Knowledge

Remember Aristotle

Aristotle used to say that human beings consist of three centres: the cognitive centre (head), the affective centre (heart), and the physical centre (body). Hinduism describes seven centres or chakras, and not just three, but to keep this blog simple, let’s stick with the 3-center structure. 

Happy, effective, energetic individuals are those were the three centres are aligned: there is a synergy, an harmony, a consistency between what they think and believe (cognitive), what they feel, love and are enthusiastic about (affective), and what they do (physical). When there is such an alignment, in any area of your life, no obstacle can resist you. What works for individuals also works for partnerships or other teams: the firms that are ultimately successful are those where there partners share common ideas and a certain way to think, feel enthusiast and attached to the same values, and act in a consistent way. 

Inversely, a lot of misery comes both for individuals and for partnerships from a mismatch between what we believe in and what we (have to) do or between what we do and what we love (I read recently in a poll that 87% of employees actually hate their job). 

Another form of such mismatch comes from what I call the “heart by-pass”: you define, at the cognitive level, the perfect solution (well documented, logic, intellectually brilliant, etc.), and you expect that it will be automatically translated into action (physical level). But a bit disappointment awaits you: nothing happens. People (your clients, your partners, or even the associates in your firm or department) simply ignore the cognitively perfect recommendations. The reason is that you have by-passed the affective centre. Convincing the mind is one think, but energising the heart is another. Many perfect strategic plans fail, despite their perfection, because their authors wrongly assumed that the readers are cognitive-physical (being convinced intellectually will lead to action) while there are cognitive-affective-physical, or even sometimes just affective-physical.

If you do not have a plan to excite people, to raise enthusiasm, to include the heart factor in your slides, to ensure that people feel committed and eager, then even your most brilliant and intellectually superior strategic plan will not lead you very far. People must feel emotionally connected to the decisions they make. The art of leadership is to cultivate this emotional connection, this deep attachment to certain values and objectives. A perfect plan with no passion attached is useless.

Antoine Henry de Frahan | 3 December 2007 |