The Distance
of Leadership
By STEVE COATS |
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A few years ago, we conducted a survey asking
people these two questions.
"Whom in your entire life experience
do you most admire as a leader?"
"Whom in your current organization or company
do you most admire as a leader?"
Besides asking them to name the leader, we also
wanted to know the key reasons for their particular selections and
their relationships with them. Examples of relationships for the
first question included teachers, coaches, military and business
leaders, and U.S. Presidents to name a few, while the second included
titles like company senior officer, CEO, division head, boss, etc.
The responses about why they selected who they
did were predictable and consistent. But the "who" they
selected was a different story, providing a rather unexpected, even
surprising insight to us.
Before we go any further, let's test our findings.
Think for a moment about those most admired leaders in your own
personal and organizational lives. How would you answer these questions?
What do you think was the most frequently cited
response to each question?
Although we knew that many different names would
be listed, our surprise came in the relationships.
Whom do we most admire in our life?
Mom and Dad. Parent was far and away, the most
frequent response, getting the nod from well over half the respondents.
Whom do we most admire in our organization? Although
about 20% answered no one, roughly 50% listed current or former
immediate supervisor. Not the CEO, nor some other senior officer,
but the boss, the person right above them in the pecking order.
At first, we did not know what to make of our
results. We could hardly see ourselves sitting in front of a group
of hard-nosed CEO's telling them,
"You want to know who people most admire
as leaders. Ladies and gentlemen, it's mom and dad. Oh, and by the
way, in organizations just like yours, the leaders most admired
are the immediate bosses, people at every level."
How much more powerful it would be to tell them
that the most admired leaders are people at the top, in important,
prestigious positions just like theirs. We could have really perpetuated
the myth that position and leadership are in fact the same.
Although the people we surveyed were of all levels,
including senior management, none were CEO's or the top officer.
Might they too, have selected parents or peers as most admired leaders?
We do not know for sure, but are willing to bet that one's position
has no bearing on the answer they give.
What does it mean?
To all of you who are reading this article and
have children, take heed! Your children are most likely looking
at you, more than anyone else, to provide leadership to them. And
sooner than we know, they will be the pool from which the leaders
of tomorrow's organizations will come.
Also, never forget that you have a profound impact
on those people that directly work for you. To most of them, you,
not the CEO, are the symbol of leadership that they will carry forward
with them. You make more of a difference than you may realize, no
matter what level or salary grade you might happen to be.
The Real Lesson for Leaders
As we combined these findings with additional
information on peoples' perspectives about their leaders, we observed
a rather disheartening trend. The survey data was very clear: People
in organizations do not believe their top managers are trustworthy,
honest or credible. Survey after survey showed that workers have
little regard and even littler faith in top management.
What do the employee attitude surveys in your
organization indicate?
Hopefully, the message is more positive, but chances
are you can relate to what we discovered.
We believe that our findings about who we most
admire as leaders and the credibility gap with higher management
is related. The link is distance.
Parents and immediate supervisors have something
in common - both are very close to us. We know them up close and
personal. We see them very frequently, and in most cases, can literally
touch them.
That is not the case with the relationships people
have with higher levels of management. We don't have the opportunity
to really know them. Because they are further removed on a day to
day basis, we know them primarily, based on what others say or write
about them. We do not have any idea if they are truly trustworthy,
capable of leading the business or even interested in other peoples'
well-being. We only know that they are secluded and isolated. They
are not colleagues, friends or even remote acquaintances. They are
distant, unknown strangers.
Think about people that you consider to be strangers
to you. How easy is it for you to trust them? Are you more, or less
likely, to give them the benefit of the doubt on decisions they've
made that you don't understand? To what extent are you able to be
influenced by them, or choose to follow them? How likely are you
to raise them to the top of your list of most admired?
Distance makes it tougher to lead
Who are the people in your organization that seem
like strangers to you? Are they the more senior people, or are they
in fact, the people who you are trying to lead? Are you the stranger
in their eyes? What kind of implications would this have on your
ability to inspire them to do extraordinary work for you?
It is predictable that surveys measuring leadership
characteristics of higher management will result in lower scores.
For most in a typical organization, the people a couple of levels
away are really unknown. And with cynicism on the rise, it is no
wonder that belief in top management is wavering.
Some of you might be thinking, wait a minute!
Didn't some respondents of your survey actually select as their
most admired leader, the President, another head of state, or even
some other relatively far removed business leader. The answer is
of course they did. And here is what they told us about them.
They still felt close to those leaders. In some
fashion, the leader managed to personally touch them. Whether it
was by JFK's vision of a new generation for America or Mother Theresa's
poignant work with the impoverished, people felt a special connection
with them. Perhaps you know that feeling too.
Key to Effective Leadership
You must decide if getting closer to your constituents
is really important to you. You can easily let the excuses of time
or physical proximity justify the reasons you can't. Or you can
defy conventional wisdom and take the tough steps to close the distance.
You must make it a priority to become more visible
and accessible. This may require some additional travel, or tougher
yet, letting go of some of the things that you have always thought
were essential to do.
But the real secret is to more fully utilize the
precious little time you do get with others. It means being attentive
to their wants, needs, anxieties and dreams. It means connecting
the issues that are important to you or the organization with what
is meaningful for them. It means shifting the focus from just you
being heard, to them being listened to and understood. It means
becoming more of a feeling, caring human being in their eyes.
The key to effectively lead others is to become
closer to them. You may be able to "manage by walking around,"
but you can only lead by being around.
Steve Coats is a senior partner with International
Leadership Associates, a Cincinnati firm, dedicated to leadership
development.
Copyright 1996 International Leadership Associates
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