Human Energy and Immaterial Communication: The Missing Link for Inspirational Leadership? A Theoretical Paper

Abstract

Why does Harvard Business Review consider the article ‘Pygmalion in Management’ from the 1970s as one of the best in the area of Motivation, and yet there has been negligible research about this topic in the field of leadership? Probably because the Pygmalion Effect can only be studied using complexity sciences. This paper covers the scientific discoveries in the field of human energy in the last century, and connects them to an interdisciplinary analysis of quantum mechanics, bio-fields, neuroplasticity, and epigenetics, in order to give novel explanations of how the Pygmalion Effect happens and how it is essential to understand leadership and vanguard management. Hence, a new leadership soft-skill is constructed: immaterial communication. This new leadership construct is helping reduce the 86% rate (Gallup, 2013) of disengaged workers around the world. A descriptive proposal of operationalizing Immaterial Communication is presented at the end.

Keywords: Management Innovation, Complex Theories, Business Transformation, Business Communication, Interdisciplinary Leadership