Líder Humano Gera Resultados - Ligia Costa

Did you know that 32% of Brazilian workers suffer from burnout, according to the International Stress Management Association (ISMA - BR)? Did you also know that according to data from the 2019 Pesquisa Nacional de Saúde (PNS), Brazil is the country with the highest number of depressed people in Latin America?

Alarming data, isn't it? And they have become even more critical in the context of the pandemic of COVID-19. Thus, changes in the management model have become crucial for the sustainable permanence of employees, and consequently, the growth of the company with satisfactory results.

In this summary of the book “Líder Humano Gera Resultados”, you will learn the importance of authentic communication, true connection, and practices to achieve collective success through the exercise of "compassionate leadership".

Do you want to learn this new humanized management model and how it can be a revolution in the leadership of your teams? Then, continue reading this PocketBook and discover the insights of the author Ligia Costa.

The book “Líder Humano Gera Resultados”

The book “Líder Humano Gera Resultados”, in free translation “Human Leader generates results” was written by Ligia Costa and published in 2021, by Editora Gente Autoridade.

The work has 177 pages and is organized into 7 chapters that address the theme of leadership. In particular, it discusses a new model that the author calls “compassionate leadership”.

Besides addressing the leader's posture and good management practices, the book also brings successful cases, research data, reports, and the author's experiences. It also proposes meditation practices, mindfulness, and journaling, that is reflective writing, leading the reader to reflect on and practice what is discussed.

Who is Ligia Costa?

Ligia Costa is a writer, speaker, and researcher, who has a degree in Marketing from Mackenzie University and a graduate degree in Organizational Management and Public Relations from the Escola de Comunicação e Artes da Universidade de São Paulo (ECA-USP).

The author is certified in Mindfulness by the Bhutan Center for Happiness. She is also the creator of the movement “Liderar com Amor Gera Lucros”, in free translation “Leading with Love generates Profits”.

Among her outstanding professional activities, she was an intern at LucasArts Entertainment Company, owned by George Lucas - screenwriter and director of the Star Wars franchise - in Silicon Valley (United States); she was Yahoo's Regional Marketing Executive Director in teams of eight Latin American countries.

Why should I read “Líder Humano Gera Resultados”?

The reading of “Líder Humano Gera Resultados” is recommended for managers, leaders, entrepreneurs, people who are in group management and want to achieve better results, through the exercise of a more humanized and effective leadership.

The work is also essential for those who want to seek tools in the training process to become a manager; or for those who are looking for more assertive practices that generate changes to become more humanized companies, such as compassionate leadership, presented by the author.

What can I learn from “Líder Humano Gera Resultados”?

• Retrograde management models and the harms to teams;
• The impact of stress, anxiety, burnout syndrome on the corporative world;
• Anthropological concept of the “BANI world”;
• The need for inclusion and diversity in companies. And the disparity between the data and what companies claim to have implemented;
• Bhutan and the Gross Domestic Happiness (GNH) indicator;
• Actions based on unconscious biases and the search for humanity conscience;
• Leadership based on compassion and service to others;
• SELFLESS leadership style;
• Key competencies for compassionate leadership.

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Why are the old leadership models crumbling?

The world is constantly changing and we are continually seeking to understand how it has changed, aren't we? Considering the various transformations, or accelerations, of the pandemic context due to the COVID-19 virus, a new definition begins to be used: “BANI world”.

The acronym comes from the words: Brittle, Anxious, Nonlinear, and Incomprehensible. These words are used a lot in our daily life, especially when talking about the mental health problems that society is facing.

There is no way to talk about mental health without relating it to the world of work, taking into consideration the time spent working, and that many problems in this area are caused by excess or inadequate conditions for the exercise of the activity. Among them, Ligia Costa emphasizes stress, anxiety, and burnout.

