Discovering the Leader in You | organizational realities, demands, and expectations
In Chapter One, we described a number of situations that raise
questions in the minds of leaders. Many of these come about because
of changes that organizations face. Reductions in force, restructuring,
changes in a boss, loss of a job, and new job opportunities all affect
leaders. Many of these organizational changes result from external
forces such as greater competition, loss of revenue, or other economic
forces. All of these changes affect what leadership opportunities are
available to you, the nature of the opportunities, the challenges they
bring, the kind of leader you want to be, and what you can accomplish.
These changes also influence how leaders are expected to act, be, show
up, and lead.
These issues often cause some leaders to ask, ''Is being a leader
worth it?'' Unrealistic expectations or criticism from others can leave
you paralyzed or drifting. Perhaps your team expected you to be a heroic
figure and save the organization or to continue driving the mission like
the former senior leadership team. But is that (and its costs) what you
had in mind?
Thus, the first step toward discovering the leader in you is to gain
more understanding of your personal leadership situation. To aid your
thinking, this chapter briefly describes recent trends in organizational
21
22 Discovering the Leader in You
life. It explores the impact of organizational life on current expectations
of leaders, leaders' own expanding views of leadership, and perceived
costs of leading. Reviewing this part of the leadership framework should
give you insights into why you are adrift and possible steps and choices
that can help you get out of drift.
HOW ORGANIZATIONS
AND ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE
ARE CHANGING
We can no longer define organizations as clearly as we once could.
Many have become so diffuse and pluralistic that static models like
command-and-control hierarchies and interrelated systems (organic or
machine) are no longer as relevant. Back in 1995, management guru
Peter Drucker portrayed organizations as inherently unstable because
they ''must be attuned for innovation, for the systematic abandonment
of whatever is established, customary, familiar, and comfortable'' (p. 77).
Today the external environment continues to change constantly, and
so too must organizations and their leaders.
In 2007, CCL researchers published survey data from nearly four
hundred participants in CCL's Leadership Development Program. A
little over half were from the United States, and most held middle or
upper management positions. Most (84 percent) said the definition of
effective leadership had changed in the past five years. When asked
how, respondents mentioned needing more flexible, cross-boundary,
collaborative, and collective leadership skill sets. Were we to repeat this
survey in five years, a few new factors would likely emerge. The point
is that to be effective as a leader, you must be a student of the contexts
in which you lead and develop or refine your leadership skills to meet
new demands.
We've all heard the story about the buggy whip industry in the
early twentieth century, about the time when automobiles entered the
marketplace. Some buggy whip companies thought that they were in
Organizational Realities, Demands, and Expectations 23
the business of making buggy whips. Others realized that they were part
of the transportation industry. Most of the former went out of business
since buggy whips were not all that useful in getting autos moving down
the road. Those who understood that they were in the transportation
industry stayed in business, albeit with different products and business
models. Most leaders these days are like the buggy whip manufacturers
of one hundred years ago. It's easy to become a disengaged, out-oftouch leader, knowing that you have to change but acting along the
lines of a common definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and
over and expecting a different outcome. If you pay keen, multisensory
attention to the changing context inside and outside your organization,
in your private and your public life, and you adapt to the challenges
and opportunities change brings, then your leadership effectiveness will
grow. It requires using all of your senses, and it's not easy work, since
what's happening around you is often not clear.
Let's take a look now at some broad contextual factors that affect
organizational life today and the changing requirements of leaders
worldwide:
• The current organization-customer relationship
• The changing definition of careers and work
• Diversification of the workforce
• The rise of globalized organizations
• Technological innovations
If these factors don't fully capture your reality, take a moment to
identify additional ones that are important to you and the context in
which you lead.
Changes in How Organizations and Customers Connect
Many years ago when flappers danced the Charleston and what was
good for General Motors was good for America, status and hierarchy
were understood and accepted as primary qualities of organizations.
This time of innocence was marked by a common understanding of
assets, ownership, employees, bosses, and customers. Distinctions among
24 Discovering the Leader in You
roles were clear and accepted. Organizations owned or controlled
whatever they considered their business. Efficiency was a question of
continuous high levels of production and sales that pushed volume
beyond a fixed break-even point: the greater the volume, the greater
the profitability. Customers were on the receiving end of organizational
outputs or products, and customization for the customer was not a part
of the organizational lexicon.
But change was in the air even then. Technological advances led
to continuous change, faster communication, and new product lines.
Products became more sophisticated. More assets became intellectual
than physical. And customers began to have a direct influence on the
future plans of organizations.
Today the Internet provides customers with knowledge, power, and
access to competitors' products and the ability to rate the quality of
products for everyone to see. Buyers expect more for their money and
will cross whatever oceans, deserts, or Web pages may be necessary to
find the right product or service. They need no longer walk into stores or
drive to distant malls. Because customers now demand customization,
product and service options have multiplied.
In response, organizations now strive for highly competitive, qualityand cost-conscious environments where flexibility and responsiveness
are paramount. Rapid cycle time is now seen as a major source of
competitive advantage, and the norm is to have the next version of a
product gearing up before the last one has fully rolled out. Innovation,
entrepreneurial ventures, and new distribution channels are the name
of the game.
