Leaders connect to the heart. Their words are weighted with experience. When a leader provides insight on the road ahead, followers feel that the challenge is smaller. The leader has personal insight into the challenges that others face.  When the leader offers hope, followers judge the insight to be authentic help.

Kouzes (Coauthor of The Leadership Challenge) wrote that one consistent quality found in leaders is that they have been significantly challenged in their career. Tough times, followed by action and fortunate choices, leads to personal growth. Leaders have experienced working on the edge of their performance, and have given their personal best. The transformation of one’s capacity to act follows a hard encounter that could have damaged the leader’s career, and bruised one’s hope. Instead, leaders have emerged with a strong capacity for understanding being tested. Their words to a follower will offer sincere hope, created in the crucible of life pain.

Not only do leaders have the capacity to encourage the heart, I have found that most are driven to help others. They encourage others with the hope that followers will not feel the intensity of pain and change that the leader went through.

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Can you help me?  I’m collecting stories for my book about career change & leadership. I would like to know your story.  Start with this five question survey: http://bit.ly/123dIL