Life After Lockdown - 'Leading the Way'
Notes and Quotes on Leadership
“May you live in interesting times” is purported to be an ancient Chinese curse where the speaker ironically means we live in dangerous and uncertain times.
And yes, we have all been living in “interesting times” over the past year. One which will require a great deal of wisdom, allied with thoughtful and skilful leadership on all fronts, to lead us towards a safer, more enlightened future. Remembering of course that nothing is permanent … so uncertainty is something with which we will always have to deal.
However, we appear to be experiencing an age where populist, narcissistic, controlling leaders are in the ascendancy. Where bullying is seen in some cases to represent strong leadership and opposing ideas are ignored if they don’t fit the leader’s narrative. So perhaps it would be useful to redefine what good leadership looks like and feels like, not from an ideological standpoint but from research and empirical findings.
This has led me to return to two outstanding books which were both meticulously researched, providing us with real evidence of what makes a great leader … Firstly, “Good to Great” by Jim Collins (2001). Collins’s work, with a team of 20 colleagues over a period of 5 years, identified companies whose performance had been “good” i.e., acceptable for 15 years before becoming “great” over the following 15 years. The pinnacle of success as a leader in these businesses were those who displayed the attributes essential to be deemed a Level 5 Leader. These attributes* included …
… Modest and self-effacing
… More Plow Horse than Show Horse
… Looks out the “window’ to attribute success to factors other than self, and looks in the “mirror” to take responsibility when things go poorly.
And secondly “The Captain Class” by Sam Walker (2018) in which he states … “The truth is that leadership is a ceaseless burden. It’s not something people should do for self-reflected glory, or even because they have oodles of charisma … but because they have the humility and fortitude to set aside credit, and their own gratification and well-being for the team – not just in pressure-packed moments but in every minute of every day.”
A word of warning … leadership books detailing one individual’s leadership “secrets” are full of examples of what you should do to become a successful leader. The danger is that you start trying to be the leader someone tells you that you should be, according to their individual realities. Of course, there may be elements within these books which may resonate with your true self and be extremely useful … but be very selective!
Rather than attempting to copy a leadership style as described in leadership books, my aim over the coming weeks and months will be to take you on a Leadership Journey to assist you in discovering and nurturing your own Leadership DNA derived from your authentic self rather than attempting to copy someone else’s reality.
Contributions from experienced leaders and coaches will be included throughout the Journey.
I leave you with a quote from the Chinese philosopher Laozi in 600 B.C. …
“A leader is best when people barely know he/she exists, not so good when people obey or proclaim him/her, worst when they despise him/her. Fail to honour others and they will fail to honour you. But of a good leader, who talks little, when their work is done their aims fulfilled, they will all say, ‘we did this ourselves.’ “
Charlie Jackson
March 2021
* Three examples from a list of nine