People who know me know that I am an optimist -- one of those "glass half full" types -- who thinks we can learn more from our successes than from our failures. And we can improve more by knowing our strengths than our weaknesses. See the excellent book by Tom Rath whch comes complete with an online survey the reader can take to get feedback about his or her top strengths: http://www.strengthsfinder.com).
But I have discovered one place where we learn a lot from looking at the negatives. During my leadership development courses I routinely ask the participants to think about the bad leaders they have encountered over the years and tell me what those people do which makes them bad leaders. My seminar participants don't have much trouble saying things like: "They're inconsistent; they don't listen; they are more concerned about their image and career than about the success and satisfaction levels of their staff members; they don't walk the talk; they're arbitrary, rude, aggressive, distant, inaccessible …." It is hard to get them to stop saying what they don't like.
So we intuitively know what doesn't work, which means we should be able to easily figure out how to do it right: do the opposite of all those bad things. But the problem is that there are so many bad leaders, it becomes difficult to not follow our poor role models because we keep running into them.
That's why it is so important for leaders to know themselves and have a personal moral compass directing their actions (see Stephen Covey on this topic at http://www.hillconsultinggroup.org/assets/pdfs/articles/moral-compassing.pdf). Spend time thinking about the kind of leader you want to be and take every opportunity to know yourself, so that you will recognize when you are about to act in a manner that "isn't really you". Then have the strength of your convictions to get back on track.
I have been exploring a great resource on the web lately that I would like to share with you. It is called SlideShare (http://www.slideshare.net), a site where people have uploaded PowerPoint presentations on a wide variety of topics which others can view online as a slideshow and in most cases can also download for their own personal use. I was looking at some of the offerings on leadership and came across a few you might enjoy looking at.
One is Colin Powell's Leadership Primer. Yes, the retired US Army General who returned from the first Gulf War an American hero may surprise you with how unautocratic his style is. http://www.slideshare.net/guesta3e206/colin-powells-leadership-presentation
Another is a presentation of some challenging thoughts about leadership put together by the Antwerp Business School. http://www.slideshare.net/AntwerpManagementSchool/19-challenging-thoughts-about-leadership
You'd be surprised at the range of topics that can be found on SlideShare.
Now let me come full circle from bad leaders and spend a few moments talking about the best leader I ever worked for. His name was Bob Moomey (unfortunately he died a few years ago) and he was my boss when I was 26 years old and just back from serving as a soldier in Vietnam. By way of full disclosure, he became my best and longest friend and we subsequently had a number of business ventures together.
But looking back to when I first worked for him, I recall these characteristics of his leadership behavior:
- He never questioned my ability to do whatever was in my area of responsibility and to do it as well if not better than anyone could.
- He had faith in me and showed it every opportunity he got.If I messed something up, he took the responsibility but he also talked the situation through with me so I would see where I went wrong.
- He was constantly coaching me and his other staff members, but it always felt like we were just discussing things as equals.
- He always had time for me when I needed his advice.
- He generated a feeling of pride among everyone who worked with him.He celebrated every success and didn't dwell on failures.
- It always felt to his staff that he used the power of his position to defend his staff, not to dominate them.
Before I close this post, I would also like to bring your attention to an interesting intercultural article that I learned about from my friend and colleague Melissa Lamson. It describes some new research into "loose and tight cultures". Check it out here: University World News
-Herb Nestler