Structurally many organizations are moving from primarily hierarchical structures to collective forms to meet customer needs anywhere
and at any time. This often causes a movement toward decentralization
or regionalization. A competing force or tension is that in order to
grow, large organizations must acquire smaller ones or establish key
partnerships if they want their business to grow. Growing in size often
leads to centralization of services, yet at the same time, dispersal of
Organizational Realities, Demands, and Expectations 25
authority and expertise and a decentralization of power are necessary
to meet customer needs.
In light of these changes, think about the following questions:
• How have increased customer demands affected your organization
and your role as a leader?
• How has your organization responded to dynamic changes in the
broader marketplace, and what are the implications of these changes
for leadership needs in your organization?
• What structural or role changes have taken place in your organization in response to customer demands?
• What differences have these changes made to your relationships
with peers, your boss, and people who work for you?
• Have any of these changes left you adrift? In what ways?
Changes in the Definitions of Career and Work
As authority disperses and organizational structures alter, employment arrangements have also changed. Employees are increasingly
likely to change jobs and organizations many times over their career.
The proverbial gold watch for ''lifers'' is now rare. Organizations no
longer have the obligation or desire to employ everyone full time.
Increasingly, organizations are using temporary, part-time, flexible,
partnered, telecommuting, outsourced, and interim manager roles. By
such arrangements organizations manage particular risks, such as avoiding the high cost of layoffs in a downturn yet preserve the labor they
need to respond to peaks or emergencies. Role flexibility and fiscal
responsibility become paramount in workforce strategies.
Such changes can fracture engagement and loyalty if they are
not managed carefully. Keeping a disconnected and temporary workforce engaged, focused, loyal, and committed is not an easy leadership
task. Finding common motivations and purpose is more difficult. When
employers spend more time managing risk and less time valuing employees, loyalty diminishes on both ends. Resulting higher turnover can be
costly to employers and compromise customer service when organizational knowledge walks out the door.
26 Discovering the Leader in You
These employment changes have triggered new orientations to jobs
and careers, with a greater emphasis on tasks and assignments and less
on ongoing jobs. Increasingly, although workers perform tasks, they
also need to create their own tasks to become more entrepreneurial.
The location of work is also shifting, from brick-and-mortar sites to
networks spanning oceans. More people work from home, on planes, in
hotel rooms, and in other settings. More people are ''vendor-minded''
temporary workers, looking for unmet needs to which they can apply
their skills, and interacting with peers, bosses, customers, clients, and
organizations through social networks. In short, how future work gets
done and who is involved will largely be up to individuals who are
managing their own negotiations, not by traditional organizational
decision-making structures using traditional work processes.
Think about the following:
• What has been the impact of this new orientation to work and
careers on you?
• How has it changed the way you lead and the pressing leadership
challenges you face?
• How can you better manage your own career?
• What strategies can you and other leaders use to increase engagement and commitment around the work?
• What can you do to maintain your own commitment and
engagement?
Leading a More Diverse Workforce
Over the past several decades, the workforce has diversified dramatically. Research and discussions in workplaces and at home proliferate
about trends: the aging baby boomer generation on the brink of retirement; the presence and impact of Generations X and Y and the
millennials; the increase in the number of women in the labor force; and
the increase in Hispanic/Latino, African American, and Asian workers.
Attracting and retaining a diverse workforce has become a business
financial imperative, from having enough of the right resources to
Organizational Realities, Demands, and Expectations 27
understanding the increasingly diverse customer pool in order to provide
the right products and services. In James Canton's (2006) list of the top
ten workforce trends for 2009, six of the ten relate to global talent, the
aging population, women, and broader diversity issues. Understanding,
attracting, retaining, leading, and engaging a diverse workforce have
never before been more important.
How do these trends relate to drift? As a member of the workforce,
we all want to be valued and understood. Drift may be a result of not
feeling valued or not finding the right fit within an organization or with
an entrepreneurial venture. It might be the result of not feeling that
you have sufficient power or influence over your own career choices.
Drift might also result from uncertainty in how to motivate and retain
individuals who are different from you. Reflect on how the factors
discussed below bear on you and your leadership situation as it relates
to drift or to the process of discovering the leader in you.
Generational Diversity
Considerable attention is given today to the number of generations
working side by side in organizations, and it's commonly assumed that
major differences between generations cause conflict and dissatisfaction
in the workplace. In particular, a common stereotype is that the younger
generations (for example, Gen X, born between the mid-1960s and the
late 1970s, and Gen Y, born between 1980 and 2000) are very different
from each other and from earlier generations (baby boomers and
the silent generation). Despite the common notion that generations
are fundamentally different, Jennifer Deal (2007) argues that there are
more similarities than differences between generations, especially in the
area of personal values such as family, integrity, achievement, love,
competence, and happiness. Why is the belief that different generations
have different values so prevalent? Why do so many of us extrapolate
from that belief that it's difficult for leaders to create cohesion among
teams and work groups composed of differently aged workers, and that
it's difficult for young and old workers to get along at work? Deal explains
that the differences are found in how people of different generations act
28 Discovering the Leader in You
on those values, not in the values themselves. When one group of people
acts differently from another group, people of either group make faulty
attributions about the causes of behavioral differences and often blame
different values rather than chalking it up to the different ways people
have for interacting with the world.
