5 Iconic Leadership Lessons inspired by Ninjas

Leadership lessons from assassins and spies? Hundreds of years ago in Japan, Ninjas were mercenaries who carried out secret missions for their masters. They were mostly from poorer families and were not popular heroes. Things have changed.

Ninja:“someone who is an expert in a particular field”

Today, the word Ninja carries a more positive connotation and has shed it's historical associations. Now a ‘tech ninja’ is a technical wizard, a ‘food ninja’ is a master-chef and a ‘love ninja’ is (presumably) someone who is adept at relationships.

What would a ‘Ninja Leader’ look like? For all their mixed history, Ninjas symbolise certain iconic characteristics which have relevance for leadership.

Read on to gain insights into Ninja leadership traits and incorporate them to build your own signature Ninja leadership style.

1. Ninja Skills - Act on Inaction

Ken Blanchard in his book, Trust Works, has this to say about Leaders: When you demonstrate competence and skills, you are Able, which builds trust. Teams respect leaders who know what they are doing, and who are doing it well. Ninja leaders must excel in their sphere of work.

On the other hand, it is impossible to be perfect in everything we do.

Ars longa, vita brevis

(Art outlives its creator): Hippocrates

Hippocrates' famous saying has deep meaning. One way to interpret it is that, because it takes a long time to develop expertise and become skilled; while seeking perfection in one thing, we miss out on other more vital things.

With limits on our energy and attention, it’s critical to decide what not to act on. Acting on Inaction means deciding which areas not to act on and saying no to those.

Deciding what not to do is quite as important as deciding what to do.

This is harder than it looks, however. Most people are bad at understanding what they are truly good at. A large number of people, for example, are seduced by the entrepreneurship dream. They overestimate how good they would be at creating a successful company, and give up their corporate career. While a very small percentage become the next Google or Flipkart, an overwhelmingly large majority do not make it. A survey by the IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) in collaboration with Oxford Economics found that 90% of Indian start-ups fail within the first 5 years.

For women in particular, the concept of having Ninja Skills and Acting on Inaction has another implication. Evidence compiled by journalists Katty Kay and Claire Shipman for an article in ‘The Atlantic’ found that men generally overestimate their abilities and performance, while women underestimate both. This is often referred to as the “confidence gap.” For example, women usually feel they need to meet all of a job’s criteria to apply, while men typically apply if they meet only 60% of the requirements. Along with developing Ninja skills, women need to believe and project that they have what it takes to succeed. And act on their own inaction - stop creating self-imposed limits and take positive action to succeed.

Ninja Skills Hack: Do a Pareto exercise to choose the path you actually want, identify the few things where you truly add value, and aim to acquire Ninja Skills in those. Say No! to everything else.

2. Ninja Stand - Fall to Rise

Ninja skills do not ensure a bulletproof career or life. All leaders have to face setbacks – it’s how they deal with them that sets them apart. A ninja leader is one who stands up after a fall, and equips her quiver with the arrows to deal with setbacks (courage, determination, self-confidence and humility).

Ninja stand is put most severely to the test when leaders go through personal setbacks.

When faced with a setback, especially a personal one such as the loss of a job, or failure to land a promising new role, most people go through shock, denial and anger (the first few of the classic stages of loss defined by Elisabeth Kubler Ross). “This can’t be happening to me!” they exclaim. Research shows also that high achievers tend to attribute success to their own efforts but failures to external factors. Such people may find it easy to cope with setback such as a job loss by blaming other people (My boss didn’t have my back) or circumstances (The economic slowdown is responsible).

A natural reaction is to look for validation that one's own perspective is right and abdicate personal responsibility for what has happened. Friends and family may respond with what they feel are supportive statements (“Of course you deserved to keep your job! Life is so unfair!”), but which serve to reinforce the circle of denial, anger and resistance that acts as a barrier to self-examination.

The CEO of a software solutions company with national presence, could not make a mark in his role and was asked to resign. His resignation coincided with a 3 month slowdown in the job market. He used this time to reflect on what he could have done differently and realised that he did not have enough knowledge of finance and leadership, although he had been selected for his excellent sales and marketing track record. Through self reflection and by asking trusted colleagues, he understood that he was not yet ready for a CEO role and that he needed to learn some essential skills. He later took on a Vice-president (Operations) role at a multinational software services company - a smaller role in a bigger company - which helped him acquire experience and rebuild his confidence for bigger roles. 

It takes Ninja level courage to adopt the tack of self-examination and exploration. While not discounting the influence of external circumstances, Ninja leaders dispassionately examine how they have contributed to the situation. This leads them to accept that there are some changes they need to make and some new patterns of behavior they need to adopt in order to spring back. 

Ninja Stand Hack: Build a circle of trusted people who can be relied on to give you accurate, unbiased feedback with empathy.

3. Ninja Stealth - Speak through Silence

Ninjas were known for their stealth. They would steal in, and accomplish their mission even before their adversary knew they were coming.

