Why should anyone be led by you? The paradox of leadership
“Truth is not in one extreme and not in the middle, it is in both extremes” - Charles Simon 18th Century Pastor.
Throughout our executive development programs at Proteus, we challenge senior managers and executives to discover their true leadership style and to embrace the privilege of leadership.
A key resource we utilise to assist executives identify their authentic leadership approach is Jim Collins’ seminal research and book Good To Great. In this book he introduced the concept of ‘Level 5 Leadership’, which has now become part of the business lexicon.
According to Collins, humility is a key ingredient of Level 5 Leadership. His simple formula is Humility + Will = Level 5 Leadership. The executive leaders analysed as part of the research are described as having a paradoxical combination of distinct characteristics, for example; being timid and ferocious; shy and fearless; modest with a fierce, unwavering commitment to high standards; being both humble and having an incredible will to succeed, i.e. ‘a paradoxical blend of humility and will’.
Through running Executive Development programs across Australia the more I see this same paradox in great executive leaders of people and businesses.
These leaders are the principals of our schools, CEO’s of local councils, engineers that have been brave and entrepreneurial enough to start a new business, directors of hospitals, the list goes on.
Many of these people display incredible passion about their organisations’ success and consistently make decisions for the greater good – often at their own short-term expense. For example; when the full impact of the GFC hit one of our clients, a manufacturing company based in Victoria, their US parent company instructed the Managing Director to slash 30% of the staff… his decision was that he would be part of that 30% to go. Why? Because it was the right thing to do!
Honesty & Hope
Interestingly, if you look at the research on leadership from
Kouzes & Posner, it asks followers ‘what characteristics do you look for and admire in your leader - someone whose direction you would willingly follow?’ The universal #1 response was
honesty, followed closely by wanting senior leaders to be
forward-looking. So in essence, followers want both
honesty and hope.
Combine Kouzes & Posner’s with Collins’ research and we discover that we, as leaders, need to be honest about what is happening, while ensuring that we give people hope – something to look forward to. As executives we need to show our followers that there is hope by being authentically passionate about our vision for the future. “Where there is no vision, the people perish!”
Keith McFarland’s book
‘The Breakthrough Company’ outlines five years of research with over 7000 companies. He looks at how start up companies break through the entrepreneurial phase to become extraordinary - his research and book have become the 2008 version of Good To Great for start-up companies! His key finding was that successful breakthrough leaders were both charismatic and egoless; they were driven by vision, while also building something bigger than themselves. “What one characteristic did all of the breakthrough CEO’s studied share? Charisma! But it turns out that the word ‘charisma’ doesn’t mean what many people think it does. Charismatic leaders inspire us with their character.”
So here lies the paradox of leadership - we must strive to be humble by “checking our egos at the door”, and be honest by telling out staff the truth about the current situation and yet, just as importantly, we must be ‘warriors of hope’ and genuinely charismatic about our envisioned futures.
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Latest Comments
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comment(s)
Dr Timothy Pascoe on
14 Jul 2010 05:35 PM
Dear All,
Articles like the above, and the books and surveys on which they feed, sound lovely. Who can argue with humility, honesty and the like? Motherhood is unarguable.
But, let's be serious for a moment. Think of the better leaders you've known - and perhaps followed. Did they all exhibit these nice-to-have characteristics. I doubt it. I've observed highly successful leaders, with teams of committed followers, who wouldn't tick one of the sweet-smelling boxes that surveys produce. They were demanding, egocentric in some cases, driven in most, and part crazed in their expectations in others. They were right for the particular role, the time and the challenges. They fitted the bill, not some theory.
If you ask people what they'd like, they'll give you a generalised answer. All pollsters know that. But, put them in a specific situation, and they'll want a leader with the package for that situation.
Leadership is not a generalised skill. It's a problem-solving, adaptable ability to respond to the particular organisational challenges and the specific needs of the people being led.
If you want to join the real world, where you plan your leadership rather than sign up for generalised virtues, perhaps have a look at www.vectorleadership.com. It offers a planning process. It will help you identify what leadership actions you should take in light of what your followers need from you - covering your contributions to both the "hard" market and technical issues as well as the so-called "soft" ones of people and culture.
If you were designing a product or service, or deciding your business strategy, would you plan it? From looking at the local facts, and the specific needs of the situation? Or, would you rely on a one-size-fits-all survey result?
I know which I'd do. What's your approach?
Lyn Fletcher on
14 Jul 2010 06:19 PM
I agree with Tim Pascoe's comments about true leadership being responsive to the particulars of a situation and that one size does not fit all.
However, I also think that Jim Collins has a point. We need our leaders to be super human - to have vision and passion and zeal beyond that of the followers. I also believe that those leaders who inspire us most to become 'super' ourselves - to aspire to do more, give more, achieve more- are also those to whom we can relate as fellow human beings. This requires the leaders to also to be humble / human / real and relate to us as fellow travellers as well as guides and inspiration.
Ashish Saigal on
14 Jul 2010 09:27 PM
I feel that a true leader is one who exhibits both sides of the personality - humility and hope when it comes to people aspects like well being, capability enhancement and growth, but on the other hand quite focussed on the successful outcome of the business objectives, and no-nonsense and demanding on commitments and deliverables.
Ross Mackay on
29 Jul 2010 12:57 PM
A true leader is someone that has the Wisdom, Courage and Compassion to work for the success of others. There is nothing 'Super Human" about it, just consistently working with people in efforts to assist them in attaining success