chosen to use their real names..

John Rogerson, CEO of the Australian Drug Foundation, for the regular and stimulating conversations on leadership and culture, and also for his recurring question: ‘So when are you going to put all this in a book?’ Just to let you know, John – this is the first instalment.

Russ Hudson and the late Don Riso, pioneers in the world of the Enneagram, for introducing us to levels of development and stimulating our thinking about emotional health in that context.

Dr David Daniels, another Enneagram pioneer, for his untiring interest in who we are and what we are doing to translate the world of emotional health and the Enneagram into business.

Andrea Isaacs, a gifted Enneagram teacher and creator of EnneaMotion, for reinforcing our understanding of emotional health through movement and appreciating that you can’t get there simply by thinking.

Sir John Whitmore for challenging our world views as individuals and as leaders.

Dianne and Alan Collins of QuantumThink for being instrumental in our journeys on the emotional health path.

Jack Zenger, former managing director of Zenger Miller, who created six Basic Principles that are integral to the way in which Gayle lives her life.

Greg Goodman, former CEO of RACT, who encouraged and inspired Malcolm to step into his own business around leadership development.

Our Global Leadership Fellows, for leading by example in continuing their own development in emotional health and leadership as well as being on the journey with us.

Trina Stanway for the most creative and thoughtful expression of emotional health on the front cover of the book.

And last, but not least, David Brewster, for literally turning our thoughts and ideas on emotional health into a reality.

Introduction

Before you start to read this book, we’d like you to pause for a moment and think about leadership. Not the leadership you’ve read about in management books or the Harvard Business Review. Not the theory of leadership. We want you to think about real leaders you work with, leaders you have worked for, and leaders you’re aware of in the wider community.

We want you to identify two or three of these people who you regard as excellent examples of leaders and leadership. Don’t try to analyse them; don’t try to pull them apart and work out what makes them stand out. For the moment, bring these people into your imagination. Invite them into a room of your mind and allow them to sit quietly in the corner, serving as constant reminders of what leadership can be when it’s done ‘right’.

When you’ve reacquainted yourself with these people – virtually, that is – please read on.

‘Leadership’ has become a holy grail of the last decade or two. Scores of books, journal articles and research papers have been dedicated to the task of trying to understand what great leadership is and how it might be replicated. There are countless ‘shopping lists’ of outstanding leadership characteristics, with the implication that all one needs to do to be a better leader is take more of these items off the shelf, that is, to learn more skills.

Yet when we look at leaders in the real world, we see that there is no single ‘ideal’ of leadership. Leaders, even good and great ones, vary enormously.

Take a look into that room in your mind, at those leaders you’ve invited inside, and we would be very surprised if you found them to be clones of each other.

Some outstanding leaders are highly charismatic while some