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THE TABLE STAKES FOR GREAT LEADERSHIP

Written by: James R. Lucas

Article Overview: Learn the characteristics of truly great leaders.

THE TABLE STAKES FOR GREAT LEADERSHIP

It was said about one leader, “His people would follow him anywhere – but only out of a sense of morbid curiosity.” Many people lead in the sense that a hood ornament “leads” the car – while it is out in front, it doesn’t have much to do with actually guiding the car.

Leadership is the “death valley” for many organizations and even more careers. What are some of the problems?

• The belief that people are leaders because they have formal authority
• The notion that people are leaders because they’re running a large business (or their own business)
• The assumption of a close correlation between currently acceptable business results and good leadership (even idiots can have their day)
• Teaching people to be managers and expecting them to be leaders
• Being fuzzy-headed about the most basic of questions, like “What exactly is leadership?”

Over several decades of working with leaders who ranged from magnificent to wretched, we have observed some common attitudes and actions that make up a “great leader” mindset. This set is very different than the typical “leaders are smart, focused, energetic, etc.” laundry lists. Truly exceptional leaders:

 Know what leadership is – Great leaders know the difference – the total difference – between leadership and management. They know that we should lead people and manage things (and lead the people in such a way that they will help us manage the things). The four “classic” functions of management are planning, organizing, directing, and controlling. These are great and terrible things. They are great when they are applied to inanimate objects like projects, but terrible when they are applied to people. I have yet to meet the project that didn’t need to be controlled, or the person who would let you control them.

 Lead from the heart – They know that people are more likely to follow someone who is passionate and smart than someone who is merely smart. While researching my book The Passionate Organization, I was impressed by the high percentage of outstanding leaders who know that it is never heart in lieu of head, but it is always heart in front of head.

 Understand the power of commitment – They know the value of mutual commitment. They don’t ask people to make a bigger commitment than they are willing to make in return. They lose cheap talk about “loyalty” and build two-way pledges now. They don’t watch a city grow in response to their growth and then move their company or headquarters to another city.

 Are friends of truth and enemies of magical thinking – They push their organizations to face, define, align with, and (where possible) change internal and external realities. They don’t make excuses (“As soon as the economy…”), and they don’t wait for saving events (“There’s nothing wrong with us that _______ wouldn’t fix”).

 They leverage the power of paradox – Great leaders understand intuitively that the world is a whole lot more “both/and” than it is “either/or.” Do they take more risks or eliminate risk? Do they live in the present or live in the future? Do they benchmark competitors or ignore them? Yes, and yes, and yes.

 Act as designers – They think of themselves as organizational designers rather than tinkering mechanics. They know if they get the design right, the results will follow.

 Free the masses – They focus on creating an environment to optimize the actions of the 95% who would like their work lives to count for something, rather than to restrict the actions of the 5% who just don’t care.

 Have a people-first mindset that maximizes talent – They replace unproductive views of people (“resources”) with a view that spurs individual investment. They are adept at attracting, retaining, and maximizing the number and performance of their “winners and believers”

 Share power – They treat power as a tool not a goal. They use it to liberate rather than to dominate.

 Change the talk – They always change the nature of the conversation. By the things they talk about, they things they don’t talk about, and the questions they ask, they use the power of words to change the way the organization thinks.

There you have it – the “Tremendous Ten” actions of the best of the best. The great ones do them, the average ones don’t even understand them, and the poor ones scoff at them. We may use other means to get decent results in the short term. They can make us money.

But they can’t make us great.

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Article Tags: assumption, belief that, business results, classic functions, correlation, death valley, difference between leadership and management, exceptional leaders, functions of management, great leaders, hood ornament, inanimate objects, laundry, leadership and management, mindset, morbid curiosity, notion, own business, passionate organization, terrible things



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