Empathy Interviews: A Window to Connection and Innovation
10/28/2022
10/28/2022
In order to design successful and innovative solutions that impact the end user in a positive and compassionate way, it is necessary to approach design with a deep understanding of the issue needing to be solved. Deep understanding comes when a compassionate connection with the end user has been formed. Empathy provides a window for the solution designer to see their user’s point of view and to take on the user’s emotions as their own.
I recently conducted an empathy interview with a colleague in order to understand their personal experience of the pandemic and to practice conducting this type of interview. A successful empathy interview provides deep insight into the interviewees thoughts and gut reactions, and identifies specific emotions. In order to identify specific emotions, it is critical that the interviewer learns to ask thought-provoking questions that help the interviewee to relate their experiences and provide specific and pointed insight.
During this interview, I had the chance to practice this skill. I started my interview by asking the interviewee what gut reactions or immediate emotions came to mind in reaction to the interview prompt. This initial insight they provided led me to dig deeper and to ask why those specific emotions came to mind first. I obtained the best results by asking open-ended questions and encouraging the interviewee to elaborate wherever possible. Continuing to ask for more details was an effective strategy because many times during the interview, the additional details led to new thoughts and insight that I would have not thought to ask about before. Wherever possible, I asked the interviewee to describe their emotions using specific examples and context, which resulted in richer insight.
Questions that did not work as well were those that were either too general or too narrow, and those questions that could be answered briefly. It was difficult not to assign words to the interviewee’s emotions too quickly. I got better insight by letting them reflect in a more general fashion first and then narrowing down to specific emotion words later in the interview.
Since my interviewee was someone with whom I was not well-acquainted,I learned much about them. I found that they were upbeat and positive while still being honest about their negative emotions. I felt they opened up easily with the questions I provided, but with someone less open, I might need to work on revising my questions to encourage them to reflect more deeply.
In a nonprofit partner interview, I believe I could take a similar approach with my questions; asking more general questions first, then asking for specific stories, and then having the interviewee put detailed words to their emotions. It is not easy to automatically empathize with someone you don’t know, but the more prepared you are to listen carefully and adapt your questioning process as you go, the more successful you will be in extracting deep insight. The first step of empathy is meeting someone where they are, and there are few better ways to do this than to listen and to empower and inspire them to tell their stories.
Empathy: The Foundation of Successful Design
9/16/2022
9/16/2022
Photo credit: experiencelife.lifetime.life
Empathy is defined as the ability to feel what another person feels and to be able to understand and sympathize with them. When applied to the design process, empathy is a powerful tool for connecting with end user and for creating a product or solution that will successfully meet their critical needs. Empathy is also an effective force that motivates designers to be problem solvers by instilling in them a compassion for the end users they hope to impact and helping them to understand why the issues they are addressing are critical and important.
Stanford college’s EXTREME program sends students to a variety of countries in order to design innovative solutions to critical issues. Being on location allowed the students to see firsthand the issues they would be designing solutions for and to develop deep empathy for the community that they would be impacting. One team was sent to Bangladesh to investigate the issue of a lack of CPAP breathing machines in the poorer hospitals. With pneumonia being the leading cause of infant death in Bangladesh, CPAP devices were in high demand but were incredibly expensive. Actually being in the hospital and seeing and talking to the patients inspired great empathy in the design team, who then returned to Stanford highly motivated to create a solution to the issue.
Being directly in the environment of the end user also gives a design team empathy in a more practical way. Feeling what another person feels also means feeling their everyday frustrations, and being directly in the environment of the end user gives designers incredible insight as to what the key practical issues are. One design team from Stanford was sent to Indonesia to investigate a “water supply” issue. The team arrived fully prepared to build a water pump at the source to make the water supply available to the locals. Actually being there on location, however, revealed that they had been misinformed. There was already an existing pumping system that effectively provided water to whole communities in its vicinity. The real issue was that the outlying communities relied on rainwater and did not have an effective storage system for the dry season. The team went home with a whole different issue to address. Every environment is unique and certain obstacles are more pressing than others, and often the best way to evaluate this is by firsthand investigation.
