Great leaders architect moments

Great leaders architect moments. Their energy, focus, and agility, attracts others to experience what they experience. Like a full breath during a walk in the forest, or relaxed shoulders when entering a stained glass cathedral, a physiological reaction takes place when we’re around positive, inspiring, soothing, and grounded leaders.

 

Davis, an architecture and design firm based in Phoenix and Chicago, says it well in an upcoming company video about the influence of space:

“We shape the building, then the building shapes us. Anyone can design a structure. We design the moment.”

 

Truly great leaders design moments, but before they reach this transcendent and rare level of influence, they pass through three supporting stages.

 

First, strategic plans, clear goals, solid measurement systems, continuous improvement plans, and sound corporate structures provide the brick and mortar of their leadership.

 

Next, the leaders’ own derailers need to be managed. The techniques found in emotional intelligence, crucial conversations, meeting management, closed-loop feedback, and active listening are first and foremost designed to manage the leaders’ tendencies and impulses to behave ineffectively. These interpersonal skills, needed for complying to company norms, are the walls and ceilings of great leadership.

 

Lastly, leaders who intentionally decide how they want to be BEFORE they start the annual review, team meeting, or management update rally their energy to create a confident, calm, clear, and compassionate focus. These rare leaders decide to see the best in others, even when the evidence proves otherwise. They know people respond the way they’re treated. They remain agile; able to read verbal and non-verbal cues, and are quickly able to adjust their approach. This is the creative design of their leadership structure.

 

Great leaders attract others because they show us what we want to be, can be, and will be when we decide and align our energy, focus, and agility in the direction of our highest and greatest good.

 

Great leaders architect moments.