Leadership / Management

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If you want to silence a room full of executives, managers, and supervisors, try this small trick.  Ask them this question, “Why should anyone want to be led by you?” 

That is the very question I have asked executives, managers, and supervisors in many different settings and many different companies.  I usually ask the question by leading them through an exercise.  In the exercise, I ask them to list the characteristics of a person they would choose to follow.  I tell them that this should not be someone that they must follow because they have a reporting responsibility.  Rather, it should be the characteristics of a person they would choose to follow when they have the option of choosing not to follow.  

As they ponder these qualities, the response is predictable.  Without fail, there is a sudden, stunned hush.  All you can hear is the sound of the wheels turning in their heads as they consider the implications for themselves.   

Executives, managers, and supervisors have good reason to be concerned.  You cannot do anything in business without followers and followers in these empowered times are hard to find.  Nevertheless, leaders must discover what it takes to lead effectively.  They must find ways to engage people and rouse their commitment to company goals.  But most do not know how and who can blame them?  There is simply too much advice out there.  In 1999 alone, there were more than two thousand books on leadership published — some of them even repackaging Moses and Shakespeare as leadership gurus.  We have yet to hear advice that tells the whole truth about leadership.  Yes, everyone agrees that leaders need integrity, vision, energy, authority, and strategic direction.  That goes without saying.  But we have discovered that inspirational leaders also share four unexpected qualities: 

1.  They selectively show their weaknesses.  By exposing some vulnerability, they demonstrate approachability and humanity. 

2.  They rely heavily on intuition to gauge the appropriate timing and course of their actions.  Their ability to collect and interpret soft data helps them know just when and how to act. 

3.  They manage employees with something I call “tough empathy.”  Inspirational leaders empathize passionately and realistically with people and they care intensely about the work employees do.  Even so, they couple that concern with a focused effort to hold people accountable.   

4.  They reveal their differences.  They capitalize on what is unique about themselves.   

You may find yourself in a top position without these qualities, and then find few people want to be led by you.  It should be noted that my theory about the four essential qualities of leadership is not about results per se.  Many of the leaders we have studied and used as examples do in fact, post superior financial returns.  The focus of the research has been on leaders who excel at inspiring people — in capturing hearts, minds, and souls.  This ability is not everything in business, but any experienced leader will tell you it is worth quite a lot. Indeed, great results may be impossible without it.   

Similar surprising results have emerged from all of the research done concerning leadership in recent years.  More importantly, we have learned that leaders need all four of the above-listed qualities to be truly inspirational.  One or two qualities are rarely sufficient.  For instance, leaders who shamelessly promote their differences, but conceal their weaknesses are usually ineffective since no one wants a perfect leader.   

We also learned that the interplay between the four qualities is critical.  Inspirational leaders tend to mix and match the qualities in order to find the right style for the right moment.  Consider humor, which can be very effective as a difference.  Used properly, humor can communicate a leader’s charisma.  But when a leader’s sensing skills are not working, timing can be off and inappropriate humor can make the leader seem like a joker or worse, a fool.   Clearly in this case, being an effective leader means knowing what difference to use and when.  And that is no small feat, especially when the end result must be authenticity. 

Reveal Your Weaknesses 

When leaders reveal their weaknesses, they show who they are, warts and all.  This may mean admitting that they are irritable on Monday mornings, that they are somewhat disorganized, or even rather shy.  Such admissions work because people need to see leaders own up to some flaw before they participate willingly in an endeavor.  Exposing a weakness establishes trust and thus helps get folks on board.  Indeed, if leaders try to communicate that they are perfect at everything, there will be no need for anyone to help them with anything.  They will not need followers.  They will signal that they can do it all themselves.   

Beyond creating trust and a cooperative atmosphere, acknowledging a weakness also builds solidarity between followers and leaders.  Consider a senior executive that I know at a global management consultancy.  He agreed to give a major presentation despite being badly afflicted by physical shaking caused by a medical condition.  The otherwise highly critical audience greeted his courageous display of weakness with a standing ovation.  By giving a talk, he had dared to say, “I am just like you —imperfect.” 

Sharing an imperfection is so effective because it underscores a leader’s authenticity. That is what revealing a weakness is all about — showing your followers that you are a genuine and approachable human being. 

Another advantage to exposing a weakness is that it offers a leader valuable protection.  Human nature being what it is if you do not show some weakness, then observers may invent one for you.  Celebrities and politicians have always known this.  Often they deliberately give the public something to talk about knowing full well that if they do not the newspapers will invent something even worse.  That said, the most effective leaders know that exposing a weakness must be done carefully.  They own up to selective weaknesses.  Knowing which weaknesses to disclose is a highly honed art.  The golden rule is never expose a weakness that will be seen as a fatal flaw.  By this we mean a flaw that jeopardizes central aspects of your professional role.  Consider the new finance director of a major corporation.  He cannot suddenly confess that he has never understood discounting cash flow.  A leader should reveal only a tangential flaw and perhaps even several of them.  There is an important caveat, however. If the leader’s vulnerability is not perceived to be genuine, he will not gain anyone’s support.  Instead, he will open himself up to derision and scorn.  One scenario I have seen repeatedly across the years is a leader who feigns absent-mindedness or presents himself as having a kind of planned befuddlement to conceal his inconsistency or even dishonesty.  This is a sure way to alienate followers who will remember accurately what happened or what was said.   

