This whole leadership thing kind of sucks. It appears that to be a good leader nowadays you must be touchy-feely, kind, and full of praise for others. It just seems like a lot of work. And it makes you long for the good ol’ days when you could simply bark out orders, punish people for screwing up and, generally, be a badass.
Like back in the day when you could roam around, say, Central Asia, and pillage cities with impunity. I don’t think Genghis Khan worried too much about leadership reviews, workplace democracy or providing air-hockey tables for the team. Yet you can’t deny he was effective, bringing almost all of Asia under his control over a period of just 30 years during the 12th century.
Would Genghis Inc. have made the Macleans Top 100 Workplaces? Probably not. The Mongol’s takeover practices hardly inpired his new subjects to start honouring him with “What Would Genghis Do?” bracelets. In the cities Genghis took over, he would march as many as 100,000 people into the middle of a field and summarily execute them. I suspect he may have skipped the chapter on “Avoiding Conflict” in How to Win Friends and Influence People.
Has there been an evolution in leadership thinking from back then to now? An inexorable march of progress from the steppes of Mongolia to the boardrooms of Canada? Not really. Throughout history, smart leaders have understood human nature and how to motivate people toward a common cause.
The Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu wrote:
To lead people, walk beside them ... As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence. The next best, the people honour and praise. The next, the people fear; and the next, the people hate. When the best leader’s work is done, the people say, “We did it ourselves!”
That sounds strikingly familiar to the successful-leadership prescription Jim Collins gives in his 2001 bestseller Good to Great. In exhaustive detail, Collins examines how some companies make the jump from good to great and others don’t. He argues that the leaders of great companies stay out of the limelight, give others credit, and have an unyielding drive to see the job done properly.
The concepts are not that complicated. Then why are great leaders so rare? And why is being a good leader so difficult?
Part of the answer is that it’s difficult to be disciplined: we quit diets we started a week ago; we lack patience; we miss appointments; we procrastinate. Part of it is because our egos get in the way: we want instant gratification; we want the credit; we take shortcuts. And the final reason is because we avoid emotional discomfort: we avoid the “talk” if it makes us uncomfortable. It’s easier to let things slide rather than fix them now.
Dee Hock, founder of VISA, offered some simple advice for overcoming the impediments to becoming a better leader. Hock said, “Make a list of all the things done to you that you abhorred. Don’t do them to others. Ever. Make another list of things done to you that you loved. Do them to others. Always.”
Good advice for leaders and followers alike, methinks. Enjoy the issue.
Victor Chew Wong, Publisher