We often hear about leaders aspiring to “capture the hearts and minds” of their people, but what does this actually mean? To capture someone’s “heart” is to, metaphorically, appeal to their emotions. To capture someone’s “mind” is to appeal to their sense of logic.
This “hearts and minds” metaphor goes all the way back to Aristotle’s modes of persuasion, or rhetorical appeals, which consisted of Ethos (appeal based on the character and credibility of the speaker), Pathos (appeal to the emotions and feelings of the audience), Logos (appeal, via facts and evidence, to the audience’s sense of logic and reason), and Kairos (appeal to one’s sense of urgency…as in, “Now is the time”).
Similarly, the “Head, Heart, Hands, and Feet” model can be used in a variety of ways, from clarifying one’s thoughts to managing people to influencing others to take action.
For example, when confronted with having to make a decision, you can ask yourself: When thinking about the facts, what is my “head” telling me? Emotionally, what is my “heart” telling me? Who can I join “hands” with to work together on this? And what is my motivation?
To illustrate, let’s say that you are preparing to deliver a sales pitch to a potential new client. This model will remind you to think about the following four questions: What data are you going to present to them? (Head.) What are their core values and what they are passionate about? (Heart.) What do they tend to look for in a strategic partner? (Hands.) And, based on who you will be meeting with, what is going to motivate them to say, “Yes, let’s do it!”? (Feet.)
Or, when on a team, you can identify a topic, issue, challenge, or question that your team is working on, and use this framework to find out the following from each member of the team:
1. Head: Logically and objectively, what is your “head” saying about this topic? This involves a focus on logic and reason, facts and figures.
2. Heart: Emotionally and subjectively, what is your “heart” telling you? This involves a focus on people’s feelings, sense of empathy, and compassion.
3. Hands: How are we going to join “hands” in working together on this? This involves people’s inclinations towards community and collaboration, and sense of teamwork.
4. Feet: What is our motivation to take action? This involves people’s individual motivators, what they care about, their passions, and sense of purpose.
While all of these questions could, of course, be explored without the use of this visual metaphor, using “Head, Heart, Hands, and Feet” as a guide will provide you with both a visual structure and a simple visual checklist to ensure that you pay attention to all four of these crucially important areas.
In Review
The Big Lesson: The “Head, Heart, Hand, and Feet” model provides a powerful visual leadership framework for fact-gathering, communicating, managing, and influencing, by focusing on the four key areas of information: logic, feelings, teamwork, and motivation.
The Big Question: How can you use these four key components to frame a challenge you currently face?
Your Insight:
Your Action: