There are many articles, journals, discussions, panels, studies on leadership. We are fascinated by leaders. We follow them. We want to be like them. We like to lead and be in charge. We feel empowered when we can lead and have followers — social media tells us we have 5 million followers. We feel good when we are given more responsibilities in our jobs — higher pay? More power? We like to see leaders on stage giving us shots of motivation and energy. And some of them are true leaders. They bring about positive change in our world — however big or small that world may be. But there are so many so-called leaders who really fail at becoming a leader.
Let me start of by saying that I do not consider myself a leader of people, even though I am accountable for different things on a daily basis. I am a firm believer in the leaderless concept — an environment where we have individuals taking 100% accountability of their actions, where individuals can make decisions for a shared vision with visible goals, results, measurements and improvement metrics. Sounds Utopian? Not really — there are organizations that have managed to get close to this. Check out this book if you have not…The Starfish and The Spider
The #1 reason why leaders fail is that they are not able to articulate a clear and consistent vision and why they strongly believe in it.
Let’s get the difference between mission and vision out of the way. Mission is now, vision is tomorrow. It cannot be any more simpler or complex. True leaders have a clear vision for the future — where they want to go. They may not know how to get there yet, but they can clearly articulate it. Example of a bad vision— ‘we want to be pioneers in the cosmetics industry’. Good example — ‘we will capture 40% of the cosmetic industry in North America by 2025’.
When leaders cannot articulate and live their every day as to why they believe the vision, they are not able to succeed. If you ask a lot of organizational leaders why they believe in their vision, they will not be able to explain it and if they do they lack the passion or the glimmer in their eye when they say why. Those that do, talk passionately about the vision. They walk the vision. They act as if they are living the vision. And they do it with purpose. And then, there those that can connect their why-s to a greater good. These leaders go on to change the world. It is almost as if…
…the universe conspires to help them achieve it — Paulo Coelho.
Here is a bad example of why a leader wants to achieve something —‘by becoming pioneers in the music distribution industry, we will be able to reduce piracy and protect our artists.’ Good example —‘I believe in the harmony, love and peace that music brings to our world and that is why we need to let artists distribute their talents to everyone in this world in the most painless manner.’
Not able to create new leaders on a consistent basis.
Bad leaders hog limelight and power. Their ego and insecurities hold them back. It may be sub-conscious and involuntary but they are not able to let go of the desire to be recognized, rewarded, empowered. It is this quality that prevents them from creating new leaders on a consistent basis. Good leaders are forever creating better leaders. They recognize strengths and weaknesses of people they work with and interact with and can mold these qualities to create new leaders. Consistently. It is not that hard if you think about it. If you can tell yourself that I do not really care what others think about me and it will not make any difference in my life you will be able to get through this one. That is a very good first step. It is not easy, especially in today’s world where competition is fierce, social media is chomping at our bits to showcase our best selves and in a world where only the #1 spot in any competition is celebrated and remembered. Good leaders do not care about limelight. At all. But the reality is that it follows them. They never follow it.
Here are some ways to consistently create better leaders.
Delegate. With a passion. Create systems that have room for mistakes — that is the only way we learn.
Create visible goals — let everyone that will be affected by the outcome of a decision know that someone else will start taking accountability.
Empower them. Celebrate every small win. A simple text, email or word of encouragement will go a long way. Recognize failures and give them the opportunity to fix it and if they cannot, keep the door open for questions. Do not give the answer because that is the normal desire to do so — a lot of times they may have the better answer, they just need the time to find it.
Mentor them to mentor others. Encourage them to take up mentoring someone else. When we mentor we learn. We feel accomplished. Learn how to mentor others if you are not sure. It is not about telling them what to do, but mostly listening to their ideas, challenges, thoughts and answering any questions they have. Ask thought-provoking questions. More importantly learn from them. I am learning daily.
Lacking charisma and not working on it.
Charisma is a mysterious word. It can be honed. Bad leaders do not work on their charisma — they fail to attract followers. It is a fine balance. Trying hard to be a leader almost always results in not being a good leader. Letting it happen is the best way to go. So if we have to work on our charisma are we trying to work at being a leader, rather than letting it happen on its own? Not really. Some people are charismatic. If we observe them carefully you will see that they have some traits that others do not.
They are extremely confident, but not pretentious and arrogant at all. Quite the opposite. They are extremely humble. Once again, a fine line.
They are truly selfless and inquisitive about everything but themselves. They really do not care what others are thinking about them. They have this outward flow about them.
They ask questions and never really give opinions. They ask questions because they genuinely want to know another person’s opinion so that they can be learn from them, not to show them up.
They never let anyone lose face, in public or in one on one interactions. If they find that the other person is saying something that is incorrect, they do not correct them. They ask why questions — maybe they have a point that is being missing.
