The Heart of Leadership
Serely Geraldine D. Alcaraz
Editor-In-Chief

In the book, “The Heart of Leadership: 12 Practices of Courageous Leaders,” Robert E. Staub II shares with us the four chambers that make up the heart of every true leader: (1) competency, (2) intimacy, (3) integrity, and (4) passion. He encourages leaders to become more than just enthusiastic managers. Leadership requires courage – the courage to risk, to reach, to put one’s self on the line. The word courage comes from the French word coeur, which means heart. Leaders who see the hazards, experience anxiety or even terror but proceed because it is the right thing to do have found the heart of leadership.

Staub reveals the following twelve (12) practices of courageous and effective leaders, and provides specific exercises geared to strengthen the leadership heart of business men and women:

Practice 1: Providing Guidance through Shared Vision

Practice 2: Focusing on Purpose

Practice 3: Creating Followership

Practice 4: Setting Standards while Eliciting Goals

Practice 5: Reading and Understanding Others

Practice 6: Providing Resources

Practice 7: Liberating Motivation

Practice 8: Supporting Others

Practice 9: Providing Feedback

Practice 10: Principled Flexibility

Practice 11: Soliciting Personal Feedback

Practice 12: Cultivating the Heart of Courage

Last January 26, we just witnessed the induction of our new set of PMAP officers, board of directors and chairpersons who will be serving our beloved organization this 2011. These are courageous leaders, business men and women, who will be leading PMAP from the heart. They possess the four chambers and will apply the twelve practices that Robert Staub refers to in his book. They took on the challenge to embark on “new pathways, bold strides,” the PMAP Theme for 2011. And with Valentine’s day just around the corner at the time of this writing, we thought it best to devote the February issue of the People Manager to “The Heart of Leadership.”

So what’s in store for this month’s issue? We have feature articles from not just one, but two international experts, leadership gurus, and best-selling authors. Dr. John C. Maxwell, author of “Developing the Leader Within You,” “The 360-Degree Leader,” “Leadership Gold” among many others, shares how strategic leaders, like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. guide and direct movement to get results. Leaders step forward to channel the energies of people into productive outcomes by providing clear strategy. We also have an article from Thomas G. Crane, author of “The Heart of Coaching.” He challenges leaders to create a high-performance coaching culture where everyone in the organization courageously engage in candid, respectful coaching conversations, unrestricted by reporting relationships, about how they can improve their working relationships and individual and collective work performance.

Three PMAP Past Presidents (PP) also contributed to this month’s issue. PP Noli Payos shares his views on what is leadership and attributes of leaders like Jesus Christ, Abraham Lincoln, Jose Rizal, Ninoy Aquino and Steve Jobs. PP Ernie Cecilia focuses on a key skill needed by all leaders – creativity – and poses the question – how creative should you be? PP Mark Go describes the role of leaders in getting from “here” to “there” and how leadership remains to be a constant driving force for organizational and social transformation.

We also have the Ms. Moje Aquino’s “Choice Cuts” column that features the book “Return on Experience: Learning Leadership at Work” by Jeffrey Yip, a handy guidebook on leadership that introduces the return-on-experience (ROE) framework that leaders can use as they actively seek to learn from experience in order to develop their mastery, versatility, and impact. In her “Watch Your Image” column, Ms. Dina Loomis shares her views on servant leadership and gave examples of remarkable leaders who serve as models for serving others with caring and humility. Jaime Menor from our PMAP Subic Chapter, also contributed an article on the various roles of leaders that help them in bringing out the best in their people.

May all these articles inspire us to become even better leaders and people managers in our respective organizations – courageous and effective leaders who have the heart for working with, engaging, and “en-couraging” others. Happy Valentine’s Day to all!