Become a Sensor 

Inspirational leaders rely heavily on their instincts to know when to reveal a weakness or a difference.  We call them good situation sensors.  By that we mean that they can collect and interpret soft data.  They can sniff out the signals in the environment and sense what is going on without having anything spelled out for them.   

In my experience, the most impressive business leaders are all very refined sensors.  VanSchaik, the chairman of Heineken in the early 1990’s, is a good example.  Conservative and urbane, VanSchaik’s genius lay in his ability to read signals he received from colleagues and from Freddie Heineken, the third generation family member who was not always there physically but was there in spirit.  While some senior managers spent a lot of time second-guessing the major shareholder, VanSchaik developed an ability to just know what Heineken wanted.  This ability was based on many years of working with him on the Heineken board.  But it was more than that.  VanSchaik could read Heineken even though they had very different personalities and did not work together directly.  He could “read” Heineken because he worked at it. 

There is a danger associated with sensing skills.  By definition, sensing a situation involves projection — that state of mind whereby you attribute your own ideas to other people and things.  When a person projects, his thoughts may interfere with the truth.  Imagine a radio that picks up any number of signals, many of which are weak and distorted.  Situation sensing is like that.  You cannot always be sure of what you are hearing because of all the static.  A classic example is the employee who sees her boss distracted and leaps to the conclusion that she is going to be fired.  Most skills become heightened under threat, but particularly during situation sensing.  Such over sensitivity in a leader can be a recipe for disaster.  For this reason, sensing capability must always be framed by reality testing.  Even the most gifted sensor may need to validate his perceptions with a trusted advisor or a member of his inner team.

Practice Tough Empathy 

Unfortunately there is too much hype today about the idea that leaders must show concern for their teams.  There is nothing worse than seeing a leader return from the latest interpersonal skills training program with “concern” for others.  The best leaders do not need a training program to convince their employees that they care.  Authentic leaders empathize fiercely with the people they lead.  They also care intensely about the work their employees do.   

Consider Alain Levy, the former CEO of Polo Gram.  Although he often came across as a rather aloof intellectual, Levy was able to close the distance between himself and his followers.  On one occasion, he helped some junior record executives in Australia choose singles off albums.  Picking singles is a critical task in the music business.  The selection of a song can make or break the album.  Levy sat down with the young people and took on the work with passion.  “You bloody idiots,” he interjected.  “You do not know what the hell you are talking about.  We always have a dance track first.”  Within 24 hours the story spread throughout the company.  It was the best PR Levy ever got.  “Levy really knows how to pick singles,” people said.  In fact, he knew how to identify with the work and how to enter his followers’ world — one where strong colorful language is the norm.  The distinction between merely colorful and offensive language is often difficult to define and it varies among different cultures and settings.  While you and I might not personally choose to identify with those around us in a similar manner, it remains that Levy’s action in that place at that moment demonstrated his empathy to his colleagues.  They understood that he cared.   

Clearly, as the above example illustrates, I do not believe that the empathy of inspirational leaders is the soft kind described in so much of the management literature.  Real leaders manage through a unique approach I call tough empathy.  Tough empathy means giving people what they need, not what they want.  Organizations like the Marine Corps and consulting firms specialize in tough empathy.  Marine recruits are pushed to be the best they can be.  “Grow or go” is the motto.   At its best, tough empathy balances respect for the individual against the demands of the task at hand.  Attending to both, however, is not easy especially when the business is in survival mode.  At such times, caring leaders have to give selflessly to the people around them and know when to pull back.   

Tough empathy also has the benefit of compelling leaders to take risks.  When Greg Dyke took over at the BBC, his commercial competitors were able to spend substantially more on programs than the BBC could.  Dyke quickly realized that in order to thrive in a digital world, the BBC needed to increase its expenditures.  He explained this openly and directly to the staff.  Once he had secured their buy in, he began thoroughly restructuring the organization.  Although many employees were let go, he was able to maintain people’s commitment.  Dyke attributed his success to his tough empathy with employees.  Once you have the people on board, the leader can make the difficult decisions that need to be made.  

One final point about tough empathy —those more apt to use it are people who really care about something.  Anytime people care deeply about something, anything, they are more likely to show their true selves.  They will not only communicate their authenticity, which is the condition for leadership, but they will show that they are doing more than just playing a role.  People do not commit to leaders who merely live up to the obligations of their jobs.  They want more.  They want someone who cares passionately about the people and the work just as they do. 