While people of different generations behave somewhat differently
(especially when it comes to communication or the use of technology),
many underlying values, beliefs, and aspirations are more similar than
dissimilar. Generational conflict in the workplace is more likely due
to issues of control, power, and authority than to more fundamental
problems. As Deal (2007) argues, a lot of the conflict experienced at
work emerges in struggles of authority and power, which are often
exacerbated between older and younger workers: younger managers
seek authority and power, and older managers often want to maintain
the authority and power they have built over the years. We could reach
the same conclusion about differences of race, socioeconomic status, or
other such factors. Many so-called differences come down to power,
control, and authority. A perceived lack of power, control, and authority
can often lead to drift when it creates a sense of not feeling valued or
not finding the right fit with an organization.
Do generational issues play a part of the context of your leadership?
If part of your current organizational context labels you as a member of
a younger generation than the current leadership and so detracts from
your being taken seriously, how might you reframe the situation and
make different attributions about the values and beliefs of older generations? If you lead multiple generations, how can you lead differently?
If you are managing a person twenty years older than you, how might
you better bridge any misunderstandings or conflict?
Gender Diversity
If generational issues don't have an impact on you as an individual
or leader, gender issues might. For many years, research, articles,
programs, and informal discussions have focused on a number of
gender questions. Why don't more women hold the top positions in
Organizational Realities, Demands, and Expectations 29
organizations? Do men and women lead differently? Are men or women
seen as more effective leaders? Do women and men bring different
communication styles to organizations? Why do fewer women than
men occupy line positions? What impact do different cultural attitudes
toward men and women have on leadership practice and potential?
These and other questions have led individuals and organizations to
examine their assumptions, beliefs, policies, and practices about both
men and women in the workforce.
In the United States, statistics related to gender have changed
dramatically over the past five decades. For example, Gail Collins (2009)
notes that in the early 1960s, ''women were vigorously discouraged from
seeking jobs that men might have wanted'' (2009, p. 20). She compares
that sentiment to today, when women claim almost half of the seats
in U.S. medical and law schools. These trends continue: more women
than ever before are enlisting in the military, becoming engineers, and
starting their own companies.
Another data trend shows that in the 2008 economic recession, more
men than women lost their jobs. This is due in part to more women
than men in part-time positions and in lower-paying jobs. However,
women now make up over 50 percent of the labor pool and are being
recognized as strong consumers in the marketplace. Women make
purchasing decisions on 94 percent of home furnishings, 92 percent
of vacations, 91 percent of homes, 60 percent of automobiles, and 51
percent of electronics (Silverstein and Sayre, 2009). Organizations now
look to their female employees for product and service ideas to attract
this consumer base.
In addition, more research studies conducted in the United States
have reported the positive financial contributions that women make in
the workplace (see, for example, Desvaux, Devillard-Hoellinger, and
Meaney, 2008; Shipman and Kay, 2009). All of these forces have
led Heather Boushey and Ann O'Leary, the authors of The Shriver
Report (2009), to identify the coming decade as one of transformation
comparable to the age of industrialization, the civil rights movement,
and the creation of the Internet.
30 Discovering the Leader in You
What is the effect of these trends in organizations? Some women
are finding their way to more senior levels in organizations. Some are
leaving to start their own companies. Some are achieving equal pay for
equal work, but many are not. Some are leading the charge for more
flexible work arrangements. And others are facing challenges related to
leadership choices as they address their own questions: Where do I best
fit? Can I balance the responsibilities of a demanding leadership role
and family responsibilities? Can I break into an established network?
Men are not immune to these same challenges, and they certainly
experience drift and uncertainty in considering themselves as leaders
and how they might lead. They are also choosing to start their own
businesses or work part time; others, due to the economy, are being
forced to change their work hours, become the stay-at-home spouse,
or make other career choices that they had never before envisioned.
Both men and women encounter gender differences, stereotypes, and
bias. Because of these changes in how both men and women work,
negotiation increases at home over family schedules, household chores,
and travel conflicts.
All of these changes affect organizations, leaders, and individuals.
How do leaders ensure that they have the right talent, whether men or
women, in their organizations? How can leaders combat gender bias
and stereotypes? How do gender issues at work and at home affect you?
How might this dynamic contribute to or inhibit discovering the leader
in you?
Cultural Diversity
With changing demographics and a more globally connected world,
diverse cultures have proliferated in our schools, communities, neighborhoods, religious institutions, and organizations. As the world gets
smaller, we experience differences in traditions, communication patterns, language, personal space, consumer habits, humor, orientation
to time, attitudes toward work, responses to authority, family expectations, expressions of identity, norms, how knowledge is acquired, and
responses to change. These differences have changed how employees
Organizational Realities, Demands, and Expectations 31
interact with bosses, how teams work together, how groups communicate across geographical distances, how work gets done, and how
conflict gets dealt with or not, and how leaders need to engage a diverse
workforce. Cultural diversity also affects how well the supply chain
works, how global partnerships succeed or fail, and how governments
determine new policies. What does it mean for all members of a workforce to feel valued and appreciated? What members of a diverse culture
might be more prone to drift? How does this trend affect you, and in
what way might it contribute to your feelings of drift?