Having all these issues in mind, it is possible to realize that people are facing adversities that generate disconnection, therefore, work relations have been unsustainable. On the other hand, when talking about the relationships between managers and employees, this picture can get even worse.

According to the author, we are currently facing a collapse in the management of organizations and this has occurred due to the frequent practice of reactive, retrograde, and extremely critical leadership types.

How many times have you heard a story, or even experienced something similar, in which the boss yelled or offended the employee because he was not satisfied with some result?

According to the book, these “conventional” leadership models are based on control and fear. Therefore, they generate an environment based on psychological insecurity, since the employees are afraid to express themselves and even to be victims of the leaders' behaviors when they are in an altered emotional state.

It is important to emphasize that there are different styles of leadership and that there is not only one which is correct, the author even mentions some: autocratic, democratic, liberal, coach, servant, and situational. Later on, she introduces the style she supports: compassionate leadership.

The urgency of a new management model, which perceives the needs of the teams in a more humanized way, becomes even more evident in relation to minority groups and/or groups with low representation in the labor market. The appreciation of diversity and inclusion must be characteristics of this model.

The book brings some information and data to tangibly exemplify these situations:

• In the second quarter of 2020, Brazil had 8.5 million fewer women in the labor force compared to the same period in 2019 (IBGE data, obtained from the Pnad Contínua);
• According to a McKinsey survey, only 60% of women and 40% of men in leadership positions publicly recognize black female employees for their ideas and actions at work;
• The prejudice suffered by trans women in the workplace, according to the online platform TransEmpregos, involves first the identity matter, and then the gender itself;
• There are more than 45 million people with some kind of disability in Brazil, according to IBGE data, but only 1% are inserted in the labor market.

This way, it can be asked how prepared the companies are to change these situations, not only with the intention of fulfilling some mandatory legal requirement, but for a real integration. According to the writer, this can be achieved with a more human posture from the leader, based on compassion and love.

Is it possible to lead with love?

While traditional forms of management are based on hierarchy, ego clashes, the need for power and control, a compassionate leadership, on the other hand, focuses on the experience and needs of others, and the well-being of the team.

Obviously, to adopt this posture does not remove problems or make tasks easier, because being a team manager is a challenge.And it must be overcome, according to the work, with the clarity of who you are, in the service of others, and generating impact in the community.

The author states that acting with sympathy generates disconnection, but acting with empathy generates sustainable relationships. It is important to highlight that having an empathetic attitude does not imply offering all the solutions, but connecting with what the employee has been going through, through active listening.

A work environment in which the team feels good, welcome, and safe will make people happier and generate more results for the company.

The importance of people's level of happiness has been the subject of many debates, but it has also generated an indicator, the GNH: Gross Internal Happiness. It arose as a result of the approach adopted by a king in the small Asian country of Bhutan.

This country became known in the 1970s when the fourth king, Jim Signye Wangchuck, stated that Gross Domestic Happiness (GDH) would be more important than Gross Domestic Product (GDP), so the State should be responsible for setting government policies focusing on happiness and not only on the economy.

The adoption of this new vision brings out a more human leadership. Being it driven by a systemic vision and based on collective goals, and also allowing each member of the team to achieve their personal and professional goals.

The development of this consciousness of humanity is generated by the incentive of “if one wins, everyone wins”. And this should be stimulated by leading with love, which will consequently result in good results and profit.

However, to achieve this change, we need to go through a process of deconstruction, especially in relation to our standpoints, since they are based on what we believe and defend.

The author states that we all have prejudices and that we act according to unconscious and ingrained biases, and we can classify them into:

• Perception bias;
• Affinity bias;
• Gender bias;
• Groupthink bias;
• Confirmation bias.

In order to identify them, and then generate a transition, self-knowledge is necessary. Therefore, the book proposes a series of mindfulness exercises and journaling practices that can be tools to help and optimize the process of becoming a compassionate leader.

How to be a compassionate leader?

