Finding Your Leadership Top Gear

I’ve written about leadership extensively in the past, but the combination of social/political division and the pandemic have made it clear we need more from those who are directing our major organizations and institutions. I’ve had the good fortune to work with a number of strong leaders during my time at Microsoft and while serving on several boards. Naturally, I’ve had the opposite experience occasionally – certainly frustrating but also instructive. From all of these interactions, I’ve determined that it’s pretty easy to differentiate mediocre leaders from those that are successful. What is more interesting is how successful heads of organizations stay at the top of their game – and in fact, continue to improve. In cycling terms, how do great leaders find their top gear?

1.    Know Thyself: The best leaders have a deep desire to improve themselves – and they are never satisfied with the status quo in their performance. This type of continuous development requires a high level of self-awareness and a willingness to gather 360 degree performance feedback. An insecure person will either avoid the evaluation process or only seek out positive points of view. High performance managers are willing to hear the truth – to understand their weaknesses – to humbly face their shortcomings. Only then can they create strategies to improve or find other approaches to backfill their kryptonite issues. I’ve worked with two life coaches for twenty years who’ve helped me see myself more clearly. Being vulnerable is challenging – but it is also a key to future growth.

2.    EQ Over IQ: Most of my professional career, I worked at a place where people thought it was important to prove they were the smartest person in the room. To be clear, a meritocracy of ideas is an important part of success. But over time, I’ve come to realize that leaders don’t have to prove they have all the answers – in fact, most of the time, they aren’t close enough to the real problems to have a deeply informed opinion. In addition to being smart, the best of the best leaders have a high EQ – an ability to appreciate the "whole person," to communicate with people effectively, and to motivate them to get their best work. These same leaders also learn the value of a smile or a laugh, especially when they are the object of the humor. Great organizations are built on the backs of strong culture, healthy morale, and an inclusive work environment. In just a few years, Satya Nadella successfully overhauled Microsoft’s culture, which was an impressive accomplishment given the size and scope of the company. Shaping these EQ attributes takes a uniquely human touch – one that involves logic, emotion, and humility.

3.    Let the Sun Shine In: Leaders face some new challenges based on the world of social media and instant sharing, along with generational shifts in attitudes about hierarchy. The old paradigm involved “confidential information” and “need-to-know” access. For many reasons, I think executives need to shelve that line of thinking. Sure – there is information that must be kept private for policy and competitive reasons, but the best leaders find ways to be highly transparent with their teams. Done properly, being open and “real” about important topics breeds trust, commitment, and a sense of ownership. It also enables the team to engage with good awareness about what is at stake and with the information they need to make better decisions. Sonos has been very successful at competing with Amazon, Apple, and Google while also navigating through the challenges of the pandemic – and its transparent culture has been a huge tool in those efforts. To be clear, this puts enormous pressure on the leader to know when and what to share – but the first thought should be “more” and “sooner” – with discretion saved as a second order decision-making criteria.

4.    -Plan for Success(ion): Well run boards of directors force CEOs to create succession plans. Unfortunately, this is usually prefaced with the phrase, “What happens if the CEO gets hit by a bus or wins the lottery?” And while that is a relevant issue, it misses the more important point. Top gear leadership means building a team that is strong across each function and which has upside performance potential. It requires making difficult decisions about people who are “good” but not the best you could have. The goal should be to create a durable organization that could succeed without the CEO, regardless of whom the board decides to put in that role. A CEO I work with recently said to me, “I want to have a good succession plan…not because I want to leave…but because I want to enjoy the team and the work while I’m here.”

5.    Go All In: People give their best effort when they see the passion, commitment, and joy of others around them. To be clear, I’m not implying that this is about the number of hours someone works or how many weekends they skip. Rather, it is about an attitude that people see during the day-to-day grind of making progress. A positive leadership mindset is a game changer – it shifts a leader to a new and higher level. In particular, when the challenges are great, executives must demonstrate their willingness to do what it takes to persevere and find a path to success – and do it in the right way. The team that built the first Xbox did not have a strong, united culture, but it was filled with people who were passionate about gaming and willing to fight through all of the obstacles. Their faith in our mission was a force multiplier. It's definitely not good enough to say the words. People have to see leaders exhibiting their passion and care for the work each and every day. 

We are going through one of those periods of great tension, turmoil, and change in our country. The divisions are real, the conflicts are difficult, and the outcomes are uncertain. The very walls of our democracy are being challenged, our social infrastructure is splitting open, and our economic stability is in question. We need a transformational generation of leaders. Executives in businesses, heads of non-profits and civic organizations, and elected officials – and we need them all to work together to address the challenges we face.

We need an army of Top Gear Leaders – the best of what I call Civic Engineers.