Now think about the following questions and how all of the changing
demographics of your workforce affect your role now and in the future
as a leader:
• How would you describe the changing diversity in your organization
(generational, gender, ethnic, cultural)? What impact is it having?
• What do you anticipate as further changes around diversity that
will arise in the next five years?
• How is your organization taking advantage of the new workforce
playing field in order to be more competitive?
• How might these trends be connected to your challenges or feelings
of drift as a leader?
• In various respects, how would you describe your status as minority
or majority? How might that status influence your behaviors or
your feelings of value as a leader?
• As you look forward five years, what skill sets and worldviews do
you need to develop to be a more effective leader in an increasingly
diverse world?
Globalization
Is the world indeed flat, as Thomas Friedman (2005) claims? He
argues that technology innovations allow individuals and organizations
around the world to grasp unprecedented opportunities by reducing
the obstacles to labor, resources, and markets to the same level for
every organization. But when Richard Florida (2005) examined global
32 Discovering the Leader in You
economic data, he reached a different conclusion. He argues that the
world is spiky, full of growing disparities and inequities (peaks and
valleys) that vary across populations and geographies. Indeed, he found
that although more people were living in urban areas than at any
other time in the world's history, the economic output of the world's
largest cities varied greatly. He also found that by various measures of
innovation, there are tremendous differences across regions, countries,
and cities. For example, in 2002, 85 percent of the patents granted
came from just five countries: the United States, Japan, South Korea,
Germany, and Russia. Whether seen as flat or spiky, the world is more
connected than ever before because of technology and communication
developments that create more opportunities to lead growth.
The global recession beginning in 2008 illustrates the tight
connections among economies of different countries and different organizations. When businesses and nonprofit services in the United States
suffer an economic downturn, small and large countries around the
world feel that pain. In November 2009, for example, after years
of explosive growth in Dubai, the global economic recession caused
massive debt, and the country struggled to pay off loans. Its request
for a six-month reprieve on its bills caused an immediate drop on
world markets and led neighboring Abu Dhabi to provide significant
economic assistance. Likewise, when a single, large multinational
company goes out of business or into bankruptcy, as Lehman Brothers
and General Motors did, the reverberations are felt far and wide.
The rise of globally connected companies causes many leaders to
talk about the challenges they face in working across time zones and
cultures, ranging from the mundane (such as finding a suitable time for a
conference call involving people from different countries) to the critical
and complex (cultural differences that can derail a project because of
miscommunication or misperceptions). Global connections have also
led to more opportunities to live abroad and take on the challenges
of expatriation.
Organizational Realities, Demands, and Expectations 33
In 2008 and 2009, CCL researchers asked senior executives who
participated in its Leadership at the Peak program about such boundaryspanning challenges. Most of these leaders (86 percent) reported that it
was extremely important for them to work effectively across boundaries
in their current leadership role. They needed new leadership skills to
address problems at the intersections of all kinds of organizational, cultural, demographic, and geographical boundaries. Leaders increasingly
realize that they need to operate beyond the boxes and lines of the
organizational chart. Yet only 7 percent of those whom CCL surveyed
believed they were very effective at it (Ernst and Yip, 2008).
Think about the impact of globalization on you and your organization:
• Does your organization have a global reach? What leadership
opportunities are available to you beyond where you live? If you
lived in a different city or country, how would that affect your future
effectiveness as a leader?
• What is the impact of globalization on your leadership? Compared
to five years ago, do you have more or fewer boundary-spanning
tasks?
• What challenges do you face working across time zones, geographies, cultures, or religions?
• How does the complexity of working globally and across boundaries
contribute (or not) to feelings of drift?
Technology and Other Innovations
Technological innovations give individuals unprecedented global access
to people and information. Technology has also led people to work more
synchronously (through teleconferences, Web meetings, and the like)
and asynchronously 24/7 (by e-mail, recorded Web-based presentations, and such). Smartphones, mobile phones, and a host of digital
accessories connect more and more of us to colleagues, reports, and
customers at all times and in all places. Disconnecting from work, even
for a few hours, now takes a conscious effort.
34 Discovering the Leader in You
Technological changes have been profound and continuous. In
response, organizations look to instill a culture of innovation in order to
compete more effectively in an ever changing environment. Pressure to
create lines of new and innovative products continues, as evidenced by
the 92 percent of the senior executives polled by CCL who called innovation a top driver of organizational strategy. What kind of leadership
supports innovation? Is that the leadership to which you aspire? Think
about the following questions:
• What has been the impact of technology on you as an employee?
As a leader?
• Is your role about finding the next innovation for the organization
or preserving a cash cow?
• Has this trend contributed to your feeling adrift and unable to adapt
to the changing environment? If so, in what way?
• Is burnout from the 24/7 access people have to you contributing to
the drift you might be experiencing?
• Do you believe you can keep up with all of the technological
innovations relevant to your work?
We've just discussed trends that are changing the way that organizations, leaders, and individual contributors work. What other trends
could we have listed that affect you now?
WHAT DO THESE CHANGES MEAN
FOR YOU AS A LEADER?
Shifts that are external and internal to organizations often demand that
leaders think and behave differently from the past. Being attuned to
these shifts and resulting demands keeps leaders at the forefront of what
organizations need and maintains their value to the organization.
