Incidental Leadership - 15 common denominators

“I wanna be the leader ; I wanna be the leader

Can I be the leader? Can I ? I can ?

Promise ? Promise ?

Yippee I'm the leader ; I'm the leader

OK what shall we do?”?–?(“?The Leader” – By Roger Mc Gough)

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In recent years, leadership has been perhaps one of the most overused, misused and (sometimes) abused word in management literature, with every thinker offering his / her two bit on what ‘makes a leader’, drawing analogies that are more anecdotal and biased on outcomes, rather than traits that are necessarily responsible for the outcomes. In other words, if someone has had the right results, his/her behavioral traits are mapped and splashed around like a gospel on leadership, until the particular leader falters and falls from grace, or till someone else comes around and captures the imagination of the business world. It gets all the more complex when organizations try to cross pollinate and steal leadership pipeline from each other , which again is a ridiculous exercise because every organization has its unique circumstances and challenges. This is??relevant more than ever in the 21st century where you have age old behemoths jostling for share of an investor’s dollar with rookie start-ups who have redrawn the industrial mix in ways that were unimaginable two decades ago. Therefore, in a space that comprises of conventional stalwarts, accidental settlers and upstart disrupters, the available talent pool for leadership out there is as diverse as it is customized, and whose shelf life is on a consistent decline for no fault of the leaders themselves, who are working harder and smarter than ever before, but simply because of the complex, irrational,?impatient & instantaneous?world we are living in.

When I talk to youngsters in B-schools and ask them about their aspirations, almost 7 out of 10 state that they wish to become a CEO or a board member by the age of thirty five, and 5 of those 7 add “?of a Fortune 500 organization” to their mission statement . When I hear such wishful thinking, I don’t have the heart to?give them a reality check with data points and show how?only a very tiny minority among them might actually be able to shatter the glass ceiling of middle management by the time they hit 40 and get into senior management. Becoming a CEO or a board member is way more difficult a feat that would call for a lot of ticks in many boxes at certain times , many of which are beyond mere talent and hard work. We all wanted to become game changing leaders when we started off, but most of us got leveled off within the first two decades of our career and settled down in our mediocre niche, quietly burying most of our ideas that have no takers, no matter how brilliant they were.

Leadership therefore, has a lot to do with chance – right timing (?being the right person at the right place) , sponsors (?the right support structure?) , macro socio-economic trends (?compatible consumer behavior?), weakened competition (?for whatever reasons) , favorable (internal) attrition or reorganization, and so on.

So, is everything about leadership accidental ? Definitely not. Despite all variables mentioned above, we have some real rock stars out there who are leading massive shifts , creating immense shareholder value and keeping their organizations among the most favorable places to work for, for seniors and millennials alike. While each leader has his / her distinct style and personality, there are some common denominators that can almost always be traced back to?super successful leaders if we observe them well – no matter whether they are leading a GE or an IBM, an Apple, a Google or an Amazon. The following, according to me, are the fifteen?common denominators of Rock star leaders –

1. Knowing their own personal archetype?– Most top leaders are acutely aware of their?personality types , whether they are mavens, connectors or salesmen. And they rally their troops around themselves to artfully compliment their own strengths, hiring people who possess talents they themselves don’t.
2. Boldness?– Bold is sexy. Period. The best leaders command respect by the way they go about their job with bold decisive strokes , even if they are occasionally wrong.?As the saying goes – a flock of sheep led by a lion is better off than a team of lions being led by a lamb.
3. Hustle?– Pick any top leader at any top organization and you'll be amazed at the sheer hours they put into their jobs, something that might seem insane to most of us. Yet they do so, by habit. For them, hard work is simply a way of life, not an option. They actually ‘out-work’ their competition every single day, over and above their superior IQ that acts as a bonus.
4. Simplifying skills?– Great leaders grasp complex ideas quickly, even those outside their own domain, and are able to translate them in an understandable and anecdotal way into action items for their teams.
5. Fairness?– The best leaders are fair men and women, who reward and punish without a sense of bias.
6. Consistency?– Great leaders display a consistent code of conduct, no matter the circumstances. There is a certain method to which they dress, talk and act which is in agreement to their personal branding.
7. Integrity?– Is a given. More than ever before in today’s super transparent world where there are no secrets, where cheats get caught and where shortcuts lead nowhere.
8. Foresight?– The ability to spot trends and red flags before they become obvious, to have the knack of identifying the right people for the right businesses, and the right businesses to put the money in.
9. Horse sense?– To tell the chalk from the cheese, to not fall for every fancy power point deck that is fed to them in strategy workouts and the ability to lead initiatives that yield maximum return on shareholders’?investment.
10. Accessibility?– The best leaders I have personally observed are approachable folks ( giving reasonable allowance for their crazy calendars). They are also people who respond when you write to them, and who actually pay a lot of attention to feedback, even unpleasant feedback. Especially unpleasant feedback.
11. Balanced humility?– They understand the thin line that separates humility and false modesty. They know their strengths and do not apologize for the same just for the heck of it. Likewise, they are also acutely conscious of the strength of their competitors and never let themselves be fooled by yes-men who might insist that all is well, when not.
12. Bias for action?– They infuse enormous kinetic energy into teams they lead, out-pacing their competition by sheer number of shots they attempt. If they fail occasionally in some endeavors, they learn, change course and keep going. They are not people who just ‘show up’, but who show up to shake things up with deliberate action. And then, some more action. Repeat.
13. Conduct?– At their core, the best leaders are also good human beings who possess the right moral compass even beyond the lip service that their job might demand. They genuinely care for the society, the environment, their employees and try to help whenever they can.
14. Competitive?– Like integrity, this too is a given. Especially in today’s cut throat business landscape where you have the brightest of minds pitted against you in the market place. Like top athletes who understand?the grind to the gold & are hooked to it , the best leaders too have an inherent weakness for trophies. They love winning beyond the straightforward material rewards that winning brings them. Winning for them, is an essential ingredient to stay happy.
15. Deep?– While a major part of their personalities is out there for public consumption, great leaders always have a certain element of?unreadability?and detachment about them. This is what helps them disconnect at periodic intervals and?keeps them unpredictable, even to their closest allies. Like a great book with a few missing pages, it is never possible to understand and decipher an ace leader totally. This is also what we call enigma.?

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(This is a chapter from my 2020 book, 'As You Life It')

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