The Leadership Core

Competencies for Successfully Leading Others

Will Schirmer

• Publisher: Morgan James Publishing
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781631954894
• Topic: Negocios y empresa
• Subtopic: Liderazgo

"An encyclopedia of leadership research and philosophy…Each chapter is chock full of big learnings. Savor, absorb and apply."—David Cottrell, author of Monday Morning Leadership Whether in the boardroom, on the battlefield, or in sports competition, the difference between success and failure often begins and ends with the quality of those who lead. Effective leaders can produce outstanding team performance, inspire others to overcome adversity and challenge, and help unlock potential and fulfillment for their people. Poor leaders can cripple progress, decrease productivity and results, and drive people toward the door. Leadership is often viewed as a 'black box'—an unexplainable phenomenon that sits between the input of effort and the output of desired results. What does 'good' leadership look like, and how do we develop the ability to successfully lead? Intended for both current and aspiring leaders, The Leadership Core explores several primary competencies, as well as the concept of character, that help leaders become more effective and inspiring. Interspersed with pauses for reflection on one's own leadership today, The Leadership Core can be a valuable tool for both leaders at all levels.

Section 1

CHARACTER IS THE CORNERSTONE OF LEADERSHIP

What is character? It’s one of those uniquely human characteristics we define almost exclusively in our own minds. Is it the courage to stand up for what is right in the face of certain punishment? What about the ability to admit mistakes and our own human frailties? Or the humility to understand that the higher we climb, the deeper we must bow to others? We know it when we see it, and we notice where it’s lacking. It isn’t easy to put down on paper, though—to articulate with certainty what character really is. In my view, character contains several primary components, which are integrity, accountability, humility, compassion, and responsibility.

INTEGRITY

We need to start at the very beginning here, and that means discussing integrity first. Integrity is the absolute bedrock foundation upon which we build all other leadership competencies. If you attempt to build your house on the slippery slope of lying, cheating, and stealing, you’ll be deservedly caught in a mudslide of recrimination. I have seen the careers of a number of people, including senior leaders, implode because they thought they were beyond reach or just chose to operate in their own self-interest at the expense of truth and integrity. What a shame. The good news is that commercial Darwinism catches these people at an increasing rate, and corruption is harder to hide in the age of social media, corporate social responsibility, and increased consumer transparency demands. Thank goodness for that.

So if you can’t commit—completely commit—to the concept of integrity, put this book down now. The rest of the information in it won’t do you any good if you lie, cheat, or steal in your role because no one will trust you. No one will build truly strong and productive relationships with you, and your influence will be terminally diminished. People can abide by most things, but not a liar, cheater, or thief. If you’ve already put a price on something that is priceless—as your reputation is one of the precious few items you carry with you throughout your life—then any success you may find is likely a fragile, fleeting illusion.

Now, this isn’t to say that none of us has ever stumbled on the subject of integrity during our lifetimes. To deny this would be naïve and idealistic, ignoring the reality of human nature. There is a harsh reality about integrity that all grown-ups must face, however, and in business it’s much more unforgiving: If you can’t be trusted about something, then you can’t be trusted about anything. When you are thirty years old, your boss doesn’t have to forgive you like your mother did when you were ten. In the business world, the lack of truth, ethics, and the moral high road is much more evident. It can’t be hidden by a lack of significant consequence to the business.

In most cases, integrity dies a death of a thousand cuts rather than one hammer blow. Time and bad moral judgment erode integrity to the point of collapse. We make a decision to contravene our own moral code and the concepts of truth and honesty. We may rationalize the decision as inconsequential and one unlikely to ever be called out. But we know. When we decide to compromise our integrity in this small way and discover that on this occasion it has no consequence, then we believe it’s acceptable to repeat the process. But this time the lie—and its implications—are larger. When we escape the consequence yet again, we become emboldened and wonder why we made the additional effort of maintaining truth and the moral high ground in the first place. The best-case scenario is that it develops into a chasm between the leader we are and the leader we could have been; in the worst case scenario, the crack in our integrity foundation is terminal for our leadership career.

Integrity is an absolute measure, not one of degrees. Have you ever heard someone described as being “fairly honest”? I highly doubt it. We describe others as either honest or dishonest, trustworthy or untrustworthy, incorruptible or corrupt. This is because in the absence of one, we are the other. Someone once described integrity as a “pass/fail” ideal to me. I agree with them. You can’t rate someone’s integrity on a five-point Likert scale. You’ve got it, or you don’t. If you don’t, you don’t get to play on the team.

Integrity is also important to the concepts of mutual accountability and delivering excellence. We can’t forget that in team-oriented environments, we count on the persons around us possessing the level of integrity to ensure we deliver consistent service, follow through on commitments, and preserve the reputation of the group. When each person commits to carrying out their individual responsibilities with integrity, dedication, and quality, the “sweet spot” where these intersect is team excellence.

An integrity defect in our organization threatens us all. It’s a cancer we have to promptly rid ourselves of. When you deal with lying, cheating, and stealing issues quickly and decisively—and publicly, where appropriate—you demonstrate commitment to integrity and to the severe consequences of violating business ethics. Staff gain respect because you backed up lofty talk about ethics with action and lived your moral code. No one is going to argue over—or sympathize with—the liar, thief, or cheat when due process was provided and decisive action was taken. People will shrug and move on with their day while their former coworker trudges off to the unemployment line to become some other organization’s integrity problem.

