Quasi Leadership

Do you recollect the childhood bedtime story of a donkey who wearing the skin of a lion threated other animals in the jungle? The donkey could do it until a fox identified the truth. In the corporate jungle, there are enough people who pretend to be a leader. I call them 'Quasi-leaders'.

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'Quasi-leaders look like leaders. They have many features of leaders but for a few critical ones. Mission, chemistry with the team, uniqueness of character like glamour and grace, calibre & talent, support of the gut, and public relation (PR) skills could be the missing links between quasi-leaders and leaders. Quasi-leaders don't know what they are up to. They neither have the sense of direction nor do they have a compass. This handicap prevents them from developing a vision. Quasi-leaders can't see tomorrow. Usually, they are the 'imposed leaders'. They get into leadership position due to inheritance, family stature or proximity to a great leader. They could also be among those lucky folks who were selected as assistants by the great leaders, but due to the unexpected early demise of the leader, they get into the leadership saddle. Quasi-leaders rise to the leadership stature because they are at right the right place at the right time. Usually, they become leaders after some great leaders who are too possessive & don't do succession planning. Some leaders initially appear like quasi-leaders but eventually mature as roaring tigers. How do such quasi-leaders lead? What legacy they leave & how to deal with such leaders if you are their follower in the official capacity?

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Sometimes we wonder how somebody got into the leadership position when he or she doesn't have the required calibre, acceptance, mission & vision and also charisma. They are the products of unique situations. Such people have few competitive advantages. Their long association with the organization is supported by their loyalty. They may not work smarter but they work harder. They log in more number of hours, pile up leaves, and are seen more in office. They don't use a watch, reach office before time and stay until the shutters are pulled down. Such people focus on hard work, loyalty and sincerity. They avoid confrontations because they don't take a firm stand on sensitive issues. Team members don't have anything 'for or against' them. Their rise to leadership position surprises the team. Their team neither expects nor is prepared for their leadership. I refer to such leaders as 'quasi-leaders'. They look like leaders but seriously lack many critical qualities of the leader.

Great leaders are chosen. Quasi-leaders are imposed. They are products of environment. They are at right place at right time.

They believe that the route to leadership is through the longevity of service, loyalty, proximity to the boss, They don't belong to a team though they create informal organization out of their insecurity. They believe strategy and planning hardly help. They look at tactics as dirty politics. While great leaders hold their mission on the top, retaining the power and position becomes a mission of the quasi-leaders. Great leaders look at leadership as a responsibility,

Followers get hooked to great leaders because of the hope leaders create through their commitment to mission, and ability to attract resources.

Great Leaders, Great Perspective Great leaders trust concave lenses because their sight is set on the long-term & train their people to use convex lenses so that they get into meticulous planning and execution to ensure operational effectiveness and efficiency. Their focus is how to create wealth which provides long-term benefits to the larger audience.

Great leaders create wealth by focusing on the mission. Quasi Leaders are obsessed about earning quarterly profits by focusing on the short term objectives.

Great leaders' footprints are their perception & perspective. They understand things in a much more positive way. When in a particular situation people complain about a problem, they smell opportunity. When people fear about a threat they get excited about an opportunity wrapped in that threat. Their perspective towards business is radically different.

Quasi-leaders look at profits as an objective. The great leaders look at profit as a resource to create tomorrow, to achieve their mission.

Profit is never a bad word for great leaders but their perspective is different. They are more concern about ongoing profits. Their concern is about profits of the customers and partners. Great leaders are wise people. They know, they can't win if their customers lose, they can't win if their suppliers lose. They know they can grow only with their people. Their perspective of 'their people' is broader. It includes all the stakeholders. Great leaders are worried about investors' money more than their own.

Great leaders never kill hen for golden eggs.

Investors know the obsession of the great leaders to provide them returns & the amount of care they take to provide security to the investors. Whenever such leaders launch public issue, it gets oversubscribed many more times. Quasi-leaders are desperate to prove their worth

Great leaders believe in developing the character before developing a career. Their character is a set of values which are very dear to them as is their passion. Their mission emerges out of their set of values & passion. Their 'vision' is to re-orient the world to suit their passion. This orientation develops leaders' perspective. Those who share their vision and re-orient themselves as per the leaders' perspective join the leaders to help them succeed in the mission & see their vision as reality.

The noble intentions & perspective of the great leaders develops loyal soldiers.

Clarity of thoughts & direction, sharp perception, unique perspective & noble intentions are the steps in the leadership ladder. Quasi-leaders try to jump these steps & face the music. Great leaders know very well that if they care for people then people will share their mission. They are very choosy about selecting every member of their team. They also spend a lot of time in training the team. Having done these fundamental things right they don't hesitate to delegate. They know that only delegation can give required exposure and opportunity to perform. Quasi-leaders don't have such a high level of commitment to people and hence their followers are only 'psychophants' with a short-term personal agenda.

The great leaders develop a team & delegate 'today'. They focus on creating tomorrow. Quasi-leaders struggle managing 'today'.

