These tools provide both a practical blueprint and a set of models, so that you can live and lead intentionally. Applying these tools will help you build meaningful organizations, establish healthy culture, lead others, and steward your own character well. These tools work together something like this:

THERE-HERE-PATH is the framework of life

We start our journey with a vision, clearly communicated and honestly committed to. After we know where we want to go, we have to figure out where we are by naming our HERE. As we unpack the relationship between our current reality and our desired destination, we create SMART goals that move us along the PATH towards our destination.

The first step we take on the journey towards building a meaningful organization is casting a true and honest vision based on VALUES and available to all participants of our organization.

Communication

After we’ve established our vision, we need to clearly communicate our THERE. Therefore, we need to use the sender-medium-barriers-receiver model to share where we’re headed.

Clear communication helps us shape organizational culture, in ourselves and in our organization. Communication guides the entire process of leading and influencing others.

Leadership Styles

Leadership styles are the different ways that we can influence others. They help us usher people toward co-ownership of shared mission through self-governance.

The five leadership styles are directive, transactional, participative, delegative, and transformational. Exercising each appropriately helps us build a meaningful organization.

Types of influence

The types of influence are connected to the five leadership styles. While leadership styles describe the strategy of influence, the types of influence are the specific ways we carry out those strategies. Position, coercion, reward, expert, and referent are the types of influence that we can steward in our interactions with others. Referent influence inspires others, since it is based on the things people most desire: noble character and transcendent meaning.

Ever-changing here

We live in a constantly evolving reality. Emotion and circumstance, our decisions and the input of others all affect our reality. The HERE tools help us understand our current reality by inviting us to measure small and measure often. When we operate this way, we can discover the truth more effectively and make adjustments as necessary.

Reality will never fully align with our expectations. So inevitably, we find ourselves in the pit of THE MOOD CURVE. We move through the mood curve by setting SMART goals, practical commitments that propel us toward our vision. The reality of the VICTIM CIRCLE is most apparent to us when we’re in the pit but can be encountered in all stages of THE MOOD CURVE.

If and when we fall into the victim circle, we need a MOMENT OF TRUTH. By recognizing, accepting, and owning the three things we control, we seek and share truth in harmony.

As we share the truth, CONFLICT might arise. Conflict is not in and of itself a bad thing. No matter how we approach conflict, it’s always an opportunity to grow, develop intimacy, strengthen character, and persevere on our mission.

Moving along the PATH

We move along our PATH using the FREEDOM V, which is the vehicle we’re traveling in. It’s our mechanism for self-governing. By setting boundaries, facing consequences with courage, and moving up and down the V, we put ourselves in the best position to make progress on the journey. Doing all this helps minimize the depth of the pit and protect our minds from the Victim Circle.

All along the way, we encounter our emotions. Emotions let us know that something we value is at stake. They’re a vital part of our internal communication structure. When we face our emotions, it is important to acknowledge them, continue to communicate, and measure the circumstances against our values.

Handling our emotions like this creates space for us to Feel-Think-Act (not Feel-Act-Think). In other words, we discover the truth behind our emotions before we make decisions. We unlock this truth by using System Two. System two (and system three) thinking is the careful, deliberate thinking we use in order to learn and grow.

We can use System Two to contemplate boundaries in the Freedom V, truth during a MOT, or whichever of the two circles we are in (among others). As we spend time in system two and system three, our system one is transformed, resetting our patterns into something more healthy, more meaningful, and more true.

Tying it all together

The PATH is the shape of The Project Mood Curve. It connects our HERE to our THERE. As we travel along the PATH, our HERE changes. The strategy along the PATH is to PLAN – ACT – LEARN – ADJUST, constantly measuring where we are in relation to our THERE so that we can honestly and effectively continue the journey.

What is the next step your organization can take to move toward culture transformation and achieving a unified purpose? What part do you play in stewarding your own character and in achieving the mission of your organization(s)?

Additional Resources

We have introduced a series of tools that when used intentionally can help us to become more effective leaders. In this episode we will show you how it all ties together.

In our final episode we answer some frequently asked questions that people have as they dive deeper and work through the Servant Leadership tools.