This article offers leaders and managers the possibility of achieving significantly improved business performance from relatively minor outlays by applying innovative concepts and powerful, proven tools and approaches to maximise their current investment in their people.

1. IIR Executive Development // E-Tips
Tips & Whitepapers
The Hidden Advantage that crucial hidden advantage - the ‘something different’
Powerful keys to significantly approach to radically improve your organisation’s
improving business performance performance.
By David R J Powell By addressing and empowering the whole person, you
Corporate Leadership will awaken the hidden advantage, the usually dormant
http://corporateleadership.com/
and intangible spirit within your people – that can define a
brand, empower a company and help your people rise
This article offers leaders and managers the possibility of above the competition.
achieving significantly improved business performance
from relatively minor outlays by applying innovative The question is – how do you address, empower and
concepts and powerful, proven tools and approaches to inspire the whole person – body, mind, emotions and
maximise their current investment in their people. spirit when leading and managing your staff and
supervisors?
Do you have business performance improvement
challenges? 16 cylinder performance
Your ‘gold medal’ performances of yesterday will not As a metaphor - imagine each of your people as a 16
guarantee you business success tomorrow. Your cylinder engine capable of sustained high performance.
competitors are always striving to improve and beat you.
But even more so than the Olympic Games, the game of The body and mind each contribute 3 cylinders of
business is usually a win/lose contest. ‘firepower’. However the emotions and spirit, when
appropriately addressed and inspired, are potentially
The winner takes the ‘gold medal’ and wins the much more powerful - each capable of contributing an
customer’s business. Everyone else is awarded a ‘lead additional five cylinders of ‘firepower’.
medal’ – heavy and worthless. No result and no business
– just the opportunity to de-brief the loss and improve To consistently fire up the passion and motivation of your
your people’s performance for the next contest. people’s emotions and inspire the integrity, initiative,
creativity, commitment, enthusiasm, resilience and
So how do you challenge your employees and persistence of their spirit takes an understanding of what
management to achieve more? you need to ‘touch’.
What are you doing differently? If you want motivated and enthusiastic staff, you have to
They say the definition of futility is to keep doing what know how to ‘touch’ the core of their being, their
you are doing and expect things to magically improve. enthusiasm - derived from the ancient Greek words - en
What are you planning to do differently to get more from theos - the spirit within.
your people and ensure their ‘gold medal’ winning
performance tomorrow? Defining the spirit
The word spirit derives from the Latin verb spirare, to
The hidden advantage – the power of the whole breathe. A person’s spirit brings the breath of life to their
person body. The en theos – the spirit within is the core of their
Unleashing the power of the whole person – the power of being, the essence of who they are.
the body, mind, emotions and spirit can provide you with
© Informa PLC
IIR Executive Development
ACN. 002 541 013 ABN 87 002 541 013
Level 6, 120 Sussex Street, Sydney NSW 2000
your one-partner solution for building skills and knowledge T 02 9080 4000 | F 02 9299 3109 | edinfo@iir.com.au | www.iired.com.au

2. IIR Executive Development // E-Tips
Tips & Whitepapers
By comparison, spiritual matters are entirely different and
influence how a person chooses to relate to Universal You can learn how to operate in these unseen but
Intelligence whether one calls that God, Allah, Jehovah, immensely powerful realms of the metaphysics using a
Brahma, Great Spirit, The One or All That Is. This is a simple, practical and easily implemented set of 16
very private world of religious beliefs, faith, Gnostic cylinder whole person empowerment tools and
wisdom and personal experience that must be respected approaches.
within the business environment.
