A Leader Has to Have Followers - and What Else?
It's pretty obvious that leaders have to have followers. Since we all watch CEOs in action, knowing when they are going to fail might be a good thing to know, yes? I think so. Wills takes the time to detail the leadership styles of thirty-two different leaders, half of them successful leaders, the others not so effective. Some of the leaders failed because they couldn't inspire any one to follow them. That's pretty obvious to see. Usually, corrupt folks are found out eventually. Not a very good leadership style. (OK, Madoff took a little bit longer, I'll warrant. He's an outlier, wouldn't you agree?) What about the rest? They couldn't find followers. OK. Why?
There seems to be one effective predictor of failed leadership, namely, leaders and followers without a goal that they all agree on. Now, Madoff's staffers must have been following along, at least to some extent. Why they did it isn't clear. If they profited, why aren't they in jail, you ask? My prediction: they will be eventually. That's still an outlier example. Most CEOs, when they fail, fail because folks are not helping to create their company goals. The CEOs have followers, yes. But the followers aren't buying into - or, don't understand - the results the CEO needs from them.
Three key things to remember: There has to be a leader. There have to be followers. They have to have a common goal that they all agree to.
We could stop right here and call this the end of the lecture. Not so long ago we talked about failure in corporations (Mixner). We followed Block's description of failure. He said that effective leaders are stewards, not dictators. Stewards follow more democratic principles than dictators. As a result, because they allow their teams to make decisions - even about values and vision, usually high level tasks - on their own, their teams buy in to what they do and perform at a higher level, usually at much higher levels. That's good for everyone.
When we mix Wills (got to have a leader, followers and a goal) with Block (the best thing is to let the team make up their own values and actions with a little very high level training on how to do those things) we've got something very valuable. Let's combine terms, sort of like algebra: steward leaders, enlightened followers, high level goals that they create together and that they all buy in to. Now we're getting somewhere. Think about it.
Mixner, Jack. Democratic Strategy. References Block's Stewardship. http://mixnerstrategy.com/blog/2009/09/post_1.html
Wills, Garry. Certain Trumpets. The Call of Leaders. Simon & Schuster. 1994.