Humanistic Leadership – The Role Of Character, Care and Compassion
“If personality is how you respond on a typical day, character is how you show up on a hard day.”??
Since our incredible Masterclasses with best-selling author and Wharton Business School Professor Adam Grant, the Thrive Advisory team have been busy reflecting on the research, concepts and advice that resonated strongly with our clients and colleagues alike.? We have been seeking to make connections to our research and client experience and working to embed and cascade our collective learning on a host of fascinating topics. Core to this has the role of Leader Character.?
In his latest book, Hidden Potential, Adam highlights the criticality of leader character, contending that character development and learning ability, rather than hard labour or intrinsic talent, determines growth and progress. He presents a framework for rising aspirations and exceeding expectations, which incorporates the development of character traits and motivational frameworks. He proposes that we frequently underestimate the talents we can master and how proficient we can become. Adam also explores the building of systems that provide opportunity for those who are undervalued or disregarded. He provides an alternative lens on achievement, emphasising constant progress, learning from failures, and developing character skills rather than relying exclusively on natural talent. He outlines ways to focus on the cultivation of potential regardless of one’s starting point, serving to support our research on leader capability, character and potential.??
His examples of?character skills include embracing discomfort, adaptability, and imperfection in the learning process. In his book, Adam shares the inspiring story of the Raging Rooks, a chess team from a public middle school in Harlem. In the face of disadvantage and limited formal training, Adam describes how these students embraced discomfort to succeed and achieve in remarkable ways, spotlighting the power of character in overcoming obstacles and achieving beyond expectations.? There are clear linkages and implications for organisational and educational systems alike to be set up to nurture talent and develop skills to realise potential regardless of innate abilities or starting points.?
In their rigorous research on the role of leader character Crossan, Furlong, and Austin (2022) describe how their findings regarding its effect on judgment and fostering a culture where character is valued equally alongside competence can result in better decisions and outcomes.??
They suggest organisations that fail to hire for and develop positive leader character are missing an opportunity, citing a study that found that organisations with leaders of high character (those whose employees rated highly on integrity, responsibility, forgiveness, and compassion) had nearly five times the return on assets of those with low character. They propose it is a powerful influence on individual wellbeing and sustained excellence, and as such, it matters at all levels of the organisation, not just at senior leadership levels. Despite the compelling business case, they believe character from a leadership and organisational culture perspective is commonly overlooked for a number of reasons, positing that leaders and organisations commonly:??
Mary Crossan and Adam Grant both assert that ethics and principles are core to leader character, their conceptualise and measure character in broader and nuanced ways and encourage organisations to do the same.?
“Character is about a lot more than ethics – and fostering a culture where it is valued equally alongside competence can result in better decisions and outcomes.” – Mary Crossan??
“Character is more than just having principles. It’s a learned capacity to live by your principles.”? – Adam Grant?
While they recognise that strength of character supports ethical decision-making, they believe its reach is much broader. After analysing the input of over 2,000 executives in focus groups, Crossan and her colleagues identified 10 separate dimensions that interact with an 11th, central quality of judgment. Examples of character include integrity, courage, humility, humanity, temperance (calm and composed) and transcendence (optimism and purpose). Each dimension is considered a potential virtue, but drawing on Aristotle’s thinking, they view that these virtues can come with a dark side and become vices in either deficiency or excess. For example, leaders with too little courage are viewed as timid while those who take it to an extreme can become reckless.??
Developing Leader Character??
Crossan and her colleagues argue that contrary to popular belief, individuals are not born with character, nor is it set in stone at an early age. They propose that the 62 elements associated with their 11 dimensions of character they identified are virtuous habits that can be developed. They caution that while character can be strengthened, it can also atrophy without conscious attention to its development, citing studies that have shown that as leaders rise in the organisation, they may develop hubris and need to be supported to focus on humility. They also state that while individual leaders must be responsible and act on these insights themselves, senior leaders ought to be responsible for bringing an organisation-wide approach to elevating character and integrating it with competence. They suggest examining character with a critical lens through an organisation’s cultural norms can be of use, focusing on what is core and avoiding the risk of “lip service” paid to aspirational corporate value statements.??
Humanity??
Crossan and her colleagues feature humanity as a core leader character trait, defining it as considerate, empathetic, compassionate, magnanimous and forgiving.? We couldn’t agree more!?
Across three pivotal Thrive Advisory leadership research initiatives over the past 7 years, we have collected and analysed over 2 million data-points on leadership potential in addition to the leadership competencies and skills that have endured over decades and are predicted to be core leadership requirements for the future.? Over the years, humanistic leadership requirements have risen in criticality, with EQ overtaking IQ in our overall rankings. Highlighted by over 50% of Thrive’s research participants as a core requirement for the future, humanistic leadership has featured as one of the top 10 most prominent capabilities across all three of our research endeavours.??
In addition to our findings, a survey conducted by Career Builder revealed that 71% of employers prioritise EQ over IQ. This stands to reason, given research consistently demonstrates a relationship between traits such as EQ and empathy and job performance. CCL’s research on Empathy in the Workplace analysed data from 6,731 managers and found a positive relationship between empathy and job performance.??
Admittedly, these ideas are not necessarily new, ‘What makes a Leader’ was published in HBR in 2004 when Daniel Goleman wrote “…when I calculated the ratio of technical skills, IQ, and emotional intelligence as ingredients of excellent performance, emotional intelligence proved to be twice as important as the others for jobs at all levels.” However, the recent surge in the importance of Artificial Intelligence only serves to emphasise and likely accelerate the rise of humanistic leadership. After all, if technology can serve to powerfully augment (although not entirely replace) human cognitive skills such as information synthesis and analysis, it makes perfect sense for leaders and organisations to double down on enhancing emotional intelligence and other humanistic traits for which there is (as yet), no technological replacement.??
As Adam Grant asserts: “If our cognitive skills are what separates us from animals, our character skills are what elevate us above machines.”??
Asokan Ashok’s thinking on Leading with Humanity points to both self-confidence and humility as key traits for success (as well as resilience, gratitude, intuition and empathy). There is of course a case for leaders to display both of these simultaneously, just as there is a compelling case for limiting the emotional stress that can come with an excess of empathy, however, putting ourselves in leaders’ shoes, it’s not difficult to understand why they are feeling under increasing pressure to be all things.??
Self-awareness forms one of the key elements of Emotional Intelligence as observed by Goleman and was highlighted as a core leadership capability across all three of Thrive’s research endeavours. What makes it so fundamental as a starting point is that leaders need a good grasp of who they are and how they show up to others, to decide which aspects of humanistic leadership are important for them to focus on developing or embodying.??
As well as having a good sense of their own strengths, development areas and impact on others it may be helpful for leaders to reframe their thinking onto a more holistic reflection on what good leadership and strong leader character looks like to them.??
When practical advice and tips are concerned, Crossan et al (2022) advise we start with ourselves, urging leaders to:??
A combination of these reflective elements offers a great starting point for leaders trying to navigate and prioritise where to focus limited time. And whether individual leaders land on empathy, authenticity, care or something else entirely, the cumulative impact will no doubt lead to more humanistic leaders and organisations.??
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