To become a metaphysical engineer and re-engineer
Addressing the whole person – body, mind, emotions and your approaches to people empowerment and
spirit is however secular and practical and entirely free of communication, team building and team culture, change
religious connotations. management, sales and consulting skills, management,
leadership and motivation in your organisation you need
The hidden advantage is knowing how to awaken and to change the quality of your people’s thought.
access the spirit intelligence, intuition, creativity and
innate wisdom and tap the vast unaddressed resources Intellectual mind based approaches
that you are already paying for in your people. Currently most leadership and management approaches
involve mind based intellectual analysis, ideas, theories
You need to wire the appropriate whole person and opinions. These approaches do not recognise,
empowerment tools and approaches into the DNA of your understand or accommodate how the en theos – the
organisational culture. To achieve the most from your spirit within operates in life and creates physical reality
salaries, wages and training expenditure, you have to fire from metaphysical thought and beliefs.
up all 16 cylinders in all your people, otherwise by
definition - your HR investment is sub-optimal. Our minds have evolved over the millennia as powerful
problem solving devices. The mind is truly a remarkable
Most senior managers estimate the number of cylinders innovation but the power of the mind is relatively small
currently firing in their organisation is about 50% at best. compared to the power of the intelligence, insight,
intuition and wisdom available to the inspired spirit.
This is like Dire Straits – it’s money for nothing. All you
need to do is fire up what you are already paying for. Thus results from mind based approaches when trying to
change people’s behaviour and increase sustainable
A note of caution - the challenge of metaphysics performance are sub-optimal and relatively ineffective.
Although the body is physical (you can touch it), the
mind, emotions and spirit exist in the unseen and little Emotional intelligence based approaches
understood realms of invisible metaphysics. One of the latest management tools is emotional
intelligence. However an emotion occurs when a
Our education - primary, secondary and tertiary gives metaphysical thought impinges on the physical body.
most people little help or explanation in understanding Emotions are an effect caused by thought.
the operating principles of these metaphysical realms or
guidelines on how to empower the spirit or harness the Think about it for yourself. Positive thoughts induce good
full power of the mind or emotions. feelings in your body. Negative thoughts create feelings
of discomfort in your body. When your thoughts are
At work this lack of understanding can be very expensive. worried or concerned, your body contracts and you feel
© Informa PLC
IIR Executive Development
ACN. 002 541 013 ABN 87 002 541 013
Level 6, 120 Sussex Street, Sydney NSW 2000
your one-partner solution for building skills and knowledge T 02 9080 4000 | F 02 9299 3109 | edinfo@iir.com.au | www.iired.com.au

3. IIR Executive Development // E-Tips
Tips & Whitepapers
that discomfort. When your thoughts are excited and Thus the fundamental role of any leader or manager in
uplifted by the prospect of something interesting, your an organisation is to create an inspiring and challenging
body is energised and you feel good. game that will attract, enrol, engage and motivate calibre
people.
Thus chasing emotions and trying to demonstrate
emotional intelligence is chasing effect. It is sub-optimal. This is a key insight in accessing 16 cylinder firepower.
Where the emotion is the effect, the quality of the thought You don’t have to blindly accept this basic statement –
is the root cause of this emotion. just think about your own engagement in the world. What
turns you on? A boring repetitive, meaningless task or job
The only way to achieve stable, positive emotions is to or an exciting vision and game plan which you can work
ensure stable, positive thoughts. Thus the optimum towards realising?
approach to improving your people’s performance is to
change the quality of your people’s thought. As spirit beings, we are game and goal focused by
nature.
Spirit empowerment based approaches
Spirit empowerment leadership and management Thus the quality of a person’s thought is a function of
approaches hone the quality of people’s thought and thus how challenging and inspiring they find their chosen
the related emotions they experience by recognizing and goals and game(s).
dialoguing directly with their en theos – the spirit within.
Thinking about challenging and inspiring goals and
A focus on changing the quality of thought in an vision-focused activities within the context of a personally
organisation recognises the way thought is generated by meaningful game is the root cause of people’s emotions,
the attention and intention of the spirit being. commitment, motivation, enthusiasm and performance.
This key principle applies equally to staff and
Where a person focuses their attention and thus what management.
they think about reflects their level of interest in any area.
The strength of their intention and thus the strength of What’s the game?
their thoughts reflect their commitment to a chosen The 16 cylinder empowerment challenge for every
subject. business leader or manager is to create an inspiring
game.
The en theos – the spirit within - is interested in seeking
(attention) and engaging (intention) in meaningful and When people are engaged in a challenging game – such
challenging games - not jobs. as ‘let’s achieve the inspiring enterprise vision by working
as a high performance team’, the thoughts generated by
Nobody is looking for a job – everyone is looking for a the attention and intention of the spirit being are positive
game. and performance oriented. They will experience pleasant
and fulfilling emotions as a by-product.
Just look at the enthusiasm stirred by great sporting
events such as World Cup Soccer, International rugby, When the business enterprise offers no meaningful or
Wimbledon or The Ashes – an enormous phenomenon challenging game or vision and only repetitive tasks,
unleashed by a game. such as ‘just get the job done’ or ‘management by
objectives’ or ‘job descriptions’ or ‘let’s make the
© Informa PLC
IIR Executive Development
ACN. 002 541 013 ABN 87 002 541 013
Level 6, 120 Sussex Street, Sydney NSW 2000
your one-partner solution for building skills and knowledge T 02 9080 4000 | F 02 9299 3109 | edinfo@iir.com.au | www.iired.com.au

4. IIR Executive Development // E-Tips
Tips & Whitepapers
budgeted numbers’ or ‘let’s not upset the stock market • Give their people a clear sense of purpose using
analysts’ predictions’, the spirit feels bored and makes up vision achievement as the game.
substitute games such as ‘company politics’ or ‘let’s get • Arm their people with a comprehensive set of
personal and inter-personal passion tools to
the other department’ or ‘let’s get the boss’. improve personal motivation and enhance inter-
personal rapport and influencing skills.
This is not rocket science but it has eluded most people • Provide an understanding (and appropriate
tools) on how best to engage the en theos – the
and most business enterprises to date. spirit within in focused and empowered
planning.
Even many relatively progressive companies do not • Provide their staff with the keys to persistence –
internal and external – because every
harness or use the power of such a simple 16 cylinder
organisation will be attacked by the ‘aliens of
empowerment game development tool as graphical resistance’.
vision and graphical plans anywhere in their company. • And finally, provide their people with the
understanding of the fundamental global
paradigm changes that are currently and
It has to be graphical because the spirit prefers pictures irrevocably changing the rules of the game of
to words. You remember someone’s face, you can’t business forever.
remember their name. Why should it be different with
If this brief article makes sense to you and strikes a
leadership and management? They will remember and
chord, if you need to lead and manage an organisation to
align to your pictures. They will never remember your
outstanding performance and results, the chances are
words.
you need to start doing a few things differently – now.
Most organisations don’t harness the basic principle that
You can rarely sustain long term competitive advantage
the en theos – the spirit within creates their reality by the
from just your products. Achieving sustainable advantage
quality, clarity and strength of their thoughts.
lies in how effectively you lead and manage your people.
If you want organisational success, start by getting all
Tapping the hidden advantage that you are already
your people on 16 cylinders and focus the clarity and
paying for by addressing and empowering the en theos -
intensity of their thoughts on the same game – ‘let’s work
the spirit within and firing up the 16 cylinders of each of
together to achieve our vision’.
your people will provide you with the sustainable edge
that you need.
Summary
In summary, any leader or manager is faced with five key
The increased results will delight your stakeholders and
variables that must all be addressed to empower and
guarantee you the ‘gold medal’ performance you need
sustain 16 cylinder performance in their staff.
tomorrow.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
These variables are: About the author
David Powell is the managing director of Corporate Leadership.
• Purpose Corporate Leadership and IIR have partnered to jointly provide a
new calibre of 16 cylinder whole person (body, mind, emotions
• Passion
and spirit) empowerment based leadership and management
• Plans skills enhancement training and facilitation services – Tapping
the Hidden Advantage.
• Persistence
• Paradigms (environment) Contact David
Email: davidp@corporateleadership.com
st
21 century leaders and managers must: Telephone: +61 438 131 808
© Informa PLC
IIR Executive Development
ACN. 002 541 013 ABN 87 002 541 013
Level 6, 120 Sussex Street, Sydney NSW 2000
your one-partner solution for building skills and knowledge T 02 9080 4000 | F 02 9299 3109 | edinfo@iir.com.au | www.iired.com.au