One approach that is helpful to designers is coming to the issue with the mindset of a beginner. A beginner’s mindset means that the designers are approaching the brainstorming process from the ground up. Before introducing any unnecessary complications, the designers start simple and try to come up with the most straightforward solutions to the issue and the simplest and most efficient designs. Good designers look at a problem and ask themselves, if they were the general public with no design experience, and were actually the people needing and using the product, what solution would they envision and how would they get there?
This bottom-up approach helps designers to envision simple and direct solutions that relevantly and effectively meet consumer needs. An example of this could be Stanford’s Bangladesh team investigating the CPAP problem. They found that with a simplistic approach, they could address the patients’ basic need for breathing aid by simply designing a pump that would pump the air in the room instead of pure oxygen. This solution was perfect for meeting the basic need and for significantly lowering the cost of the design.
Of course, empathy can be applied within the team itself. Tension between team members arises when the members struggle with trusting each other enough to delegate tasks. A failure to be accountable and an unwillingness to accept criticism are also major obstacles to an effective team’s functioning capabilities.
The Stanford teams used as examples had a few unique ways of addressing team tension, and one effective approach was a therapy-like plan where team members sat down together to be very transparent about their frustrations and concerns. This approach might have been uncomfortable at first, but it caused honesty and humility to be brought to the table. This empathy between team members helped the team to overcome its obstacles and to function together.
In design thinking, we could say that empathy is the foundation. Whether it is empathy between the designer and end user, or empathy from team member to team member, empathy allows for the connection necessary to get a job well done.
Listener
9/9/2022
Empathy is defined as the ability to feel what another person feels and to be able to understand and sympathize with them. When applied to the design process, empathy is a powerful tool for connecting with end user and for creating a product or solution that will successfully meet their critical needs. Empathy is also an effective force that motivates designers to be problem solvers by instilling in them a compassion for the end users they hope to impact and helping them to understand why the issues they are addressing are critical and important.
Stanford college’s EXTREME program sends students to a variety of countries in order to design innovative solutions to critical issues. Being on location allowed the students to see firsthand the issues they would be designing solutions for and to develop deep empathy for the community that they would be impacting. One team was sent to Bangladesh to investigate the issue of a lack of CPAP breathing machines in the poorer hospitals. With pneumonia being the leading cause of infant death in Bangladesh, CPAP devices were in high demand but were incredibly expensive. Actually being in the hospital and seeing and talking to the patients inspired great empathy in the design team, who then returned to Stanford highly motivated to create a solution to the issue.
Being directly in the environment of the end user also gives a design team empathy in a more practical way. Feeling what another person feels also means feeling their everyday frustrations, and being directly in the environment of the end user gives designers incredible insight as to what the key practical issues are. One design team from Stanford was sent to Indonesia to investigate a “water supply” issue. The team arrived fully prepared to build a water pump at the source to make the water supply available to the locals. Actually being there on location, however, revealed that they had been misinformed. There was already an existing pumping system that effectively provided water to whole communities in its vicinity. The real issue was that the outlying communities relied on rainwater and did not have an effective storage system for the dry season. The team went home with a whole different issue to address. Every environment is unique and certain obstacles are more pressing than others, and often the best way to evaluate this is by firsthand investigation.
One approach that is helpful to designers is coming to the issue with the mindset of a beginner. A beginner’s mindset means that the designers are approaching the brainstorming process from the ground up. Before introducing any unnecessary complications, the designers start simple and try to come up with the most straightforward solutions to the issue and the simplest and most efficient designs. Good designers look at a problem and ask themselves, if they were the general public with no design experience, and were actually the people needing and using the product, what solution would they envision and how would they get there?
This bottom-up approach helps designers to envision simple and direct solutions that relevantly and effectively meet consumer needs. An example of this could be Stanford’s Bangladesh team investigating the CPAP problem. They found that with a simplistic approach, they could address the patients’ basic need for breathing aid by simply designing a pump that would pump the air in the room instead of pure oxygen. This solution was perfect for meeting the basic need and for significantly lowering the cost of the design.