When you are Invisible, you don't cast a shadow

Too often, a towering leader with a commanding leadership style can cast a long shadow which cloaks their followers. A shadow can be protective but it doesn't allow for growth. So while it may appear somewhat counter-intuitive, at times the best thing a leader can do is to be invisible. Such as when a big presentation to be made to higher management, and the leader steps aside and encourages a team member to make it. Or when a critical project has been successful and the leader attributes the success to the team. At other times, the leader has to be invisible so that team members can try to solve problems on their own and learn from the process.

“Pay attention to the whispers so you won’t have to hear the screams.”

(old Cherokee saying)

Another aspect of Ninja Stealth is Silence. Some of the best ideas are heard (and disasters are avoided) when we pay attention and listen to the whispers. And we can only pay attention when we remain silent. There is a gradual movement away from the masculine brand of leadership which required leaders to be vocal, visible and dominating. Ninja leaders know that there is positive power in Silence. They use Leadership Silence in a thoughtful manner, to encourage the flow of ideas from others and generate diversity of thought.

Without some amount of leadership silence, what is popularly known as the Sunflower Bias comes into play. If the leader initiates and dominates the conversation, everyone around the table aligns with their views and divergent ideas are lost.

Leaders do need to be visible, but without throwing others in the shade. Ninja stealth means a leader must sometimes step aside so that others may be in the light.

Ninja Stealth Hack: Pre-decide your air-time (the amount of time you will speak) before going into any meeting. If you are someone who typically starts a discussion, try to hold back and let others fill the silence.

4. Ninja Mission - Zoom out to Focus

Ninjas always have a mission, and a single minded determination to succeed in their mission. Imagine if you approached your projects at work like missions, what would you do? You would assemble a crack team (comprising diverse skill-sets), imbue them with a sense of the criticality of the mission by explaining WHY they are doing something, draw up a mission blueprint (a tactical plan to execute the mission flawlessly, with contingency planning built in), and then lead your team into the mission.

While the mission is on, every team member plays their part, but you would hold it together with your eye on the goal, taking care of ‘mission critical’ factors such as time, budgets, stakeholder involvement and performance issues. The whole time, you have a single minded focus on the objectives of the mission. That is what a Ninja Leader does – execute all missions entrusted to them with razor focus.

At the same time, Ninja leaders need to have the opposite ability to Zoom Out of the Hyper Focus, in order to ensure mission success. As Rosabeth Moss Kanter explains in Managing Yourself: Zoom In, Zoom Out (HBR, March 2011), “The lens through which leaders view the world can help or hinder their ability to make good strategic decisions, especially during crises. Zoom in, and get a close look at select details— perhaps too close to make sense of them. Zoom out, and see the big picture—but perhaps miss some subtleties and nuances”. Leaders need multiple perspectives to get a complete picture. E?ective leaders become adept at both zoom in and zoom out.

By zooming in, details become clearer, problems can be identified very quickly, and the leader operates close to ground realities. By zooming out, the context becomes clearer, longer term implications are realised and the leader operates at a strategic level. Both of these behaviors are essential for long term success as a Ninja leader.

Ninja Mission Hack: View every important situation from Zoom In and Zoom Out perspectives. Ask Zoom In questions to focus on details, personalities and short-term impact; ask Zoom Out questions about trends, big picture and long term impact.

5. Ninja Team - Spell I with We

Ninjas may sometimes work solo – but most often, for the success of their mission, they have to work in teams. There are stories of Ninjas scaling high walls by creating a human platform to carry each other on their backs. While the word Ninja describes someone who is super-skilled in their own domain, the Ninja leader uses the power of collaboration to come up with better solutions. This is especially relevant in scenarios of cross functional collaboration, where a group of ninjas from various disciplines get together to create something each could not have done alone.

An important role of the leader is to create a We Ninja culture in their team, where team results are more important than individual success.

Patrick Lencioni’s Team Dysfunctions model is built on this concept, though it does not use the Ninja metaphor. It speaks in depth of what causes teams to fail: an absence of trust, fear of conflict which leads to artificial harmony where the real issues are not discussed, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to results.

In order to create high performing teams, the Ninja leader has to create an enabling atmosphere by doing certain specific things and encouraging team members to do the same. The first is to be able to subsume own ego and express vulnerabilities. Admit when you make a mistake and share your own life and work experiences. This encourages others to open up. Secondly, foster constructive conflict and equip your team with the tools to express disagreement appropriately, so that issues do not fester. Thirdly, dissociate feedback from the chain of command. Feedback does not need to flow from top downwards. Every team member, including the leader, should ask for and give feedback to each other in order to hold everyone accountable. Above all, prioritise team success over individual success by rewarding not only Super-stars (outstanding individual performers) but Rock-stars (those who provide support that enables the team to succeed). 

We Ninja Hack: Communicate often, connect beyond work, and don't ignore signs of I over We when they crop up.

We may not have a flaming sword, but we can certainly light the way by following simple Ninja lessons: Select and develop own expertise, have the courage to accept responsibility to build resilience, be Invisible when required, Zoom In and Zoom Out in every situation, and create a truly collaborative culture. Every Ninja mission is then guaranteed success!