In Chapter One, we wrote about the need for leaders at all levels
in organizations (what some might call collective leadership), not just
Organizational Realities, Demands, and Expectations 35
at the top. Now you know why. In order to increase flexibility and
speed in responding to customers, organizations need to decentralize
management and provide leadership at numerous intersections across
functional boundaries and at more customer touch points. As a result, all
levels of the organization need shared understanding of organizational
vision, strategy, and execution. Old patterns of command and control
are replaced by or mixed with patterns in which who controls and who
commands are in constant flux. More than ever before, leadership is
as much about influence and interdependence as it is about authority.
The growth of collaborations, alliances, and value chains has shifted
the boundaries of effective management so that the emphasis falls on
working relationships fueled by good communication. Leadership also
means paying attention to organizational culture, since culture guides
employees and how they interact with customers.
John McGuire and Gary Rhodes (2009) distinguish three types of
organizational cultures:
• Dependent. Those in formal positions of authority are responsible for
leadership.
• Independent. Leadership emerges based on technical knowledge and
expertise.
• Interdependent. Leadership is a collective and interdependent activity.
As leaders face more complex challenges that defy easily identifiable solutions, McGuire and Rhodes argue, they need to move
from dependent and independent leadership cultures to an interdependent one.
What does all of this mean for your own leader skills and perspectives? It means you have to understand the complex issues involved in
coordinating systems and promoting collaboration across boundaries,
and develop the means of paying attention to the interdependencies
among various people and systems. Leaders must continuously respond
to a variety of work routines, communication patterns, and performance
standards. Harnessing collaboration becomes more important to leaders
than worker supervision and managing upward. Leaders must develop
36 Discovering the Leader in You
the ability in themselves and their staff to discern customer needs and to
be innovative, responsive, flexible, and comfortable with ambiguity and
change. The days are gone when a leader can simply stay the course and
manage incrementally. In organizations large and small, leaders need
to reexamine and reenvision all aspects of the organization-customer
interface. They must also reach out and function effectively across
boundaries of time zones, geographies, gender, countries, cultures,
religions, and worldviews, leading a diverse and dispersed workforce.
Take a moment here to review the contextual challenges your
organization faces and the impact they have on your own leadership
and the leadership of your colleagues. It's important to consider both
the potential benefits of these changes (for example, opportunities to be
involved in leadership roles even when you don't have the formal title,
or chances to work on issues that make important differences in the
lives of others) and their costs. Unknown costs may push you into drift,
making you temporarily unable to take action. Think about what you
have seen going on around you, and consider the implications for how
you lead, how you can be even more effective as a leader, and how you
might work your way out of drift:
• How do these contextual challenges manifest themselves in your
organization and industry?
• What implications have the changes had for leaders in your organization?
• Do you see different kinds of leaders evolving now than in the past?
• How has the changing nature of leadership affected you? What
new skill sets or perspectives do you need to develop in order to be
effective in the years to come?
• What opportunities for leadership are presented to you that a
decade ago may not have been possible?
• How have these changes helped or challenged you recently as a
leader?
• How have any of these trends or changing skills contributed to drift
in your work?
Organizational Realities, Demands, and Expectations 37
• How have other individuals failed because they didn't adapt to the
changing times?
• What do you want to do differently as a result of gaining insight
into your current context?
CHANGING PERSPECTIVES
ON LEADERSHIP
As organizations have become more complex and the problems that
leaders face more challenging, definitions of successful leadership have
also expanded. Let's look at how views or perspectives on leadership
have evolved over the years, beginning with the idea that leaders aren't
necessarily identified by title or job description and that current diverse
and rapidly changing contexts mean that new and different leaders can
emerge at any time. Expanding your perspectives on leadership can be
both motivating and overwhelming. Your challenge is to understand
the impact that contemporary perspectives have on your own views and
images of leaders and leadership. You will also want to think about the
compatibility of your views with those of others, and how these may
contribute to feelings of drift or your own perceptions of choice. Think
too about what view you wish to instill in others.
Nine Common Perspectives on Leadership
The nine common perspectives on leadership that follow blend fact
and fiction, stories and experience—the received, unquestioned beliefs
of a particular culture. Each perspective carries its own implications,
though people can easily hold several of them simultaneously. Some
perspectives deal with who becomes a leader and how, and others with
how a leader should lead. As you read them, think about how they
might affect your sense of yourself as a leader and the ways you interpret
that role. Also think about the contexts in which you lead and which of
these perspectives is appropriate—or not. Keep in mind that there is no
single right perspective; one size does not fit all.
38 Discovering the Leader in You
Leaders Are Born
This fixed mind-set holds that some people are born with leadership
talent and others are not. In other words, only certain people can learn
to lead effectively; they're naturals. If you were born with it, you are
destined to lead. If you were not, you will never lead.
Leadership Can Be Learned
In this view, you can study leadership carefully, practice what
you study, and become a more effective leader, no matter how good
you are now. This is the opposite of the genetic ''leaders are born''
view. Research in the social and neurosciences increasingly suggests
that human characteristics we once thought of as permanent (like IQ,
personality, and some cognitive skills) are actually malleable through
learning.