Of course, empathy can be applied within the team itself. Tension between team members arises when the members struggle with trusting each other enough to delegate tasks. A failure to be accountable and an unwillingness to accept criticism are also major obstacles to an effective team’s functioning capabilities.
The Stanford teams used as examples had a few unique ways of addressing team tension, and one effective approach was a therapy-like plan where team members sat down together to be very transparent about their frustrations and concerns. This approach might have been uncomfortable at first, but it caused honesty and humility to be brought to the table. This empathy between team members helped the team to overcome its obstacles and to function together.
In design thinking, we could say that empathy is the foundation. Whether it is empathy between the designer and end user, or empathy from team member to team member, empathy allows for the connection necessary to get a job well done.
Listener
9/9/2022
My one word that I am choosing to describe my “ideal self” is a word that I feel describes a character trait that I already have developed quite well but that I want to develop more fully in the future and that I never want to stop possessing. It is an ideal that I hope my future self will remember well and exhibit even more fully than I do now. The word that I have chosen is
“listener”.
I really enjoy listening to other people. Hearing what they have to say. Getting to know them deeply. I am always amazed by what I can learn about someone just by having them freely tell me about themselves for even just a few minutes. I love having that peek into their souls and personality.
I love being there as a listener for those who want to talk about something they are struggling with. I may not always know exactly what to say in return, and I might not have a solution, but I will listen and I will try to understand what they are feeling. Empathy is a skill I want to continue to build in myself and hold onto forever.
I am very much a music lover. I play music, teach music, and listen to music nonstop. I like to think that I listen to people in kind of the same way that I listen to music. I start listening with an open mind. I look out for details and for whatever is special and unique. I listen hard, looking for deeper meaning, empathy, and inspiration. Just like how I look up the backstories to song lyrics to understand why they are what they are and where they came from, I look for stories in people. If there was one thing that I hope that other people notice about me, is that I care what they have to say. I hope I will always be a listener.
Successful Collaboration: Interest, Trust, and Individuality
9/4/2022
Photo credit: thomann.de
The 2008 film, “It Might Get Loud”, follows three elite guitarists as they reflect on their unique backgrounds and approaches to music and come together for a collaboration. Jimmy Page, Jack White, and David Evans (U2’s “The Edge”), come from different generations and embrace different styles, and have little in common other than the fact that they are all guitarists. However, there are several qualities of character and leadership initiative that allow these musicians to come together in a successful collaborative effort.
The first ingredient in successful collaboration is a sincere interest in what everyone brings to the table and a driving desire to learn. By showing up curious and eager to learn from each other and ready to listen, the participants can accomplish two significant things- they create a vibrant group dynamic by readily sharing insight and ideas, and they go home with more than they brought individually. Jack White comments in the film that his main motivation for joining with the other two artists is that he hopes to learn tricks from them that he can apply to his own music. Group collaboration is something that benefits us both as a whole and individually, and the willingness to work as a group and to actively both offer and take away in the exchange of ideas is a skill practiced by successful group leaders and participants.
An additional ingredient in leading a collaborative effort is an element of trust. The free exchange of ideas we see in the collaboration in the film is possible because the artists trust each other enough to share their tips and their differing approaches to music. Each of them knows that while the sharing will be helpful and exciting, that the others will use what they learn in a manner that will be personal and unique to them, and that each will continue to bring their own flavor.
For example, the Edge is known for his heavy use of sound technology and effects. He makes the most of the massive amount of technology available to him in order to take simple chords and riffs and turn them into something unimagined before. In contrast, White strips his process down to the bare minimum, limiting his technology to create a raw and earthy sound and to challenge himself to find creative ways to achieve his desired acoustics. Page loves creating music that is so big that it only sounds its best in arenas, and he sometimes approaches the guitar with surprising gentleness. White, on the other hand, plays guitar in a more aggressive and fight-like fashion. Similar to the way students help each other with a project, discussing viewpoints and providing insight, but yet complete their work independently and from their own unique point of view, these artists come together so that they can go home to follow the creative process independently. In any group setting, this is an ideal environment of trust, and an effective group participation involves leadership in establishing that tone.