First, it is important to emphasize that, according to the author, the adoption of this new model consists of 3 pillars:

1. Quality of Attention, which refers to the development of active listening;
2. Orientation to the Other, which addresses a connection in a genuine way;
3. Being in Service, which refers to engagement.

These skills or practices can be developed if intentionally incorporated by the manager. Since, according to the work, compassion is trainable.

Lead with compassion is to reject traditional conflict-based leadership models, which are focused on competition and the enemy’s destruction, reframing the vision to be able to collaborate, serve, and contribute.

According to the author Ligia Costa, the leader must be like an alchemist, stimulating engagement and taking advantage of opportunities, guiding the management in the promotion of psychological safety.

The development of this security in the workplace brings the vision that everyone is liable to mistakes, and therefore they are allowed. Through failures, it is possible to make tests, adaptations, and consequently, chances for growth and improvement.

The establishment of these new habits and attitudes will require the balance of skills and the addition of many intelligences. The work quotes one of the authors of the book “Conscious Capitalism”, Raj Sisodia, when presenting the SELFLESS leadership style, which means being altruistic. So we have:

• S = Strength: sustaining values and essence;
• E = Enthusiasm: work with courage and meaning;
• L = Long Term View: to have a strategic mindset;
• F = Flexibility: managing extremes and making assertive choices;
• L = Love & Care: to act with empathy and provide an environment of psychological safety;
• E = Emotional Intelligence: to have self-knowledge of the emotions for better decision making;
• S = Smart System: understanding of interconnection and being part of a system;
• S = Spiritual Intelligence: to allow that the organizational environment is also influenced by intuition.

In relation to the skills to be implemented by leaders, Ligia Costa addresses the Shakti concept, which comes from India. It deals with the balance between strengths and abilities attributed to the masculine and feminine. However, it does not refer to gender, but to the balance of these two poles in business.

Finally, the book brings six essential competencies for compassionate leadership, which will transform not only the relationship with employees, but also the manager himself:

1. Humanity: the leader needs a systemic and integrated vision, leaving behind reactive responses and acting in a coherent and compassionate manner;
2. Presence: to be focused in order to prioritize tasks and optimize time, but remembering that being a multitasker is not synonymous with productivity. In addition, develop active listening;
3. Courage: to assume your personality and purpose as a leader, generating acceptance and belonging;
4. Inclusion: to be a facilitating agent to help the team's difficulties, providing an environment based on equity;
5. Interconnection: having the understanding of belonging to a network, acting with sensitivity and intelligence. Learning how to give constructive feedback; 
6. Compassion: to act with self-compassion and then extend this to others, seeing error as an opportunity to learn.

The journey to become a human leader, and thus produce even better results, needs to be followed by a significant amount of learning and self-knowledge. Therefore, the recommendation to make the exercises suggested by the author can guide you at the beginning of this path.

Books about humanized leadership

In the book “The Kind Leader”, the author Karyn Ross brings the importance of kindness in good leadership practices and the influence of this attitude in the organizational culture.

While in “Firms of Endearment”, authors Raj Sisodia, David B. Wolfe, and Jag Sheth argue that a win-win scenario is possible by building businesses with love and care.

Finally, author Brené Brown, states in her book “Dare to Lead” that it is necessary to have courage and make yourself vulnerable in order to be a stronger leader, and thereby overcome problems and uncertainties.

How can I apply the ideas from “Líder Humano Gera Resultados”?

• Replacing conventional management models for more humanized and compassionate models;
• Every manager needs to invest in self-knowledge, emotional intelligence, and self-compassion practices, because by first taking care of himself/herself he/she will be able to be a more human leader;
• Transformation of the limited vision of equality in the team, for a vision of team, inclusion, and diversity; besides valuing the benefits that these practices bring to the team;
• Deconstruction of unconscious biases to reach the conscience of humanity;
• Application of the fundamental skills for the exercise of compassionate leadership.

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