Leaders Are Heroes
From this perspective, the only good leaders are those who perform
risky, courageous, wise, and benevolent feats that are beyond the rest
of us. These heroes, always handsome or beautiful, are extroverted
and charismatic, and they command attention whenever they walk into
a room. Think about the characters portrayed by John Wayne, Clint
Eastwood, Denzel Washington, Angelina Jolie, and Meryl Streep. Some
are leaders with the uncanny ability to get the rest of us out of trouble.
Or think of real-life recent heroes such as Erin Brockovich (in the toxic
wastewater case against Pacific Gas and Electric) or executive Sherron
Watkins, who called out Enron's massive fraud.
Leaders Are at the Top
This is the view that leadership happens only at or close to the top
of an organization. In command-and-control environments, your role
is to simply follow orders unless you occupy a top position. If you're
not on the senior leadership team, you are perceived as having little
leadership to offer. Members of management hold the cards, for better
or worse.
Organizational Realities, Demands, and Expectations 39
Leaders Are Called to Serve
When it's your time to lead, you'll be asked. When asked, you
should accept and be grateful. After all, not everyone is asked. Social
scripts create expectations about who is likely to be asked to lead and,
when asked, how a leader should behave given the context in which
he or she functions. We often internalize such scripts from powerful
influences from early family life and our surrounding cultures; although
sometimes difficult to identify, their effects are profound.
Leaders Are Defined by Position
If you're in the job and have the title, you're the leader. This notion
is traditional in bureaucracies and highly structured organizations, and
it carries some validity even in less hierarchical systems. If your title says
''director of'' or ''head of,'' your leadership abilities and effectiveness
are assumed unassailable. You have power, authority, and possibly a
corner office.
Leaders Depend on and Are Created by Others
Some leaders view the deep involvement of other people in setting
direction and making decisions as the cornerstone of a leader's success.
In this view, the leader's goal is to unleash the talents of others. The
view focuses on the collective and interdependent processes we discussed
earlier in connection with transformational leadership. As Lao Tzu is
quoted as saying, ''A leader is best when people barely know he exists,
when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.''
Leadership Is Temporary
Organizations lacking a pipeline of leadership talent are often
forced to select a sometimes reluctant leader with an ''interim'' title or
status, to fulfill a leadership function. Individuals often take on such
roles because they are persuaded to do so or are strongly committed
to the organization. Some grow into their leadership role and by
mutual agreement become officially more permanent. Others accept
the assignment for a limited time while the organization selects a more
permanent leader.
40 Discovering the Leader in You
Leaders Are Servants
A call to lead out of a desire to serve others can be quite compelling
to some people. It involves a deeply felt sense of mission, private purpose,
inevitability, or legacy. The call may be so powerful that the person
feels practically unable to turn down a leadership opportunity. A calling
isn't always rational, but it's personally passionate. The servant leader
doesn't leave it to others to judge whether his or her desire to serve
others is valid or appropriate. Equally compelling might be the absence
of that inner voice.
What Can Be Gained from Exploring?
Each of these views is worth exploring and can lead you to unexpected
places. When a particular view doesn't match the organizational context,
for example, questions can arise as to whether a leader is the right fit
for the organization: Can this person be successful in this role or this
environment? When the view is reinforced and rewarded, value and
excitement can be realized.
Some organizations may operate as a strict hierarchy, despite
signals of a more equally competitive environment or the advances in
communication technology. Other organizations reward individuals for
following a social script. Some organizations may intentionally change
the kind of leadership perspectives that it rewards, and so confusion
may run rampant. You may need to do some digging to understand
which view or set of views predominates in your organization. History,
culture, and existing leadership will have a great influence here.
Consider this story about a servant leader whose own questions of
fit led him to seek other choices.
For many years, Paul wished he were helping others see their
potential as individuals and as members of a tightly knit community.
An early career in sales had been disappointing: it made a living and
the products were honest, but they didn't come close to touching
lives.
Paul left sales for the seminary and became a minister, but ministry
didn't work for him either. To him it seemed too parochial and
ritualistic. Next, he accepted an offer from a nonprofit organization that
Organizational Realities, Demands, and Expectations 41
needed a manager to run a unit that provided development experiences
for people across the country. Paul did well at this work. His staff liked
him, and his counseling skills were useful. For a while, the world seemed
fine. Then Paul found that the organization's growth meant that his
leadership role was becoming more about managing than serving. So
at a time of peak effectiveness in his organizational career, he stepped
away from running a department and became an individual contributor
within the organization. Paul found he could promote his deeply held
values more explicitly when he worked side by side with others and
could serve as a sounding board and mentor.
For now, at least, the world seems fine to Paul. He's found a
comfortable and effective way to be what he wants to be. We believe
that in his new role as an individual contributor, he will have ample
opportunities to be a leader, even if his span of control is narrower than
it was previously and his budget lower.
The Value of Knowing Your Views
The views of leadership we've described aren't mutually exclusive, and
your own are no doubt a blend of many ideas, experiences, worldviews,
and theories. Views of leadership are informed by success, trial and error,
input from others (such as coaches, friends, family, and coworkers), and
observing the good and bad practices of leaders. You're much better
off if you're aware of your own views and how you and others might be
affected by them.