What makes these three artists admirable, and what helps them to make an impact on each other and on the world? What does it mean to matter? An article from Psychology Today says that “to matter” is when “a person both feels valued and adds value to themselves and others”.[1] I agree with this definition, that when someone truly believes in and is passionate about what they do with their lives, they discover their purpose and vision, and that if that purpose they put out into the world is something that inspires others or adds value, then they have successfully made a difference, or mattered. It does not even require many people appreciating what we do- if even a small number of people are inspired and appreciate what you have to offer, then you have added value to the world.
All three musicians in this film have a respect for each other’s passion. Each of them believes that the music that they make has value, even if it is just valuable to themselves. This quality generates respect for each other’s innovation and dedication. To matter is to believe that your actions have value, which in turn causes others to look to you and to recognize that yes, you have impact. Whether one is a leader of a governing body, and organization, a non-profit, or, in this example, an industry such as music, to matter and to make an impact starts with believing your passion has value and dedicating yourself to it so that others will see the same. This valuing of your ideas enables you to be individual while still bringing flavor and perspective to the table in a group, and, maybe most importantly, to develop a respect for the ideas and the impact of everyone around you.
[1] https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/well-being/202201/what-it-means-matter
Leadership: The Power to Empower
8/24/2022
The 2008 film, “It Might Get Loud”, follows three elite guitarists as they reflect on their unique backgrounds and approaches to music and come together for a collaboration. Jimmy Page, Jack White, and David Evans (U2’s “The Edge”), come from different generations and embrace different styles, and have little in common other than the fact that they are all guitarists. However, there are several qualities of character and leadership initiative that allow these musicians to come together in a successful collaborative effort.
The first ingredient in successful collaboration is a sincere interest in what everyone brings to the table and a driving desire to learn. By showing up curious and eager to learn from each other and ready to listen, the participants can accomplish two significant things- they create a vibrant group dynamic by readily sharing insight and ideas, and they go home with more than they brought individually. Jack White comments in the film that his main motivation for joining with the other two artists is that he hopes to learn tricks from them that he can apply to his own music. Group collaboration is something that benefits us both as a whole and individually, and the willingness to work as a group and to actively both offer and take away in the exchange of ideas is a skill practiced by successful group leaders and participants.
An additional ingredient in leading a collaborative effort is an element of trust. The free exchange of ideas we see in the collaboration in the film is possible because the artists trust each other enough to share their tips and their differing approaches to music. Each of them knows that while the sharing will be helpful and exciting, that the others will use what they learn in a manner that will be personal and unique to them, and that each will continue to bring their own flavor.
For example, the Edge is known for his heavy use of sound technology and effects. He makes the most of the massive amount of technology available to him in order to take simple chords and riffs and turn them into something unimagined before. In contrast, White strips his process down to the bare minimum, limiting his technology to create a raw and earthy sound and to challenge himself to find creative ways to achieve his desired acoustics. Page loves creating music that is so big that it only sounds its best in arenas, and he sometimes approaches the guitar with surprising gentleness. White, on the other hand, plays guitar in a more aggressive and fight-like fashion. Similar to the way students help each other with a project, discussing viewpoints and providing insight, but yet complete their work independently and from their own unique point of view, these artists come together so that they can go home to follow the creative process independently. In any group setting, this is an ideal environment of trust, and an effective group participation involves leadership in establishing that tone.
What makes these three artists admirable, and what helps them to make an impact on each other and on the world? What does it mean to matter? An article from Psychology Today says that “to matter” is when “a person both feels valued and adds value to themselves and others”.[1] I agree with this definition, that when someone truly believes in and is passionate about what they do with their lives, they discover their purpose and vision, and that if that purpose they put out into the world is something that inspires others or adds value, then they have successfully made a difference, or mattered. It does not even require many people appreciating what we do- if even a small number of people are inspired and appreciate what you have to offer, then you have added value to the world.