2 really good articles on charisma —
The Super Power Of Charisma — How You Can Adopt It For Yourself
How to become more charismatic
I have not yet had the courage of doing any of the things that the 2nd article says, but I plan to try something soon. More on that in the future!
Worried about their image and not able to stop the urge to showcase their expertise.
Let’s be clear about one thing. Expertise is a relative term and is a losing battle when we try to pose as the best in anything. Because there will be someone or something better in the very next moment. Peter’s principle holds true in this regard — we do rise up to our greatest level of incompetency in a hierarchical setting. Bad leaders are constantly trying to tell everyone around them how much of an expert they are, all that they have accomplished and directly or indirectly giving the vibe that they are the cat’s meow, the bee’s knees. It is not something they may do consciously. It is a matter of belief. If we start to believe that we are it, that we are the end all be all in our field, we fail to recognize other leaders around us. We will most likely fail to create any new leaders.
But it is also important to lead with expertise. Asking questions is an excellent way to support expertise instead of giving direct answers or comments. Example of a bad use of expert power — ‘you are completely wrong because from my experience as as successful project manager, the only way to make effort estimates in a project or a sprint is to use a work breakdown structure.’ Good example —‘do you think we should try to use work breakdown structures instead of story points? I know both work, and I am open to all ideas, but in this type of project with a very tight contract, don’t you think a more traditional approach will work better?’
At the end of the day, good leaders take the time to explain themselves. It is even better to over-explain. It shows empathy, kindness. The only real wealth we have is our time because that is the limited. When we are able to give our time to something we care about, it always works.
Cannot be genuinely happy when others achieve something.
Before I can explain why I think this is important let me say that it seems that some people have been born with this mindset. I have tried to observe why they are so good at this. A dear friend of mine was always happy for others (I am saying was because he is no more). In his short life he managed to lead thousands of people who adored him. His funeral room was overflowing with people who had come to pay homage to him and spoke about everything he had done for them all the while tending to his very busy schedules. Almost everyone said how he used to overflow with joy when they achieved something. I used to ask him how he is able to do that because I struggle with it — being 100% happy is difficult! Almost always his answer was “I don’t know man. You tell me!” To him it was something that he never had to think about — he did not have to try because he was genuinely happy when others did well. Most of us are mostly happy when others achieve something. But deep down we feel some level of jealousy, sadness for ourselves — however little that is — how much, is actually one of the measures of a good or bad leader. I believe there are ways to achieve some of this.
We cannot be happy when others around us achieve success because of jealousy, competition, ego and insecurity. These are common and it is quite normal to feel this way. But when we aspire to bigger and even more so, nobler achievements in our own lives and we hold ourselves accountable for staying on course at all times to achieve them, a lot of things fall to the sidelines. We even start to look at achievements of people around us as a pathway to our own success — a joint effort in achieving something massive — something that can change the world for the better. When we live for a bigger cause we tend to rise above our own pettiness. The common ailments of jealousy, ego and insecurity that plague us, wither away. This leads to my 6th and last point about why leaders fail to be a leader.
Do not believe that we are sent to this world to work for others, work for the world we live in, not for ourselves.
Bad leaders are cocooned in their own success and failures. They measure the world with the lens of their own strengths and weaknesses. They create an ecosystem around them which they call “their network” of opportunities and find ways to tase away any existential threat to their so-called thought leadership. Good leaders live for a greater good. It does not have to be world-changing good. A good leader in the field of automation talks about how automation can bring industries together to create a more cohesive world. A good leader in the field of education talks about how MOOCs can lower the cost of education so that people of all income group can have access to high class education. A good leader in the field of sports management has visions to use technology to allow talent from all walks of society to have an equal opportunity to compete at the highest level. Good leaders live to make the world a better place, however small or big their contribution may be. You can see it in their daily actions, in their vibe, in their language, in their eyes, in their walk and in the decisions they make or do not make. It is not very difficult…here is one way to get started if you have not.
Write a personal mission statement. Here is a good article on how to write it if you do not have one!
Here’s How to Write an Impressive Personal Mission Statement [Examples & Template]
Next align the mission statement to something that can make your immediate surrounding world a better place. It may not be something that you can do today or even in the near future. But it is something that your mission can aspire to be. Here is mine personal mission statement…
My mission is to use emerging technologies to create a public benefit organization that can bring wealth to the company and its shareholders as well as solve social issues that plague our world today and tomorrow.
It is very broad and needs specifics, but it leaves me room to grow. I measure whatever I do in light of my mission statement. It keeps me grounded because it is a tall order (at least for me) and a lot of things fall to the sidelines that used to bother me in the past.
Leadership is not a set of traits. It is not something that we should be aspiring to be, rather we should let it happen. If it does happen, then we are becoming good leaders, if it does not we need to reflect back and see what we can do to accomplish our mission today and work for a bigger vision tomorrow.
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