There are far too many passages from Part 3 that hit me like a train. That's how I feel about Kouzes in general: every once in a while he'll have one sentence that just jumps off the page and influences more than the entirety of the chapter. There's one passage on page 119, "They develop a deep understanding of collective yearnings; they seek out the brewing consensus among those they would lead. They listen carefully for quiet whisperings and attend to subtle cues. They get a sense of what people want, what they value, and what they dream about." Normally his train-passages are even shorter than this one, but this is one I wanted to speak on directly. KP brings this idea up while discussing "Listen Deeply to Others" under the subheading "Find a Common Purpose." I know you're probably tired of hearing me preach about this "community" thing, but I can't help but emphasize mine and KP's (underlying) point. Community - being able to develop a sense of belonging, a sense of family - is a necessary aspect of leadership. The above passage is absolutely impossible if you have a low Emotional Intelligence and/or no understanding of your constituents. A leader needs to understand the individual in order to understand his or her wants, values, and dreams - and a leader must understand the differences between each individual so they can work in a team setting. In Finding a Common Purpose, KP states, "Leaders must show others how they, too, will be served by the long-term vision of the future, how their specific needs can be satisfied" (118). This cannot be done if the leader does not know who their individual is and, especially, if they don't know how to communicate socially and emotionally.
The above idea brings me to what I most wanted to talk about as I finished Part 3: Animate the Vision. This is something I often struggle with: when I feel passionate about something and want to convey that sense of importance to others, the idea often falls apart in the telling. As I was reading KP's suggestions - use symbolic language, make images of the future, practice positive communication, express your emotions, speak from the heart - I couldn't help but thinking it was all too robotic. Express your emotions and speaking from the heart, together, makes sense to me. But as I was reflecting on the Parts 1 and 2, I was thinking about the idea of clarifying your values so you can communicate them to others. This process is intrusive: you clarify your values to yourself first so that you can better grasp them. In your understanding of your own values, you're able to convey them to others: it's exactly like my scenario describing how I can now deliver my most important value immediately. I can do this because I, myself, know it and have defined it.
Then, I was thinking again on my inability to convey passionate ideas. I often times fall back on the joke that Writers can't talk; we're socially awkward creatures and can communicate better through a piece of paper than through our mouths. However, I then forced myself to take this idea past the joke and into the realm of understanding. When I laugh off my faltering communication skills, I usually claim I need more time than is allowed in regular conversation to formulate words: when writing I have backspace and a nearly infinite amount of time to make my message clear; in conversation, there is no such thing as backspace. Only then did I realize that what I need that time for is to clarify my idea, but if I mimic the same effort I took in defining my values into defining my passions before I communicate them I would be able to relate my ideas in the same immediate way that I can now relate my values. I can convey these to others simply because I understand them so well, myself. If, instead of jumping into a rambling explanation, I pause and reflect internally, I can understand my visions and passions well enough to convey them easily to others. I take that time the writer needs to develop an internal definition so I can successfully make it external.
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