All three musicians in this film have a respect for each other’s passion. Each of them believes that the music that they make has value, even if it is just valuable to themselves. This quality generates respect for each other’s innovation and dedication. To matter is to believe that your actions have value, which in turn causes others to look to you and to recognize that yes, you have impact. Whether one is a leader of a governing body, and organization, a non-profit, or, in this example, an industry such as music, to matter and to make an impact starts with believing your passion has value and dedicating yourself to it so that others will see the same. This valuing of your ideas enables you to be individual while still bringing flavor and perspective to the table in a group, and, maybe most importantly, to develop a respect for the ideas and the impact of everyone around you.
[1] https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/well-being/202201/what-it-means-matter
Leadership: The Power to Empower
8/24/2022
Photo credit: blog.ted.com
A leader is defined differently by different individuals, however, the attributes that we think of when we hear the word “leader” tend to have one thing in common: they are considered by most people to be admirable qualities. Think of the typical characteristics that come to mind when we think of a leader. Organization, poise, and articulation. Enthusiasm for their projects and an impressive well of creativity. Initiative and action. Leaders possess the ability to achieve goals and approach complex issues with a well-constructed attack plan.
A capable leader is depended upon to solve problems, for example, how people depend on governmental authority to solve very large and pressing issues. The disappointment that people of a country, state, or city feel when such figures in government and or politics fail to find a satisfactory or pleasing solution to their problems illustrates how strongly we depend on those authorities to be successful problem solvers. We also admire a natural leader’s ability to inspire people to follow them, believe in their ideas, and to trust them. To be someone that others look up to as the person to “get it done” or to “make it happen” is a significant responsibility and requires one to gain a considerable amount of trust from many individuals.
This ability, along with all the other attributes expected of a leader, is almost universally considered an admirable quality. In order to trust someone with the responsibility of authority, we have to respect them, look up to them, and have a reason to believe that they are more capable of handling those responsibilities than we are. Authority figures who continually fall short of these admirable qualities tend to lose respect and trust and are eventually unseated as leaders. Reasonably, we can generalize that the ingredients for being a leader are first, to be admired, and second, even more important, to authentically possess respectable qualities and to be able to practice them consistently.
A significant aspect of leadership worth exploring is how leaders possess the ability or power to help someone achieve a desired reality, by providing effective help. Leaders are expected to come to the rescue, providing insight and a lifeline when those under their authority are feeling lost or confused or are just in need of some direction to put their ideas into motion. As children, we trust teachers to instill in us the knowledge we need to navigate life as we mature. College students, even if they have solid or somewhat solid ideas of what areas they would like to study or what careers they want to build, still need advisors and professors to help them pull the pieces together and to form a purposeful plan that will allow them to implement those ideas successfully. If you are attempting to learn a new skill or hobby, whether it be cooking, a musical instrument, or a new language, you may possess the desire to learn but you will rely on an instructor to help you make that vision or goal attainable.
We look to leaders and figures in authority to take the things that we dream of and help us discover the plan and path to reality. A construction crew does not start building without their oversight, nor do sailing crews depart without a captain. Well reality looks slightly different sometimes due to human error and misjudgment, in theory, we as individuals can obtain better for ourselves by relying on our leaders. Leaders harness together the broad scope of dreams and desires and do their best to make those goals work together and bring direction to the process of achieving them.
One of the greatest things a leader can do for someone they interact with is to inspire them. Inspiration, the sparking of interest and motivation, is an incredibly powerful way in which a leader can both help someone to commit to a creative project and encourage them to follow in the leader’s own footsteps. Ultimately, a beautiful result of this is the instilling of passion, a deep love for a subject or interest that can last a lifetime. It only takes one effective leader or teacher to impart a love of something in such a way that the one inspired by the leader, whether they be a student, younger family member, or colleague, can be motivated to develop a dedication that eventually develops this leadership quality in them as well.
