Head vs. Heart
Evolutionary leaders use both their head and their heart to find wisdom. This orientation and practice supports long-term, purpose-driven success.
“Several floors below, my heart sits patiently biding its time, knowing sooner or later my brain will have worked itself into a froth that results in confusion and paralysis. In those moments, my heart steps in and gently places the truth of the situation before my weary mind, a truth it has known all along.”
- From Head vs Heart by Alan Catanese
Senior executives continuously face intense and complex decisions that impact multiple stakeholders. Most of the time, leaders use the tools they naturally use — data, analysis, and logic to come to a conclusion — their head. This works, at least most of the time.
There are moments, however, for all of us where the sea is rough and decision making becomes a difficult act, where our logic seems to miss the mark and we feel spun and ungrounded. Much of the time we plow through and make the decision from our heads anyway, with an end something less than satisfying. One CEO I was coaching was attempting to navigate a particularly difficult board meeting — balancing decisions around their team’s equity package, major strategic decisions including M and A, and senior team resourcing in the midst of a significant revenue downturn. On the phone with them, they spoke non-stop for 5 minutes with a litany of pro and con options for each micro issue. I noticed my anxiety building as they spoke, barely able to track them as I scribbled down notes. Finally, when I reached the limits of my own thought I had to take a breath and ask them to stop. Then I said, “Would you mind taking a few breaths for a second?” And, “What are you feeling right now?” They said: “Fear.” I felt the conversation drop about two feet. They explained a bit of what the fear was for them, and the impacts on people they cared about, and their worry for the future of the business.
From that place of fear, we oriented towards a few core issues and found the connection from what they were feeling to specific underlying thought patterns their mind was turning out like chafe. It was a moment of stillness and peace — and feeling. From this place, they were able to get clear and orient towards a simple and felt sense of intention — to be essentially transparent, to do the highest good for the most people, and to serve the mission of the company. The multiple and complex decisions then ticked off quickly and the coaching call began to close far more peacefully than it began. It was quiet, sane, and instinctual. Malcolm Gladwell discusses how the best decisions are made from this instinctual place — the place beyond the complexity of logic.
This dynamic is common for many leaders and a hallmark of the transition from individual contributorship to leadership. Early in one’s career, we are paid for our intellect and use logic to perform tasks. Then, our work becomes increasingly higher in scope and in the domain of leading people — social and emotional beings. Decisions are muddy and finding a code or framework to make them from becomes a key aspect of strategic decision making. Additionally, finding the place of grounding, the place of being in the body vs. the mind allows for centeredness that informs all data and allows us to sense into social and people dynamics missing from cognitive analysis. As we say, “CEOs are paid for their groundedness and centeredness”. I used to watch a Fortune 500 CEO go into a small room to find quiet to prepare and sort himself out before big moments. It was an almost spiritual level of practice for big business decisions affecting tens of thousands of people.
Instead of assessing data first and then feeling in reaction to the data — which tends to support anxiety and fear — starting from the place of feeling and groundedness in the body and then looking at the data, allows for a quicker, more effective, and simpler process. “Executive presence” is in part exactly this. Throughout history, the Queens, Kings, and leaders we admired were rarely stressed, hurried, or manic. The sovereign moves fluidly, with ease and focus. Part of the secret may be the peace and groundedness they cultivated, that gave them the brain space from which to make these decisions. We now know from emotional Intelligence and neuroscience work that the brain benefits from the feeling, expression, and integration of emotions — it leads to clearer cognition. Simpler said than done in the midst of chaos.
Both the head and the heart are important — they integrate into a more holistic and balanced form of leadership. But for most, finding the body and the heart is the greater stretch. World events today give us ample opportunity to breathe and ground, and as my partner Geoff Graber says, this practical solution is a key strategy to navigating them. Finding our center and how we feel is key to untangling where we stand in the midst of the chaos of our world, and gives us a path to more skillfully navigate its challenges.
Head vs Heart
There’s no doubt about it — my mind is a great gift. But I am equally aware that the three pounds of gray matter wobbling around on top of my neck can often be more of a problem than a solution.
Because of its lofty perch, my head seems certain that it was meant to be in charge of my life. However, the truth is that my head spends much of its time manufacturing problems, fear and desires that are not real. Like a hamster in its wheel, my mind will run and run, without ever getting anywhere in its repeated attempts to “figure things out.”
Several floors below, my heart sits patiently biding its time, knowing sooner or later my brain will have worked itself into a froth that results in confusion and paralysis. In those moments, my heart steps in and gently places the truth of the situation before my weary mind, a truth is has known all along. If only my head would have stopped jabbering long enough to ask. Because while my head wonders, my heart knows.
- by Alan Catanese
