Even well-intentioned leaders often omit whole groups of employees without meaning to. Here’s a piece I did for Inc. that discusses how to make sure you get the most out of each staffer. Read: Leading for a Gender-Inclusive Workplace.
Category: BLG Leadership Insights
As an academic I love dichotomies. They stretch the imagination, help us avoid subtlety, and enhance focused debate.
The problem with dichotomies, however fun, is that they are overt and sometimes misleading oversimplifications. But in the real world tidy constructs become messes, and dichotomies become continuums. The real question is: Where are you on the continuum?
And the answer is: It depends on the situation. You may be a transactional leader one day and a transformative leader the next. You may be internally directed one day and externally directed a week from Tuesday.
And then there is what I consider to be the ultimate knee-jerk dichotomy:
Are you a manager or a leader?
Read the rest of my piece at here Inc.
As January 2 looms ever nearer, leaders in Congress are feeling the pressure to make a deal before we go over the so-called fiscal cliff. The cliff represents budget cuts and tax increases that will automatically go into effect, as well as the economic and social turmoil that would result, if Congress and the President can’t come to a budget agreement.
There is a certain tension generated by the idea that the clock is ticking, and that, unless it can be stopped, doomsday is at hand. Propagating the belief that we’re at the eve of destruction and can avoid doomsday only by conscious action is a proven leadership tool. Bringing a situation to a head has an acknowledged place in negotiation theory, with a distinguished place in foreign diplomacy. For those who remember it, there is probably no better example of this than the Cuban Missile Crisis.
This brinkmanship mindset, with the dramatic emphasis on the cliff, is one way that leaders, in frustration and desperation, use crisis as a way of forcing action. Often, it has the added benefit of giving negotiators political cover: They can legitimately say that they had no choice. Their actions may have been distasteful, and maybe they would not have been acceptable at another time, but this was different: “If we didn’t take action, then we would have gone over the cliff.” Or the bomb would have gone off.
Leaders who use brinkmanship have to be very careful. This tactic, if indeed it is a tactic, has to be used carefully and strategically. Misused, it can have precisely the consequences that everyone is working to avoid.
Before you use brinkmanship as a call to action or as a way to force a decision, keep the following in mind:
- Make sure there really is a cliff. People grow tired of the Chicken Little routine. The Mayan calendar ends on December 21, and so does humanity, allegedly. If you see and report on the impending doomsday too often, your leadership credibility will suffer.
- Do not bluff. Although bluffing is a negotiation tactic, it is not part of the brinkmanship strategy. In the do-or-die scenario, the cost of having your bluff called could be catastrophic. You may be forced to go over the cliff and live with the consequences.
- Be willing to compromise. Going to the brink means that the winner-take-all option is off the table. Once it is clear that everyone has something to lose, you as a leader must come to grips with your capacity to compromise creatively.
- Keep the collective interest in mind. For brinkmanship to be effective, you need the support of those who will be affected. It is critical that stakeholders and supporters do not see brinkmanship as a self-serving exercise in opportunism but rather an effort to solve a problem that negatively affects all parties.
- Avoid creating a panic. Hanging out too long at the end of the cliff without coming to a deal may create anxiety and panic. That can have the same result as going over the cliff. That is, you may unwittingly create a stampede that takes all parties over the edge.
- Don’t use brinkmanship on small issues. If something can be solved fairly easily and creates a win-win, don’t create a false crisis. That’s not the way to the best outcome.
Captain Ahab, from Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, wasn’t the only one with a singular obsession that hounded his thoughts and kept him up at night. Entrepreneurs often have their own white whales, causing them to pace their offices thinking of only that one thing.
Your concern may lack the drama of whale hunting, but whether you’re worried about keeping up with the competition, building your business, implementing a new idea, or making sure your vision is realized, you must avoid falling into the Ahab syndrome. There is a thin line between dedication and unhealthy obsession.
Whatever your goal, don’t let it turn you into an Ahab. His obsession lost him his ship, most of his crew, and ultimately his life. And the whale got away.
Here’s how you can avoid the Ahab syndrome:
1. Don’t be obsessed by vision. I’ve always argued that visions don’t make great leaders. Great historical leaders, such as Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi, FDR, and Mandela all had strong visions, but what set them apart was their ability to make adjustments, fine-tune their tactics, and adjust their direction. They weren’t fixated on their vision to the point of inaction. They were negotiating, creating coalitions, and moving forward.
2. Avoid the cult of personality. Personality isn’t your most reliable leadership tool. Ahab was able to establish a strong psychological bond between himself and his crew. They believed in him. The problem was that they so believed in him, and were so energized by him, that they never really questioned his ideas and became yes-men. Enamored with his personality, they were incapable of seeing his weakness.
3. Beware of groupthink. Organizations want to have a culture that embodies their values and mirrors their norms. They want likeminded people working together to produce efficiently. But if you have too many people on the same page, you’ll have too many with the same ideas. Outliers and people who see things differently can help you get a better perspective on your goals and ideas.
4. Listen to your team. Captain Ahab was deaf to his crew. He didn’t hear what they wanted. He only promised them gold if they found his white whale. It was incentive enough, but as the journey grew perilous, Captain Ahab wasn’t able to heed the warnings from his crew. He stayed focused on his goal and met his maker.
5. Take note of the failures of others. Ahab was fully aware of the harm that Moby Dick could cause. Two sister whaling ships had fatal encounters with the whale, but this did not stop Ahab from carrying on with his dangerous quest. Ahab could not view his goal and weigh the risks with clarity. He wanted to harpoon Moby Dick, but never considered that the whale would drag him down. Not learning from the experience of others is a common trap of the Ahab syndrome.
6. Remember there’s always another white whale. There will always be another opportunity, another goal or target to shoot for, and always something to work toward. In the final analysis there is always another whale, so don’t waste all your resources and deplete your political and pyschological capital on an obsessive dream or goal.
Read more of my pieces from Inc. here.
The leadership lessons learned from Obama’s re-election yesterday are more subtle than those from 2008. For his first Presidential election victory, the ingredients were dazzling—charisma, hope, aspiration, and vision. His campaign rallying cry said it all: “Fired up, ready to go!”
It would be hard to argue that President Obama fired up anyone this time around.
What we saw this time wasn’t leadership with a big, spectacular “L.” It was leadership with a small “l.” This style of leadership isn’t dramatic. Its fundamental characteristic is pragmatism and accommodation to reality. In Obama’s case, it wasn’t always pretty. But one of the unappreciated truths about real leaders is, they often inch their way to success.
Read the rest here…