If you pay attention to your own changing views and the views of
others, you can develop yourself to take better advantage of opportunities
and overcome inevitable obstacles that can cause you to drift into
inaction. Certain choices about leading may seem desirable and make
more sense to you than others do. It's important to maintain broad
attention and see how these philosophies or views of leadership may be
relevant to your work today.
The difference between managers who are comfortable as leaders
and those who aren't is that the former can articulate the views and
images of leadership that guide them through thick and thin and that
integrate career, family, and community. That awareness helps them
42 Discovering the Leader in You
recognize how well they match the leadership roles their organizations
envision, and they make work and career decisions accordingly.
To help you integrate the views of leadership in your environment
and in yourself, we encourage you to develop a flexible but sustaining
personal view of leadership. How you think about leadership should be
based on what you want to accomplish in life. Why are you leading?
Your views of leadership aren't cast in stone. At each stage of your life
and career, you will need to question and rebuild your views based on
new learning and new experiences. The more comprehensive your view
and the more frequently you reflect on it, the better it will serve you as
an integrating tool.
Some of the following questions may sound simple, and you may
already have addressed them. But if you haven't taken the time to stop
and reflect on your answers in some while or have never considered the
power of such questions to illuminate your decision to serve as a leader,
we encourage you to do so now:
• How will being a leader help you create the impact you desire?
• Which views about leadership (from those previously described or
those you have experienced elsewhere) resonate with you? Why?
• Which view or views about leadership are disagreeable to you?
Why?
• How conscious are you of your leadership views? How do they play
out in your behavior?
• What views of leadership have been preferred in organizations in
which you have worked?
• How closely matched are your views and those of your organization,
or how closely matched are your views and the views of people you
lead?
• What changes in your view might make you a more effective leader
in the contexts in which you now lead?
By now, you recognize the amount of complexity flowing from
continuous change in organizations as well as from expanding views
Organizational Realities, Demands, and Expectations 43
of leadership. This complexity is not without its consequences or costs,
which is where our discussion now turns.
INCREASING DEMANDS ON LEADERS
More leaders than ever before question whether they were right to
have chosen the leadership path. Many ask: Is being a leader worth
the effort and sacrifice? For example, a survey by Adecco Group North
America found that 61 percent of employees would decline to take their
manager's position with its greater pressures (Winter, 2009).
In the letter excerpted below, a senior leader who attended a CCL
program articulates how he needs to better allocate his time across
work and nonwork activities so that the cost-benefit ratio of leading
is more favorable to his overall well-being. This is the first of several
excerpted letters that we include in this book . These letters were written
by executives to themselves as part of a classroom-based goal-setting
activity (they are all italicized to help you find them easily):
Dear—
It is time for you to reflect on your life and decide how you will spend the
next half of it.
It's time to decide to be a happier person by taking more time for yourself,
taking family trips to the coast or the mountains. Travel to places you have
never been and return to those that you love. Play your guitar more, write songs
that have been waiting to come out. Describe the world as only you can see it.
Visit those that are special to you and tell them so. Play music and share it
with others.
Continue your education, not for some fancy degree, but for the experience
and for the sake of learning something new.
Follow your passion, not your pension.
Be more loving and affectionate to those you love most, your family—
Most of all, love yourself. Care less about others' opinions of you and more
about your heart. Be kind to yourself. Relax and enjoy the ride.
44 Discovering the Leader in You
It's important to understand the demands inherent in many leadership positions. Use all of the information at your disposal to determine
what those demands are in your case. The managers we spoke to
while writing this book never hesitated over questions about costs,
sacrifices, and difficulties. They told us about high stress levels, irritability, dealing with problem performers, or having to lay off employees.
Some bemoaned a loss of freedom. These costs were obviously painful,
though, as one said, ''If you assume the mantle, you've got to pay the
price.'' Understanding these demands helps you develop strategies to
offset them, ignore them, neutralize them, or seek a different role where
the costs are lower.
Here are the types of costs that were frequently mentioned. Of
course, what is a cost to one leader may be some kind of reward for
another.
Visibility
You're in the fishbowl, and all eyes are on you: ''Who's she spending
time with?'' ''Who's he including in his meetings?'' ''Why is she having
lunch with him?'' ''Did you hear what he did to her?'' ''Take a look
at what she's wearing today.'' ''He's in a bad mood—must be fighting
with his wife again.'' As one executive said, ''Just walking out in my
work area (there are ninety folks in my operation), I know they watch
me all the time. . . . It's like walking a tightrope.''
Public Duties
The higher you rise in an organization, the more you appear as its brand
and spokesperson, and so the more you take on public relations responsibilities. You give speeches and make introductions for other speakers.
Your attendance is required at community dinners, cocktail parties,
receptions, fundraising activities, and so forth. You greet and entertain
visiting dignitaries. These are important tasks. Shirk them at your peril.
Separation
The leader is no longer one of the gang. The former peer group is gone,
and the new one sometimes is made up of people who are competitors
Organizational Realities, Demands, and Expectations 45
for other choice spots. It's important for leaders to maintain some personal distance from their colleagues. Relationships that become too close
can lead to faulty decisions or considerable pain when, say, reducing
staff. It's not that leaders must be isolated socially; rather, they often
lose long-lasting, genuinely comfortable relationships that are hard to
replace. They miss the few people with whom they can openly talk.
