The First Basic Question About Leadership

There are 3 basic questions about leadership that can help us develop a better understanding of what it entails.  Here is the first one. 

If you are a leader, what exactly are you leading?

• A process or function, like marketing, sales, operations, customer service?
• An organization, like a school, a law firm, a movie production company, a sports team?
• An activity, like war, innovation, discovery, transformation, exploration, research?
• A field of endeavor, like science, business, medicine, the arts?

These are some of the answers I have received when I asked this question to my leadership course attendees in the past. You might have similar responses as you read this question today.  

Regardless of what your answer might be, might I suggest there is one common thread among all of them?

They are all potentially correct answers.  To the wrong question..

The RIGHT question should have been as follows.

If you are a leader, WHO exactly are you leading?

Because every single act of leadership, in some way, shape or form, involves PEOPLE. They are the common ingredient of everything we think we are leading.

We lead people. 

Employees, bosses, peers, spouses, kids, parents, families, friends, soldiers, scientists, explorers, researchers, players.

We manage everything else.

Processes, functions, organizations, activities, fields, events.

I know what you are thinking. We use these terms interchangeably all the time.  We talk about managing people and leading organizations often. 

Is there really a difference, or are we splitting hairs?

Yes, there IS a distinction, and it is an important one.  In fact, it is fundamental to everything else about leading that we need to know.

Because people are, well,…….people.

They are the most complicated, confounding, conflicted life-forms on this planet.

People are capricious, whimsical, mutable, brilliant, skeptical, headstrong, intransigent, unpredictable, arbitrary, independent, determined, obdurate creatures.  

Like you and me.

And unlike any process, or function, or event.

Their heads will not always align with yours, their hearts will not always connect with yours, their hands will not always join with yours. 

There are four specific and unique reasons for why these fractures in your flock flourish, and why leading people is so hard.

First, every single person you lead has their own interests.

And their interests may not coincide with yours. Or the organization’s.  Doesn’t matter if they are not relevant to you.  They are significant to them.

• Professional growth, enhanced income, life balance for employees.
• Creative control, bigger roles, fame and fortune for artists.
• Equal treatment, bargaining leverage, improved wages for unions.
• Contract renewal, playing time, remunerative deals for players.
• Political leverage, voter support, positive publicity for politicians.

You name it, they will want it. Some interests will be inarguable.  Some will be indefensible.  All will be inevitable.  And, the higher up you get, the more different interests you need to deal with, and the more distinct stakeholders. 

Even those whose interests are consonant with yours may not agree with you on how to achieve those interests. 

As a leader, one of your toughest tasks will be to convince people about the confluence of contradictory interests, to create common ground among conflicting interests, and to coalesce coalitions between competing interests.

Second, every single person you lead has their own agenda. 

An agenda driven by their interests.  The same interests we talked about before.  The same interests that may not coincide with yours.

You want to improve productivity among your bargained-for workforce?  The union that represents them will immediately become long-term residents of  ORANGE County – Organized Resistance Against New Growth Efforts – and fight you tooth and nail against focusing on your bottom quartile performers, ‘cos their interest is to have every employee be treated the same. (For the union members and sympathizers reading this, I am not saying that it is wrong, just that it will happen. And you know it will. So don't write to me complaining)

You want to improve sales this quarter by launching a new customer promotion quickly?  The legal beagles that represent the company will instantly become permanent citizens of BANANA Republic -   Barristers Acting Negatively About Nearly Anything - and slow your roll by dotting every I and crossing every T, ‘cos their interest is to protect the business from potential litigation. (Same message as the previous paragraph for the lawyers and friends of lawyers reading this. You have saved my rear on many occasions, and I love you dearly)

Some folks may not even know they have an agenda, but they do.  Make no mistake.  It just won’t be visible and obvious.  Every interest begets an agenda.  Only questions are: a) is the agenda explicit or implicit and b) does the agenda help or hinder.

As a leader, you will need to compute concealed agendas, counter contrary agendas, and co-opt compatible agendas.   

Third, every single person you lead will prosecute their agenda. 

Oh, they will do it in different ways. Overtly and covertly. Nicely and nastily.  Thoughtfully and thoughtlessly.  Aggressively and passively.

But they will all have a common characteristic. 

They will do it vigorously and vigorously.

Some constituencies may be openly defiant and disagreeable.  Believe it or not, they are the easier constituencies to deal with.  They are the Rocky’s of the world. You can see them coming in the ring. 

Other constituencies may seem to be on board, but may mobilize resources to gum up the works behind the scenes gradually till you come to a grinding halt. They are much tougher to spot and stop. They are the Rambo’s of the world. They are hiding in the bushes.

As a leader, you will have to blunt and block, thwart and thrust, deflect and demolish, coax and cajole, persuade and parry, energize and enroll, influence and integrate, ameliorate and absorb, mitigate and mold the people forces that get in the way of progress. 

Fourth, every single person you lead will not act alone. 

They are part of a larger team that has you outnumbered. They will enhance each other’s emotions, feed each other’s fears, intensify each other’s insecurities, amplify each other’s anxieties, heighten each other’s hopes, advance each other’s agendas.

Your organization is an echo-chamber.  The slightest sound will reverberate.

Whether you are Lebron James leading five on the floor in Cleveland, or General David Petraeus leading gazillions on the ground in Iraq, remember this reality. 

There are more of them than there are of you. 

If you play a win-lose game with them, you may win the battle. 

But you will lose the war. 

And, as your posse proliferates, the more proportionately prolific are the permutations of probable perverse proclivities, as postulated and predicted in physics. 

Second law of thermodynamics.  The entropy of any closed, macroscopic system not in equilibrium will increase over time.

As a leader, you will need to leverage the multiplicative power of your people in support of your cause, and harness the divisive power of your people against it, by ensuring that when you win, they win too.

So, in summary, your people will have interests, agendas, actions, and numbers that will challenge your ability to lead them.

You have to lead them anyway.

For those of you who have led large organizations and fought the wars, all this will ring troublingly true. 

For others who are just starting out, it will seem overly cynical and negative, and too far-fetched to be feasible.

For the disbelievers, I have just one thing to say.

I have been the bad boy, the bad seed, the bad friend.  Yes, yes.  The bad fiance, the bad dinner guest, the bad dancer.  Point well taken. The bad date, the bad sport, the bad tipper. No doubt.  The bad customer, the bad owner, the bad athlete.  Potentially, potentially. (Seinfeld, Season 2, Episode 4. I am a diehard fan)

But I am good at this.  Trust me.  I know of what I speak.

The implications of  this simple, obvious realization around the recalcitrance of people are HUGE. This one fact makes the task of leading people infinitely more challenging and complex than the task of managing things. 

In order to lead independent-minded and strong-willed followers such as ourselves, and deal with the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse we just talked about, leaders need to earn a Currency of Influence, build an Asset of Impact, and make an Investment of Intention.

The currency of influence is TRUST.

It enables us to be confident that our leaders have no hidden agenda, that they have our best interests at heart, that they are reliable, balanced, honest, and consistent.

The currency of trust is earned by building the asset of RELATIONSHIPS.

Not just any old relationships.  Dependable, caring ones. People don't really care how much you know until they know how much you care.

The asset of relationships is built by making an investment in CHARACTER. 

Not personality. Character. Personality dazzles in the short run. Character shines in the long run.  It glows in the dark.  It attracts people to you without your even trying to do so.

Character defines who you are as a leader. 

You actually have to BE a certain kind of person to earn the privilege of leading.

Never forget this causal mechanism of leadership.  Trust through Relationships, Relationships through Character.

Every time I have forgotten, I have failed.