Inspiring others is a skill that can either come very naturally or be developed, but aside from the leader’s dedication to their passion, another key component of inspiring others is confidence that love for a subject or hobby can indeed be imparted from one person to another. Benjamin Zander, conductor, gave a TED talk in 2008 in which he demonstrated an approach he takes in introducing people to classical music and sparking a lifelong love for it. He expressed his confidence that his passion for classical music was something that could be shared, regardless of the audience. He stated, “It's one of the characteristics of a leader that he not doubt for one moment the capacity of the people he's leading to realize whatever he's dreaming.” He spoke on the role of the conductor as the leader of an orchestra, on how the conductor doesn’t make a sound, but, rather, “depends, for his power, on his ability to make other people powerful.” His next statement is a wonderful summary of what it means to lead by inspiring. He explained “I realized my job was to awaken possibility in other people. And of course, I wanted to know whether I was doing that. How do you find out? You look at their eyes. If their eyes are shining, you know you're doing it right…If the eyes are not shining, you get to ask a question. And this is the question: who am I being that my players' eyes are not shining?”[1] This reflection perfectly describes inspirational leadership- leadership that creates excitement in people, encourages them to take action, and eventually develops them into leaders themselves. The responsibility for instilling passion rests with the leader, not solely on the enthusiasm of those being led, because, ultimately, the goal of leadership is to initiate the attitude of the led.
In this discussion, the important distinction must be made concerning responsible and irresponsible leadership. Of course, both types of leaders stand in authority in many situations every day. Ideally, a leader cares deeply about those they are leading and operates with the community’s well-being as their end goal and as the yardstick by which they consider their actions. Irresponsible leadership is concerned mostly or entirely with self-serving ends and does not consider whether the actions being taken hurt those in their care or if the values and ideas being instilled are worthy or not.
Ultimately, leaders are put in place by esteem- those we admire receive leadership roles due to the attributes of initiative, creativity, empathy, and passion that they possess. In a self-fulfilling prophecy, the qualities that define them as excellent leaders cause others to admire them and therefore be inspired. It could be said that the ultimate goal of good leadership is to empower others through inspiration. Everyone has the ability to both inspire others and strive to be like those we respect. We are built and shaped by the things we pursue, so we could call inspiration the driving force of positive character development. What could we become if we aimed to start living like leaders, today?
[1] https://www.ted.com/talks/benjamin_zander_the_transformative_power_of_classical_music/transcript
A leader is defined differently by different individuals, however, the attributes that we think of when we hear the word “leader” tend to have one thing in common: they are considered by most people to be admirable qualities. Think of the typical characteristics that come to mind when we think of a leader. Organization, poise, and articulation. Enthusiasm for their projects and an impressive well of creativity. Initiative and action. Leaders possess the ability to achieve goals and approach complex issues with a well-constructed attack plan.
A capable leader is depended upon to solve problems, for example, how people depend on governmental authority to solve very large and pressing issues. The disappointment that people of a country, state, or city feel when such figures in government and or politics fail to find a satisfactory or pleasing solution to their problems illustrates how strongly we depend on those authorities to be successful problem solvers. We also admire a natural leader’s ability to inspire people to follow them, believe in their ideas, and to trust them. To be someone that others look up to as the person to “get it done” or to “make it happen” is a significant responsibility and requires one to gain a considerable amount of trust from many individuals.
This ability, along with all the other attributes expected of a leader, is almost universally considered an admirable quality. In order to trust someone with the responsibility of authority, we have to respect them, look up to them, and have a reason to believe that they are more capable of handling those responsibilities than we are. Authority figures who continually fall short of these admirable qualities tend to lose respect and trust and are eventually unseated as leaders. Reasonably, we can generalize that the ingredients for being a leader are first, to be admired, and second, even more important, to authentically possess respectable qualities and to be able to practice them consistently.