Great leaders: Work for tomorrow, delegate today Great leaders do not get bogged down in 'today'. They always discuss great ideas. Their 'vision' helps them in seeing tomorrow and hence they are called visionary. They want people to see how the world will look like when their mission is accomplished.They stay in a virtual world. They want to change the world. Great leaders treat status quo not only as a monotony but also as a sin. They feel it is an underemployment and talent should not be deployed in maintaining status quo.

Great leaders are excited about the change, quasi leaders are obsessed about status quo.

Great leaders are change agents. They know that only talented people have a competency to bring the innovation & change and hence they are talent bias. Quasi-leaders hardly gel well with the talented employees. They feel such employees are pampered, complacent and lack loyalty. Inability to handle talent repels talented employees from quasi-leaders who are then left with mediocre employees.

Great leaders are talent hunters. They have a natural instinct to identify talent. They know how to train the talent for tomorrow.

Quasi-leaders don't get attracted towards talent because they don't chase excellence. Most of them are not even aware of the excellence. They get nervous when they see glittering talent. According to quasi-leaders excellence is a luxury, hypothetical proposition & also a fad. They develop a defence mechanism against excellence. They prepare their version of likely problems associated with pursuing excellence.

Great leader takes out fears of his people, quasi-leader installs fear & uses it as a weapon to establish the power.

How do the quasi-leaders lead? Once they grab the power they operate differently. Their methods, tools, and processes are different from the great leaders. Their approach is minimalistic. They will ensure that the things will be done as per the systems requirement but shall not travel an extra mile to improve the system.

The minimalistic approach of quasi-leaders breed mediocracy in the organization.

They lead by due diligence. For them, systems are more important than the business. 'Auditor satisfaction' gets precedence over the 'customer satisfaction'. For them, the 'audit report' is more important than the 'performance report'. Such leaders fear change. They feel their grip may get lost because of the change. They may get changed with the change.

In the era of quasi-leaders, auditors become more powerful than the line managers.

Leading by Creating & Sharing Energies Due to the unhealthy perception & perspective of quasi-leaders the team members do not give them their energies. Because of this attitude of not putting in 100% the organization suffers.

Under quasi-leaders, people work harder but not smarter. They work efficiently but not effectively.

The team spends more time on maintaining due diligence and reports in the given format. The organization loses its innovative edge in the marketplace. It becomes 'systems driven' rather than 'customer driven'. Such due diligence leaders can also be called 'tick-mark' leaders. They identify key result areas (KRA) and ensure bare minimum performance in every element of KRA so that there is a tick mark in front of every element instead of a blank. They project 'all is well' situation.Their obsession is formats and deadlines. They don't want to leave any question unanswered. But they need pre-cooked alternatives. They don't trigger any trouble. They enjoy a smooth ride. Those who create energies have to create friction & heat. They lead by creating a sense of purpose not only in the profession but also in the personal lives of their team members.

Quasi-leaders consume resources. Great leaders generate resources, create energies much more than the resources they consume.

How to deal with Quasi-leaders'? The insecure mind of the quasi-leaders makes them very difficult people to deal with. Quasi-leaders look at talented employees as competitors & are constantly in the hunt for the weaknesses of talented employees. A few suggestions to deal with them are as follows:

Outlive them When quasi-leaders hijack the organizations, most of the good people feel suffocated and they start leaving the organisation. Those who couldn't locate a good job get into their own shell & stop sharing their energies with their teams. Never resign to help the cause of quasi-leaders. The most difficult task is to outlive the quasi-leader. But those who do it successfully reap the benefits.

Don't punish the organization The team members don't support the team with full energy. This results in the organizational loss and also personal loss. One has to ensure not to get demoralized. Maintaining morale & boosting the morale of other team members is the only solution. In fact, one should perform better so that quasi-leaders may not have anything against you.

When they go low, you go high Avoid hitting below the belt. If they go low, you go high. Graceful behaviour is always rewarded.

Wait for the right opportunity Wait for the right opportunity. Use the time to improve relationships with other people in the organization.

Quasi-leaders could be beneficiaries of a tussle between various factions in the organization. Sometimes there is a deadlock in an organization. It is an outcome of a fight between two strong informal groups which can't grab the power themselves but don't let others grab it. In such a deadlock, quasi-leaders may get benefited. They become leaders by filtered consensus through the process of elimination. Some quasi-leaders are just 'In-charge leaders' who hold the leadership charge due to unexpected departure of the great leader. Poor succession planning results in the appointment of the quasi-leaders. They are given a charge as a stop-gap arrangement but it gets extended beyond a limit due to the lack of consensus.

About the Author: Prof Dr Ajit Patil was awarded 'Top Voice on LinkedIn - 2017'. He is a Management Writer; Marketing, Business Development & Retailing Consultant. He conducts Management Development Programmes; trains & coaches Sales & Marketing teams. He has been teaching MBA students in India & overseas for over 18 years. He can be reached at [email protected]

With dear friend Rajesh Gangwani, Executive Director of the oldest & largest Advertising company in India, J Walter Thompson (JWT). We were classmates & hostel-mates from 1989 to 1991 during our MBA programme at Sydenham Institute of Management Studies, Churchgate, Mumbai.