The beginning of 2022 finds me on the cusp of more opportunity and creativity. I am working on a series of leadership development modules for several organizations. The topics to be covered will range from a coach-approach to leadership, to the foundations of strong teams, through to performance management. One other subject near and dear to my heart will be the foundations of personal leadership. For many years now, and prior to becoming an executive coach and management consultant, I have devoted considerable study, time, effort, and thought to leadership, what makes a leader, and how to further hone leadership.
I have seen other authors or pundits put together their top list of what qualities or strengths great leaders possess. The listing I offer below has some similarity to that approach but perhaps goes a bit more off road. I am interested in leadership qualities to be sure, but hope that I have gone a bit deeper in distinguishing the core of what leadership is - from my point of view - as compared to the notion of management, for example.
Leadership requires self-awareness. What does that mean? In my view, this relates to the understanding of one's own strength and weaknesses and having a regular practice of evaluating growing edges. This appreciation and drive to self-evaluate requires a healthy dose of humility and a willingness to explore personal bias and blind spots. If a leader is not prepared to face and understand themselves, they will be less effective in understanding the capacities of the teams and organizations they lead.
Leadership is visionary. Leaders know what needs to get done. And they experience this vision and future state both for themselves and for their organizations. Leaders can read the tea leaves, appreciate potential and possibility, see a new or better way, and feel passionate about what lies before them. Moreover, this vision isn't abstract in conception. This vision is understood at a visceral level. This vision is not created in a series of spreadsheets or models. While those might be useful tools or supports, leaders are far more apt to tap into the emotional and even spiritual aspects of a vision - they can literally see, feel, hear, taste and smell the future!
Leadership is, and must be, expressive. A vision that is unexpressed, poorly articulated, or not understood by others, doesn't lead to action. If others cannot be brought on board or do not appreciate the power and possibility the leader feels for the future, we have a dream of one that is likely to go unfulfilled. So leadership – good leadership – means being able to take a vision out of one’s head and articulate it to others in a way that they can understand and powerfully engage with.
At this point, I want to make sure there is no confusion about being articulate, passionate, and committed to a cause and the notion or quality of charisma or being charismatic. Charisma for me too often equates to superficiality and insincerity. Effective long-term leadership success can use charisma (personality, charm, presence) as a tool, but it doesn’t long stand without supporting substance.
Leadership sees the big picture and plays the long game. The comparison to a chess grand master may hold true here. A key distinguishing variable between leadership and management is how expansive the view is for each. Management is more often focused on a select number of variables within a defined period of time; e.g., I know what tasks I have to accomplish today, which staff I have available to me, and what problems I might encounter.
Leadership has a more expansive view. A good leader contemplates execution and realization of their vision considering a host of factors and variables, how those variables might interact to support or confound each other, and is often looking to a future laid out months and years ahead. Like a chess player, they see the whole board, see how each move might impact the next, and anticipate several moves ahead. They have a long-term systems view.
Leadership is about change. Leaders are good at anticipating change as might be expected from a chess master. More importantly, they also are often (or always) initiating change as they evaluate and make sense of the big picture view they have been forming for themselves on behalf of their organization. They have a view on challenges and opportunities, initiating change to mitigate one and realize the other. This change effort can manifest in any number of ways – creating a sense of urgency, seemingly tireless energy and passion, and a dynamic and flexible mindset. Creativity, innovation and out-of-the-box thinking can also characterize this leadership change mentality.
Leadership is about capacity building. Because leaders see potential, understand
or perceive the shifting environment around them, and appreciate that change
will be necessary to both survive and thrive, they are constantly looking to
develop new skills and capacities in their organizations. They believe a couple of things
about capacity building. First, the
strengths that helped you achieve success in the past will be insufficient, if
not irrelevant, to survive and thrive in a new future state.
Second, they have a commitment to leaving the organization
in a better position then when they found it.
This includes building bigger and better capacity in their followers,
investing in training and development, succession planning, and building new
leaders. This has short-term benefit in
supporting voluntary and committed engagement amongst staff. More importantly, it builds resilience and
capability in the organization to overcome adversity and reach new performance
heights.
Leadership is about discipline. Author Jim Collins (Good to Great) has
dissected organizations trying to distil what separates good companies from
great companies, and what allows great companies to continue on that path. More than one of his concepts applies to
effective leadership as well. Discipline
– in thought and action – is one of those concepts.
Leadership is able to pull all of the variables noted above together, sort the wheat from the chaff, keep in mind (while still challenging) their capabilities, and stay focused on their preferred vision. Good leadership is able to stay focused in the face of distraction that too often masquerades as opportunity. Leadership is not distracted by the next shiny bauble. Leadership understands its core competencies and/or is prepared to undertake the necessary investment to do different. In short, leadership knows that success is based on making sound choices, sticking to its core values and strategies, and setting up supports and systems to drive success.
Leadership is about courage. None of what we describe above comes without
a very strong dose of courage. Leadership requires developing a comfort level with ambiguity and a near
daily confrontation with doubt and fear.
You might consider a comparison between leadership and being a weather forecaster. Rare is the day when anyone gives us 100% certainty on any weather-related fact. We lament but prepare for the possibility that a 60% chance of partly cloudy skies might turn into drizzle or a momentary downpour. Leadership operates within similar shades of grey. Leadership must interpret, with imperfect data and imperfect lenses, what the future may hold and try to prepare accordingly. There is always the real and tangible risk that they may decide incorrectly.
Leaders must have the courage to act despite this uncertainty. Seeing what needs to be done, understanding
the forces at play, anticipating the chess moves of organizational life and the
business environment are all well and good. However, if this knowledge or intuition are not put into
action, then this insight is worse than useless. Inaction is action where no decision becomes a
decision. The environment or others will
choose a path for you.
Leadership is selflessness. Finally, I come to a personal philosophical belief that all good leadership is fundamentally about being selfless. I appreciate the challenge that might come from others on this point! However, I believe that truly impactful leaders are NOT solely or primarily focused on their own success. Rather, they are ambitious for the success of their teams, organizations, or businesses. Make no mistake, they are competitive and they want to win. Will they accept or appreciate personal accolades or glory should it come? In many cases, yes. But that personal recognition or reward is NOT THE motivating factor for their efforts. They want to win for the benefit of the bigger cause. They want to build capacity and realize potential for their organization. They want to see foundations built and a legacy for success established that lives beyond their leadership tenure.
There you have my perspective on leadership. There you have some insights and snippets into what is starting to coalesce into various leadership development modules for 2022 and beyond.
For me it really is all about leadership!
Greg Hadubiak, MHSA, FACHE, CEC, PCC
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