The Myth of the Great Personality
Why Leadership is NOT Driven by Charismatic Personalities
A few years ago I took on some new leadership initiatives. It was the first time I was genuinely excited to try to be a better leader. I had recently been at a leadership conference and spent most of my time observing a great leader as he shared his story and taught on how to lead. I left inspired to increase my leadership capacity.
Later that week, I shared my excitement with a family member, pointing out some of the ways that “model leader” had grown his organization. My relative was quiet for a minute and then said, “Well sure, if you have a so-and-so in your organization, and he is just as dynamic and charismatic as so-in-so, then of course you are going to grow.”
I heard the same hogwash at a leadership event I attended with leaders from my church. They echoed the same sentiment. “We can’t grow like that church grew because we don’t have so-and-so, the great dynamic leader.”
It drives me crazy that people tie their expectations of effective leadership to the amount of charisma found in their leaders (or in themselves!).
Here’s a secret for you:
Great organizations are not dominated by charismatic, dynamic leaders that “pied-piper” everyone into drinking their kool-aid and getting in step with where the leader wants to go. Great organizations are lead by people like this:
- Humble, self-effacing leaders: humility is the hidden jewel of an indicator as to the greatness of a leader. It isn’t the only indicator but it is the price of admission. Pride and bravado are tools of the weak – humility and appropriate smallness are tools for the strong.
- Focused, detail oriented, target driven leaders: great leaders keep their eye (and the eye of the organization) on the ball. They know that targets need to be constantly remembered. They continually bring people back to what really matters and help them see the forest AND the trees.
- Steady, innovative leaders: many people believe that great leaders ride in on their white horses and make sweeping, fast paced, changes. While some leaders may pull this off, most great leaders understand that incremental innovation over a long period of time will trump wholesale changes made quickly. The exception to this rule is when the organization is on the brink of failure. In turnaround times, sweeping changes and fast pace trumps a lot of things. But the vast majority of the time, steady, innovative, progress in the right direction is key.
I understand why some people don’t buy this. The dynamic, charismatic personality is so often the one we want to be the great leader. We pull for them. We cling to them. The problem is our beliefs that this personality is needed to lead, and it keeps us from stepping up and leading as we need to ourselves.
Keep moving forward,
Greg
p.s. Don’t just take my word for it. Here’s a really smart guy that thinks the same thing.
p.p.s. Speaking of incremental innovation. This is the last Friday Morning Memo you will receive. Next week you will have a whole new way to start the week.
[We've been innovating at Kanon Clarity. We aren't quite done yet, but I think you will like what we've been up to... See you next week]