The following post is based on an amazing article in Fast Company Magazine, featuring an interview with Harvard's Ronald Heifetz. You can read the interview/article in its entirety here. I have inserted my own comments/commentary in between the Heifetz quotations.
Fast Company asks: There is so much hunger for leadership in business today. Everyone wants better leaders. What do great leaders do?
Heifetz: The real heroism of leadership involves having the courage to face reality -- and helping the people around you to face reality.
I first understood the importance of "reality" when I read the leadership book, Leadership Jazz, where author Max DePree states that the first role of leadership is to "define reality" for the organization. I began to see that my perspective as a leader isn't necessarily "reality" if it's just my perspective, but that I must be open to a variety of perspectives, experiences, and points of view in order to better grasp how things "really" are. It's easy to just see and rely on my own narrow viewpoint. But as a leader, I must learn to keep my eyes open through a variety of lenses.
How do I get a better grasp on reality?
- Ask questions more than I give answers.
- Consider other perspectives.
- Reflect on circumstances rather than jump to conclusions.
- Consider the "big picture" in small situations.
Heifetz: It's no accident that the word "vision" refers to our capacity to see. Of course, in business, vision has come to mean something abstract or even inspirational. But the quality of any vision depends on its accuracy, not just on its appeal or on how imaginative it is.
The idea of a leader having a "vision" is crucial to the continued success of any organization. The reality of today will never be the reality of tomorrow. Things change. A leader must always be willing to see things as they are now so that they can better guess (and often...it's just a guess) what path an organization should take toward the future. It does a leader and his or her organization no good to create an elaborate plan that has no possibility of succeeding. It's easy to dream...it's more difficult to do. There will always be grand dreams and schemes, but they must be partnered with legitimate strategies and resources in order to achieve them. Hope is not a strategy.
Heifetz: Mustering the courage to interrogate reality is a central function of a leader. And that requires the courage to face three realities at once. First, what values do we stand for -- and are there gaps between those values and how we actually behave?
This is huge. Early on, I began to understand that people want to be a certain way, but they often act in ways that go against their desires. It's the difference between actual values and desired values. A person may have a desired value of honesty, but in reality, they may cheat a little, lie a little, and act in a way counter to the value that they speak so highly of. It is a subtle issue of character. A person can begin to live with a perceived self (fantasy) that is actually different than one's real self. A leader is one who can enter a situation and point out the differences between hoping to act with certain values and actually implementing those values.
Heifetz: Second, what are the skills and talents of our company -- and are there gaps between those resources and what the market demands?
I think that this question opens up a whole new paradigm of organizational thinking. What if positional thinking took a backseat to strengths thinking? Rather than thinking about people in terms of their job descriptions, they were considered based on what assets and attributes they could bring to projects and tasks. Often, the best people for the job may be working in area that doesn't allow them to be considered. Jim Collins, in his book, Good To Great, emphasizes this idea when he talks about "who" should get on the bus before you ever decide "where" the bus is going to go. In this respect, an organization wants to make sure that it has enough of the right kinds of strengths onboard and then decides what it can do.
Heifetz: Third, what opportunities does the future hold -- and are there gaps between those opportunities and our ability to capitalize on them?
Did I mention how crucial these types of questions are for effective leaders to answer? The ability to identify key opportunities to move forward is directly related to how much freedom and flexibility an organization has to try new things. If a leader doesn't allow people to make mistakes, to fail and learn, or simply implement new ways of doing things, opportunities will be missed. The best opportunities to move forward will occur as conflict and crisis arise. People don't tend to look for a better approach when things are going well. That's why leadership takes "courage to face reality"...because there will always be conflicts and crisis that need to be dealt with. And conflict and crisis are often doorways to opportunity.
Heifetz: Now, don't get the wrong idea. Leaders don't answer those questions themselves. That's the old definition of leadership: The leader has the answers -- the vision -- and everything else is a sales job to persuade people to sign up for it. Leaders certainly provide direction. But that often means posing well-structured questions, rather than offering definitive answers.
Heifetz shows us that even the concepts of leadership are always changing to meet to demands of changing organizations. He mentions old leadership. At some point, even this current understanding of leadership will be considered old as new paradigms are discovered. It takes courage to move from one model to the next, to adapt one's style when it has seemed to work well for so long. But change is inevitable at all levels of an organization. Sometimes the best thing a leader can do is to model an appropriate attitude toward change when change is necessary.
Also, the idea that the leader has all the answers belongs in the realm of fantasy. No one is that good. Hopefully, that takes the pressure off.
Heifetz: Imagine the differences in behavior between leaders who operate with the idea that "leadership means influencing the organization to follow the leader's vision" and those who operate with the idea that "leadership means influencing the organization to face its problems and to live into its opportunities." That second idea -- mobilizing people to tackle tough challenges -- is what defines the new job of the leader.
I love this. The "leader alone at the top model" has left the building. Leadership is more about pushing people in the right direction rather than pulling them toward the leader's ideals and desires. The new job of the leader is about serving the organzation. I love the quote, "Follow me, I'm right behind you." I believe that Heifetz underscores this idea when he encourages leaders to walk alongside people and "live into their opportunities."
Everyday, a leader has the chance to say, "This is where we're at, these are the things we're facing, let's move forward with all that we've got."
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