I came across an interesting article by Geoffrey James that struck a chord. He wrote a brief column titled “8 Core Beliefs of Extraordinary Bosses.” In it James summarizes key traits gleaned from interviews with well respected CEOs.
This topic — effective modern leadership — is interesting to me because I am usually eyeballs deep in challenges various clients wrestle with. This list resonated with me and I thought it was well worth sharing. Paraphrasing Geoffrey’s key points and adding some notes along the way, here we go.
- Business is an ecosystem, not a battlefield. Old school is confrontational; new school leaders create an organic environment that’s fluid to adaptation. This is a culture decision, coming from the top down. If the leadership team looks at everything as a war, its people are like to be crusty and combative internally and externally. When leadership teams look at the organization as somewhat symbiotic, where each part feeds the other, chances of success rise. This point is a textbook example of a major difference between old management models and progressive ones.
- A company is a community, not a machine. People are not cogs, toothed together to mesh by manipulation of levers. Companies are better served when its culture respects the individual hopes and dreams of its contributors. Contributions to the success of others should be encouraged and applauded.
- Management is service, not control. Weak managers like to boss people around; they want to exert positional power and have their workers do exactly as instructed. These bossy types are threatened by new ideas and innovative problem solving. They micromanage, guarding against insubordination by hovering with implied and expressed threats. Smart bosses provide latitude. They set goals and general direction, then challenge the team to figure out the smartest way to do the work. Bosses are engaged only when asked or when necessary. Otherwise they stay the heck out of the way. Smart bosses manage results, not activities. They laud and applaud great work.
- Employees are peers, not children. The old patriarchal management approach looks down at employees like subordinate kids. Workers are seen as inferior and immature, not to be trusted with anything beyond specific execution. Smart bosses act in radically different ways. They treat everyone as if he or she is the most important person in the company. Muhammad Ali was the best I’ve ever seen at this. Muhammad always insisted on meeting the kitchen and hotel staff before meeting any big money, black tie bigshots. When asked why, Muhammad said, “Treat people like kings and kings like people and you’ll get along with everybody.” He was right. When you help people get what they need, be it tools or support, they will do their best to succeed in their roles. Great leaders also have no fear in pushing accountability and decision-making down. Great leaders do not force results. Great leaders inspire results.
- Motivation feeds best from vision, not fear. Blah-blah bosses use fear (in many insidious forms) to “motivate” workers. These come in quite the toxic portfolio: threats of job loss, underwhelming performance appraisals, caustic remarks such as ridicule or belittling, suppression of career mobility, loss of privileges, etc. None of these “motivates” anyone. Although fear drives short term results, it also creates mid-term exodus because talent has options and talent will leave. The stayers will be the mediocre plodders with little hope of upward redeployment. Great bosses don’t operate this way; they inspire people. They paint a brighter future, with the worker a key component. Once a worker believes in a company’s goals and buys in, he or she will perform at maximum horsepower. Commitment drives everything in business. Once a talented team commits, it can move mountains.
- Change is fun. Change means growth, not pain. People set in their ways fall behind, faster now than ever before. Because tradition only goes so far, innovation and relentless improvement drive companies further faster. Even if we look at staid American traditions such as The Masters golf tournament or the Kentucky Derby horse race, inside its competitive boundaries the product seems zealously protected and unchanged. But how these must-see events have been packaged, marketed, and delivered to the masses has changed radically. Where weak bosses see change as a threat, visionary leaders know change is an ally — assuming they respect it that way. Change blossoms innovation and improvement. Smarter and better is always fun.
- Technology offers empowerment, not automation. IT-centric organizations tend to remain hierarchical because management can centralize control, which too often dehumanizes people and squashes creativity. Great bosses want their people wielding tools that free them to think, act, and create. The intellectual capital of the person is what matters; technology is there to serve their needs. Never vice-versa.
- Work should be fun. It should not be “toil.” Ineffective bosses are all business, all the time. They are grumplepusses who treat work as a dark and serious obligation. There is no time or latitude in their world for enjoyable, fulfilling work that makes people happy. Smart bosses are way too wise to fall for this. They know that few things in leadership are more rewarding than watching good people deliver great, inspired results through talent, growth, and self-motivation.
Much of what Geoffrey James points out in these eight tips are things I frequently see, some quite recently.
It is vital for all aspiring leaders to remember that in the end, however you get there, the difference between a “manager” and a “leader” is really quite simple: A manager directs and inspects. A leader inspires results through others. Which do you want to be?
Manage the emotional experience of your people and they will do great work. Disrespect that emotional experience and they will leave. As Spike Lee likes to say, “Do the right thing.”