Can you ever think too much about leadership? Not
in my book.
But then, I’m firmly in the camp of "people make history"
rather than "history makes people." Or,
as The New York Times put
it this morning apropos the 10th anniversary of eBay
(and an uncharacteristic admission of theirs it was, that
we’re not all just flotsam on the sea of magisterial government
policy): "EBay
also did one thing Mr. Omidyar was not thinking about 10
years ago: it proved that even in these daunting times,
one person with a good idea can still change the world."
In law-firm-land, think of what Marty Lipton built at
Wachtel, the development of the Socratic/case method of
instruction by Christopher Columbus Langdell at Harvard
Law in the 1800’s, or even the invention of the "Cravath
model" here in the early 1900’s. Do individuals
make a difference? You
bet.
That’s why I think this Harvard
Business School piece has the best encapsulated definition
of leadership I’ve yet to find: Leaders are "people
who leave their footprints in their areas of passion."
To me (and to the HBS author), the far-more-important
piece of that construction is not footprints, but passion. If
you’re not passionate about what you do, I can promise
there’s somebody down the hall doing pretty much the same
thing who is passionate —and not to be oblique about
it, but you lose.
Worse, you go through life that way, until you do (or
don’t) find your passion.
Back to leadership: True leadership, as distinct
from (the very respectable!) management, requires, as the
author puts it, that you be "ambidextrous." That
is to say, you need to continue to manage the day-to-day,
but you also need to take another step, one enabled by
a different perspective than the executional and the operational. The
other step, coming from the reflective, creative, probing
side of your brain, is to ask "if we’re so good, how come
we’re not better?"
Managing is the "what
is;" leadership is the "what if."
Sometimes the combination is only found by pairing two
fundamentally different people, one who relentlessly pushes
for change with one who ensures the place doesn’t blow
up in the process. But experience teaches that dual
chiefs is a situation of inherent disequilibrium (Phil
Purcell and John Mack at Morgan Stanley; Mel Karmazin and
Sumner Redstone at Viacom). Better to incorporate
both capabilities between your own ears.
Going from theory to practice? Recognize that
re-molding an organization in the direction inspired by
your answer to "what if?" will take:
- Persistence: Your vision cannot
be a flash in the pan. - Organization: Without giving
people a roadmap for getting from here to there, they
will cling fast to the tried and true. - Teamwork: You can inspire, but
you can’t do it yourself. - Open–mindedness: Be
prepared for mid-course corrections, and don’t just solicit
advice, listen to it. - Communication: As
Hewitt Associates reminds
us, "Everything communicates." And
as I will remind you, the human antennae-cum-shields
system for hypocrisy detection combines exquisite sensitivity
with a repellent force whose default setting is "stun." So
our last ingredient is: - Integrity.
