Are you the right Leader for your organization? What makes a Leader? What are the long-held myths about Leaders? Were Gandhi, Hitler, MLK, Gordon Moore, Einstein, Genghis Khan, Mother Theresa, Steve Jobs effective Leaders? How do you measure the effectiveness of a Leader?
Here’s how LinkedIn defines an effective Leader: As well as providing direction, inspiration, and guidance, good leaders exhibit courage, passion, confidence, commitment, and ambition. They nurture the strengths and talents of their people and build teams committed to achieving common goals. [LinkedIn] Do the Leaders above meet the definition above? Yep. I will confine myself primarily to discussing a Leader in a business organization but draw from the outside on occasion.
Do Leaders matter, how do Leaders become Leaders, what’s their role and how should they be measured? Group dynamics research shows that in any leaderless group a leader will naturally emerge over time. Organizations are really an amalgamation of small groups of people who if left to their own demise would find it impossible to stay on a single course. The need for a leader and the willingness to lead are part of the human experience.
Does leadership matter in business? I can relate to this on a personal level. I came on board a very successful company that had 1,500 world-wide employees, a market leader, and approaching a billion in sales. Their problem was the market was changing rapidly and they had to make a fundamental decision on how they would react. Although they had all the functional leader roles filled by qualified people along with the original founder till on board, they lacked a leader that could coalesce the group to move forward resulting in a fractured company. No one individual had the skills to Lead the group. It didn’t end well for a lot of people. So, does a Leader make a difference, absolutely, with conditions primarily the moral and values that guide the Leader
There are a number of myths about Leaders and leadership and here are a few. As you read these myths think about how you may have integrated them consciously or unconsciously.
- Leadership theory promotes the virtue of humility, and yet narcissists are overrepresented in senior leadership roles.
- A nice personality is necessary (myth). The reality is when people are forced to choose, they will often take a leader’s vision over their style.
- Believe what happened successfully in one leadership instance can be replicated in another (Myth).
- Entrepreneurs can only Lead an organization to a certain level and then must step aside for the organization to be able to move forward. This is part of the Founder’s dilemma that later on I will speak to. (more on this later. I am not sure whether this is a true myth or just laziness or lack of intestinal fortitude of other Leaders).
- Assume that the leader controls the organizations processes and undervaluing the role of followers and situational context. (Myth)
- Pretend that leadership is goal driven and that good outcomes can be gained through the correct formula of effective leadership. (Myth)
What are the ways or paths individuals become Leaders? I categorize them as follows; Heritage (they are the sons and daughters of the pervious Leaders). Vertical ascension, i.e. they have worked their way up the organizational ladder. Opportunity, i.e., they happen to be at the right place at the right time and either took the opportunity or were ‘volunteered’ into the role. Last but not least they were pulled into the role by their passion for achieving a vision, i.e., entrepreneurs. Different paths same outcome.
Does a certain path make a different Leader or what shapes a Leaders? A Leader who I had great respect for once told me, “there wasn’t one or two things along the way that made my Leadership style but rather a recipe of different ingredients.” What shapes Leaders is the totality of their life prior to their role as a Leader. This includes nature and nurture. What experiences have shaped you to this point? Leaders primarily bring environmental conditioning and if they are lucky self-awareness. Readings, workshops, personal coaches will not make a person into a ‘good’ Leader. They won’t overcome weak values, a lack of self-discipline, or personal stupidity.
What role do followers have in terms of Leaders? What is more important for a Leader, style, or substance? What are some current Myths we have about Leaders and influence how we make decisions about other Leaders as well as ourselves?