Needs-Based Leaders

Effective leaders understand personal, team, and organizational needs and can distinguish needs from strategies. Fluency in understanding the needs can be called empathy. Many people think empathy is solely about listening to others and understanding their feelings. However, they often don't realize the value of feelings as accessible indicators of needs. Effective leaders are skilled in empathy on the intrapersonal, interpersonal, and organizational levels. In every interaction, the empathic approach is: Connect-Think-Act. In the Connect phase, you discover your values/needs; in the Think phase, you plan strategies based on your needs; in the Act phase, you implement your strategies. When leaders coalesce people around needs, they decrease the odds of conflict and increase productivity.