Caretaking and Emotional Strain
Leaders are responsible for those they lead and are often expected
to take care of others. Care ranges from helping others improve in
their roles, to setting performance expectations, to listening to personal
disappointments. These activities are important and require time and
energy. On many managers, responsibility for direct reports weighs
heavily. One executive we spoke with observed, ''You have a significant
measure of control over people's lives. You know—promotions and
demotions and firings. You have to be willing to understand that and
make judgments and do it extremely carefully. In a way, you're really
fulfilling a trust that some organization is putting on you.''
Trust is the foundation on which relationships are built and in
the collaborative climate within which current organizations operate
relationships are how work gets done. Therefore, leaders feel tremendous responsibility for not violating any trust as they navigate to meet
organizational and individual needs.
Stamina
Leadership requires energy, stamina, and the ability to impart to others.
It often brings with it long hours, long meetings, loads of e-mail, and little
time for family and recreation. Don't mention the travel, with its stuffy
waiting rooms, bad food, cramped seats, and delayed flights. Exhaustion
hovers, and you have to take care of yourself. CCL research indicates a
strong correlation between health and leadership effectiveness. Leaders
with better health status (as measured by physiological factors such as
blood lipid and blood glucose levels and body-mass index ratings) were
more likely to be seen by peers, direct reports, and bosses as effective
leaders than were their less healthy counterparts.
46 Discovering the Leader in You
Job Insecurity
Leadership roles are not secure. Most senior executives in public and
private organizations rate job security lower than anything else about
their organizations. Senior leaders are judged on the basis of the success
of the whole enterprise, which results from many influences beyond their
control. Merit is defined and rewarded more selectively for leadership
than for professional roles. And leaders can't discount politics or career
dynamics. Someone else may really want your spot, or just may not
want you in it anymore. In cases of mergers and acquisitions, leaders
can find that they are redundant.
Less Freedom of Expression
The higher you climb in an organization, the greater the need is to
tightly regulate your words and expression of feelings. People will weigh
your speech more heavily than the speech of those below you. You can't
think aloud because people may interpret your musings as directives.
You may want to relax, joke around, and be one of the gang, but even
in relaxed situations, people are keenly aware of what you say and how
you behave. You must always be aware of your image.
Infrequent Relief and Its Strain on Your Family
You must keep an eye on the bigger picture (people expect you to
see around corners and beyond the horizon) while focusing attention
on current priorities. You must also be able to determine which small
brush fire might turn wild. You receive few easy breaks and may take
work home every night just to stay on top of your priorities. Even on
weekends or on vacations, you're probably mulling over work issues.
Your name is first on the emergency call list, and you are copied daily
on, say, a hundred or more consequential e-mails. One bank executive
told us, ''I think my family has probably paid more than it should. I
have a tendency to be a workaholic, and so if anything has suffered, it's
been my personal life. I have this psychological thing, you know—as
long as it's light out, I can work. When the sun goes down, I go home.''
Another executive reported, ''The biggest cost is actually to the self,
Organizational Realities, Demands, and Expectations 47
because you're forced into limited time for self and family, and so the
self goes far down on the list. Family takes a hit, and you feel bad about
the family. So you try to take more and more out of the self portion to
prop up the family.''
Infrequent Honest Feedback
When you need honest appraisal the most, you are less likely to find it.
The higher your rise in an organization, the less useful the feedback you
receive is. Everyone else seems to have some personal bias or agenda;
information is plentiful, but the truth is elusive. People are prone to tell
you what they think you want to hear rather than what you need to
hear. Good leaders sometimes identify truth tellers in the organization
to mitigate this problem, but such people aren't easy to find because
there are often consequences to being the truth teller (for example,
others in the organization may view truth tellers as simply trying to
advance their status with the boss).
These costs we've discussed don't comprise an exhaustive list. You
may have other costs that are specific to your leadership scenario. Do
those costs contribute to your leadership drift? Do they push you into
action? Think about and document the costs you experience.
Of course, there are also rewards, though these can also lead to
drift. Sometimes you can be so attached to a reward that you stay in a
role too long. We discuss benefits and rewards further in Chapter Six.
There you will have the opportunity to weigh the costs and benefits of
your current and future leadership choices.
CONCLUSION
In this chapter, we described changes in organizations and the resulting
expectations placed on leaders, and the fact that more than ever
before, leaders wonder if the cost is worth the rewards. Our discussion
48 Discovering the Leader in You
surveyed shifting perspectives and views about leadership today that
can complicate your choice to lead.
Reflect on the following final questions to better understand your
leadership context:
• What are the most important organizational factors that have an
impact on you?
• Have changes in the context pushed you into a state of drift?
• What are the current leadership demands on you that provide
motivation or frustration, or both?
• Have you clarified your own views on leadership and how they are
compatible with others in the organization?
• What are you experiencing as the costs of leading right now, and
do you need to reduce the costs to be a more effective leader?
• What insights about drift in your own leadership scenario have you
gained from this chapter?
In Chapter Three, we look at leadership vision and how it can
clarify your actions and choices and lead you out of drift.