In my last blog post I took a fairly unorthodox stance on teaching and mentoring: namely, that telling people what to do is a sub-optimal approach to getting things done. This is, I realize, an unusual stance for someone who coaches executives and leaders. After all, isn't it the job of a leader to tell other people what to do? Don't we admire leaders who can soar above our expectations and make things happen?
Well, sure. I love hearing stories about innovators like Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos and, heck, John D. Rockfeller while I'm at it. There's a great mythology about pioneers who by the sweat of their own brow conjure a great empire out of nothing. These stories are like catnip to anyone in business. We can't get enough of them.
But take a step back for a moment and ask yourself what did Jobs and Bezos have that I don't? And whatever your answer to that question, let me suggest that every ridiculously successful founder has benefited from some combination of shrewdness, opportunity, luck, and diplomacy that's impossible to replicate even with full knowledge of their story. Let me also suggest that the world has changed, and our ideas around leadership may need to change as well.
There's a natural survivor bias built into the myth of the heroic founder. We celebrate the great successes of the past because they succeeded greatly. We don't pay attention to equally brilliant failures because their stories are, let's face it, downers.
For every Steve Jobs, however, there are probably about a metric ton of Albert J. Dunlaps who failed beyond their worst dreams of failure. We ignore their stories at our peril. From our current vantage point, you may be surprised to learn that there were a lot of businesspeople cheering on the pioneering brilliance of Chainsaw Al back in the 90s, right up until he ran the Sunbeam corporation into bankruptcy. But there were. He was routinely lauded in the pages of the Wall Street Journal.
We can do better. Much better.
So bring your skepticism into what you're about to read, because I'm about to suggest ways you can be an amazing, pioneering leader without needing to be "The Boss."
And if you feel they would help, I have some inspiring stories of my own that I am saving for later blogs. For now, let me just give you a quick outline that I can fill out with details later.
I coach leaders and aspiring leaders, so I'm asked with a fair amount of regularity how to "project more authority" or how to "command the room." There's a natural desire behind the question — a very typically male desire, if I'm being honest — to become the 800-pound gorilla. In our heart of hearts, most guys want to be the king silverback. After all it is, to paraphrase Mel Brooks, good to be the king.
My response to this inquiry is usually a simple question: "Can you tell me about the best boss you've ever worked for?"
It is very telling, I think, that nobody ever answers by talking about the angry chest-thumpers from their past. What I hear about instead is the boss who took the time to listen, who asked some probing questions to better understand, and who showed my client that they were valued, appreciated, and safe.
These are the people who get the best performance out of you. These are the people who can ask you to take the extra mile because you trust that they would do the same for you.
Whatever mythology you've built up in your head about Steve Jobs and his ilk is just that — a myth. You may feel differently about that myth if you ever had direct contact with the underlying reality. "Never meet your heroes" and all that.
Leadership is a subtle balancing act. You have things you need to get done, but you need people to do the work. To the extent that you have positional authority over people, you can always compel obedience, but then you end up with people who put in just enough effort so they don't get yelled at. Again, let me suggest that this is a sub-optimal leadership strategy.
Rather than admire the abrasive perfectionism of a Steve Jobs, you may be better served by learning how to negotiate the space between what the business requires with what your employee wants and needs. Your investment into doing this will make all the difference in the world when you find yourself in the middle of a crisis. The team that feels cared for will deliver for you in an emergency.
This is not an entirely new idea. There is a vast ocean of research into how to motivate and inspire excellence in people. There are also equally vast forces that distract us away from being the kind of leaders we know we ought to be.
If you want to become the kind of leader you would actually choose to work for, it helps a lot to have someone in your corner who listens, who asks probing questions, who holds you accountable for making the kinds of changes you want to see.
If you're interested, I can help you. Click the button below to learn more.