Lead like You’re a Dog!

                  Pause for a moment and think about how incredible dogs are at instantly recognizing a person’s true character. A dog’s “quick analysis gene” doesn’t waste time with height, weight, skin color, gender, nor hair style. A dog doesn’t care about your political preferences, tattoos, social status, piercings, net worth, the vehicle you drive, nor whether you support global warming or not. A dog could care less about your religious preferences, whether you recycle, whether you’re Vegan, how much you gamble, nor how you prefer your coffee (if you even drink it at all). None of those things matter to a dog.

                  Yet, dogs are instantly able to recognize love, fear, sadness, compassion, encouragement, joy, loyalty, threats, abuse, and more. Why? Because a dog perceives the origin of all that it notices as emanating from the heart rather than the mind like us humans do. This offers a great lesson that if we could accurately define a person’s heart, we could utilize our “personal artificial intelligence” to have a real sense for what’s in their mind. I’m not aware of any course that would teach us how to discern what’s in a person’s heart rather than their mind.

                  Growing up, we’re trained to focus first on what a person says and second on what we can visually associate with their words. Visual things like body language, use of hands, and facial expressions. We can then add in auditory signals like voice inflection and decibel level. Someone shouting to make their point garners a lot more of our attention than someone calmly explaining the same point. Dang, I wish it wasn’t so but it’s what the media, internet, and Hollywood make the most money from.

                  Unfortunately, shouting triggers our fight or flight part of the brain, temporarily shutting down the analytical, assessment, and reasoning parts of the brain. Demagogues have mastered this method. AND, this is how mobs are formed. Shout something as if it’s an immediate emergency, doesn’t give people time to utilize their heart to analyze, assess, and reason. This creates the perfect opportunity to sign them up to shout alongside you. Then, all you have to do is maintain the fear/hate/shouting mode of communication to continually fuel the fight or flight response, so your temporary followers won’t have time to logically assess what, in reality, is in your heart. If they knew what was really in your heart, your ability to influence them would be diminished and your influence would have little, if any, significance.

                  While we all believe that we’re a whole lot smarter than dogs, a dog would never follow a person who’s shouting and spewing hate, especially if it’s presented as righteousness. However, any dog would immediately follow, with great loyalty, a person who lovingly inspires them with their heart, even if it’s a difficult subject with challenging circumstances associated with it.

                  This is where the transitive property of mathematics comes into play. Remember? If a=b and b=c, then a=c. If shouting=fight/flight and fight/flight=blind loyalty, then shouting=blind loyalty. Blind loyalty is short term at best. The opposite of blind loyalty, which I call passionate/inspired/heart-driven loyalty, is what has allowed humans to create positive change leading to great and long-lasting success.

                  We’re all leaders in some way, even if it’s with our dog. So, leaders, take note. If you want to inspire people to follow what you believe in your heart, you have to offer them the opportunity to place your belief in their own heart and answer the “WHY” question so they could choose to feel comfortable following you. If you skip over the heart and go for the kill in their brain (shouting), any loyalty will be short-term based on fight or flight, and you will never achieve what you set out to achieve. Think about the military. A military’s success is totally dependent on the loyalty of its soldiers. The long-term success of any company is totally dependent on the loyalty to the company’s vision and mission by the employees. Same with marriage which is totally dependent on knowing what’s in their spouse’s heart rather than their brain.

                  So, why is a dog so consistently good at reading people, and all of us humans so inconsistent in our initial and ongoing assessments? Is it because dogs naturally look to the heart and humans naturally look at what a person’s brain is sharing? Can a person’s brain camouflage what’s truly in their heart? How can all of us transition to being better at recognizing what’s in a person’s heart rather than what they’re communicating with their brain?

                  All of us can improve in knowing what’s in a person’s heart if we process input like a dog. Good listening is critically important. Becoming a better listener means taking all the available indicators in for thoughtful processing. Indicators include speed of dialogue, facial expression, intensity of delivery, body language, apparent depth of the person’s knowledge, and how they refer to others as examples (either negatively or positively). Shortening the amount of time it takes us to discern what’s truly in a person’s heart rather than their brain takes practice. Lots of practice. But the rewards make the practice completely worthwhile. We’re talking about where you’re willing (or unwilling) to place your loyalty. And your loyalty to others is one of the greatest assets we all possess. Whatever we choose to be loyal to is the great definer of our true character. Please go back to the first paragraph in this article. There’s great value in recognizing another person’s true character. Don’t let all of those “time wasters” I list in that first paragraph get in your way. Listen, and notice, your way to a person’s heart. If their heart is worth following, then follow. And beware if you choose to follow based only on someone’s brain. Brains can fool you. Hearts cannot. Remember that HEY…I Believe In YOU! Now GiddyUp and Lead like you’re a dog!