A significant aspect of leadership worth exploring is how leaders possess the ability or power to help someone achieve a desired reality, by providing effective help. Leaders are expected to come to the rescue, providing insight and a lifeline when those under their authority are feeling lost or confused or are just in need of some direction to put their ideas into motion. As children, we trust teachers to instill in us the knowledge we need to navigate life as we mature. College students, even if they have solid or somewhat solid ideas of what areas they would like to study or what careers they want to build, still need advisors and professors to help them pull the pieces together and to form a purposeful plan that will allow them to implement those ideas successfully. If you are attempting to learn a new skill or hobby, whether it be cooking, a musical instrument, or a new language, you may possess the desire to learn but you will rely on an instructor to help you make that vision or goal attainable.
We look to leaders and figures in authority to take the things that we dream of and help us discover the plan and path to reality. A construction crew does not start building without their oversight, nor do sailing crews depart without a captain. Well reality looks slightly different sometimes due to human error and misjudgment, in theory, we as individuals can obtain better for ourselves by relying on our leaders. Leaders harness together the broad scope of dreams and desires and do their best to make those goals work together and bring direction to the process of achieving them.
One of the greatest things a leader can do for someone they interact with is to inspire them. Inspiration, the sparking of interest and motivation, is an incredibly powerful way in which a leader can both help someone to commit to a creative project and encourage them to follow in the leader’s own footsteps. Ultimately, a beautiful result of this is the instilling of passion, a deep love for a subject or interest that can last a lifetime. It only takes one effective leader or teacher to impart a love of something in such a way that the one inspired by the leader, whether they be a student, younger family member, or colleague, can be motivated to develop a dedication that eventually develops this leadership quality in them as well.
Inspiring others is a skill that can either come very naturally or be developed, but aside from the leader’s dedication to their passion, another key component of inspiring others is confidence that love for a subject or hobby can indeed be imparted from one person to another. Benjamin Zander, conductor, gave a TED talk in 2008 in which he demonstrated an approach he takes in introducing people to classical music and sparking a lifelong love for it. He expressed his confidence that his passion for classical music was something that could be shared, regardless of the audience. He stated, “It's one of the characteristics of a leader that he not doubt for one moment the capacity of the people he's leading to realize whatever he's dreaming.” He spoke on the role of the conductor as the leader of an orchestra, on how the conductor doesn’t make a sound, but, rather, “depends, for his power, on his ability to make other people powerful.” His next statement is a wonderful summary of what it means to lead by inspiring. He explained “I realized my job was to awaken possibility in other people. And of course, I wanted to know whether I was doing that. How do you find out? You look at their eyes. If their eyes are shining, you know you're doing it right…If the eyes are not shining, you get to ask a question. And this is the question: who am I being that my players' eyes are not shining?”[1] This reflection perfectly describes inspirational leadership- leadership that creates excitement in people, encourages them to take action, and eventually develops them into leaders themselves. The responsibility for instilling passion rests with the leader, not solely on the enthusiasm of those being led, because, ultimately, the goal of leadership is to initiate the attitude of the led.
In this discussion, the important distinction must be made concerning responsible and irresponsible leadership. Of course, both types of leaders stand in authority in many situations every day. Ideally, a leader cares deeply about those they are leading and operates with the community’s well-being as their end goal and as the yardstick by which they consider their actions. Irresponsible leadership is concerned mostly or entirely with self-serving ends and does not consider whether the actions being taken hurt those in their care or if the values and ideas being instilled are worthy or not.
Ultimately, leaders are put in place by esteem- those we admire receive leadership roles due to the attributes of initiative, creativity, empathy, and passion that they possess. In a self-fulfilling prophecy, the qualities that define them as excellent leaders cause others to admire them and therefore be inspired. It could be said that the ultimate goal of good leadership is to empower others through inspiration. Everyone has the ability to both inspire others and strive to be like those we respect. We are built and shaped by the things we pursue, so we could call inspiration the driving force of positive character development. What could we become if we aimed to start living like leaders, today?
[1] https://www.ted.com/talks/benjamin_zander_the_transformative_power_of_classical_music/transcript