Dare To Be Different 

Another quality of inspirational leaders is that they capitalize on what is unique about themselves.  The most effective leaders deliberately use differences to keep a social distance.  Even as they are drawing their followers close to them, inspirational leaders signal their separateness.  Often a leader will show his differences by having a distinctly different dress style or physical appearance, but typically he will move on to distinguish himself through qualities like imagination, loyalty, expertise, or even a handshake.  It is important to communicate these differences.  Most people, however, are hesitant to communicate what is unique about themselves and it can take years for them to be fully aware of what sets them apart.  This is a serious disadvantage in a world where networking is so critical and where teams need to be formed overnight.  Most of the differences I have described are those that tend to be apparent either to the leader himself or the colleagues around him.  But there are differences that are more subtle, but still have very powerful effects.  Inspirational leaders use separateness to motivate others to perform better.  It is not that they are being Machiavellian, but that they recognize instinctively that followers will push themselves if their leader is just a little aloof.  Leadership, after all, is not a popularity contest.   

One danger, of course, is that leaders can over differentiate themselves in their determination to express their separateness.  Indeed, some leaders lose contact with their followers and doing so is fatal.  Once they create too much distance, they stop being good sensors and they lose the ability to identify and care.  That is what appeared to happen during Robert Horton’s tenure as Chairman and CEO of BP during the early 1990’s.  Horton’s conspicuous display of his considerable, indeed, daunting intelligence sometimes led others to see him as arrogant.  That resulted in over differentiation and eventually contributed to Horton’s dismissal just three years after he was appointed to the position.   

The bottom line is that differentiating one’s self from others does not mean presenting one’s self as superior to others.  To do so is a fatal mistake. 

Demonstrate Leadership  

All four of the qualities I have described here are necessary for inspirational leadership, but they cannot be used mechanically.  They must be or become a part of a leader’s personality.  That is why the “recipe” business books, those that subscribe to the Lee Iocca or Bill Gates’s way, often fail.  No one can just ape another leader.  The challenge facing prospective leaders is for them to be themselves, but with more skill.  That can be done by making yourself increasingly aware of the four leadership qualities that I have described and by developing these qualities to come up with a personal style that works for you.  Remember, there is no universal formula and what is needed will vary from context to context.  What is more, the results are often subtle.  

This can be illustrated by the following story about Sir Richard Sikes, the highly successful Chairman and CEO of Glasgow Welcom, one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies.  When Sikes was running the R&D Division at Glasgow, he gave a year-end review to the company’s top scientists.  At the end of the presentation, a researcher asked him about one of the company’s new compounds and the two men engaged in a short, heated debate.  The question/answer session continued for another 20 minutes at the end of which the researcher broached the subject again.  “Dr. Sikes,” he began in a loud voice, “you have still failed to understand the structure of the new compound.”  You could feel Sikes’s temper rise through the soles of his feet.  He marched to the back of the room and displayed his anger before the intellectual brainpower of the entire company.  “All right lad,” he yelled, “let us have a look at your notes.”   

The Sikes’s story provides the ideal framework for discussing the four leadership qualities.  To some people, Sikes’s irritability might seem like inappropriate weakness, but in this context, his show of temper demonstrated Sikes’s deep belief in the discussion about basic science, a company value.  Therefore, his willingness to get angry actually cemented his credibility as a leader.  He also showed that he was a very good sensor.  If Sikes had exploded earlier in the meeting, he would have squashed the debate.  Instead, his anger was perceived as defending the faith.  The story also reveals Sikes’s ability to identify with his colleagues and their work.  By talking to the researcher as a fellow scientist, he was able to create an empathic bond with his audience.  He really cared and his caring was really tough empathy.  Finally, the story indicates Sikes’s own willingness to show his differences.  Despite being one of the most successful businessmen in his industry, he had not conformed to any standard that others wanted to impose on him merely for the sake of conforming to the standard.  On the contrary, Sikes proudly retains his distinctive way of thinking and acting.  He also does not show the reserve and decorum that is so typical of many in his organization.  Instead, he radiates a passion for what he does.  Like other real leaders, he acts and communicates naturally in an authentic way.  Indeed, if I were to sum up the entire year-end review at Glasgow Welcom, I would say that Sikes was being himself with great skill. 

Unraveling the Mystery 

As long as business is around, we will all continue to pick apart the underlying ingredients of true leadership.  And there will always be as many theories as there are questions.  But of all the facets of leadership   one might investigate, there are few as difficult as understanding what it takes to develop leaders.  Provided a leader has integrity, these four leadership qualities are necessary next steps.  Taken together, they tell all leaders to be authentic.  As we counsel and coach leaders, we must be sure that they understand most of all that you must be yourself and you must be yourself with greater skill.  There can be no advice more difficult to follow. 

For more information about Ken Chapman and Associates’ Leadership Development Programs, contact Ken Chapman at 205.366.0265 or email Ken at kchapman@leaderscode.com.

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