When you fail to defend integrity as a leader and back up your organization’s values, you signal to all that the moral bar has been lowered and the workplace culture has now been devalued. In defining “culture” for teams, someone once brilliantly said that it was “the worst performance or behavior that you’ll accept.” I like this definition immensely as it’s simple and relatable for all. Your team members will see where the bar is that you’ve set.

People build culture, and by nature, people are an imperfect, unpredictable input. They lie, cheat, steal, self-destruct, disappoint, frustrate, and bewilder us. They also delightfully surprise, overachieve, inspire, motivate, move, support, and love us. If you want to build culture, you do it through the person sitting to the left of you and to the right. If you are at the very top of the organization there is no one beside you, then you must find checks and balances for the sake of your own leadership and the organization.

A story about Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius speaks of a servant who regularly whispered in his ear, “You’re only a man” to remind him of his mortality. It takes a great deal of courage and humility for CEOs and senior executives to remind themselves that they are not superior to others and that their role, more than any, exists to serve the needs of their people and their customers. Integrity starts at the very top. The rest of the organization takes its cues about what is right and what is wrong from everything senior executives say and do. Whatever level your leadership may operate at, remember that you’re always on stage. There’s always someone else looking to you, either as a role model, peer, or team member. If you compromise your integrity, someone will notice it sooner or later.

Organizations build a culture of integrity one employee and one leader at a time. The integrity transgressions of ground-level staff, having failed to be held to account by their supervisors or the organization’s moral framework, send a message to all that lying, cheating, and stealing are options. They aren’t. If you want to progress in your leadership career, make the right ethical choices and hold others accountable for making them as well.

I once ran across a very smart, charismatic man who put some “red dots” on a map of his company’s operating area. Each dot represented someone he fired for making a poor integrity choice that jeopardized their own, and the company’s, reputation. He explained how he was happy to help those who struggled with performance, but if they took matters into their own hands and crossed the line concerning matters of ethics, they had sealed their own fate. He held this discussion openly with his staff. Any guess as to what happened afterward? You’re right. He put up fewer “red dots” because as a senior leader, he set the tone for a high standard of integrity.

As an organization, be clear about your moral values. If you have a mission, vision, and values statement that’s dusted off each year at annual appraisal time or paid lip service to for a few minutes when new teammates join, it’s easy to tell. People’s intrinsic “lie detectors” are sensitive in today’s employment marketplace. Walk the walk, or don’t talk the talk. Your employees pick up on everything you say and do. If your words are inconsistent with the values you espouse, you risk a loss of credibility that will drive low performance and engagement and drive high turnover.

I’ve held senior leaders to account who rationalized the unethical actions of their staff because they were good performers (usually because of the unethical acts they committed!). The first person you hold accountable sends a message to the rest that you are serious about the team’s integrity and reputation and you won’t compromise it. The high performers need to know that their productivity doesn’t protect them from making wrong moral choices, and the low performers must realize that cheating their way to safety isn’t an option. What results, in the long term, is a great team that not only does things right but does the right things.

• What are your core individual values?
• What do you do currently to set a positive example for integrity as a leader?
• Do you deal promptly with integrity issues as they arise or ignore them?
• Do you turn a blind eye to integrity issues coming from a “good performer” or do you consistently uphold your organization’s moral values?
• How have you communicated the importance of integrity and the organization’s values to your team members?

HUMILITY

As we progress in our careers, gaining experience, specialist expertise, and a track record for success, our confidence is positively affected. We become used to being the “go-to” person—the one others count on to make things happen and get results. It feels good. Being in demand fulfils a basic human need for validation and significance. We not only crave others to tell us, and we also tell ourselves, how wonderful we are as we begin to believe “our own press.” We become the smartest person in the room; the one who provides the answers rather than waits for them. We straddle the edge of the blade; that fine balance between self-confidence and arrogance, self-belief and narcissism. When you walk this narrow bridge there’s risk of falling into a chasm of conceit.

The ego we see most commonly goes by a more casual definition: an unhealthy belief in our own importance. Arrogance. Self-centered ambition … It’s that petulant child inside every person, the one that chooses getting his or her own way over anything or anyone else. The need to be better than, more than, recognized for, far past any reasonable utility—that’s ego. It’s the sense of superiority and certainty that exceeds the bounds of confidence and talent. (Ryan Holiday, Ego Is the Enemy, p. 2)

The fall into arrogance and narcissism isn’t uncommon, and it takes purposeful energy to guard against it. We’ve likely all encountered others like this; someone who honestly believes he or she is always the smartest one in the room, regardless of the subject discussed. They’re an expert at everything; the frustrated vanguard of quality, performance, and intelligence who can’t understand why others don’t rise to the occasion to follow them and meet their needs.

There’s significant danger in the ego that becomes a leviathan. The first is that the leader begins to self-isolate. Peers and subordinates can’t stand to be in the room with someone who quite simply won’t take advice or others’ viewpoints into account. As a result, others view their time and talents as underutilized and wasted. They stop sharing their ideas and expertise. The word “team” becomes more and more meaningless as they play little part in affecting decisions but bear the brunt of the consequences. That doesn’t feel good, regardless of the level at which employees operate. People simply vote with their feet and move away from environments that crush their self-esteem.

Periodically, a lack of humility masks itself in steadfast conviction to business philosophies and strategic plans that are out of touch with the capabilities and limitations of the organization. The failure to include staff closest to the end customer often leads to inaccurate assessments of the organization’s ability and motivation to achieve goals. Expectations are set without a clear understanding of current realities and downstream effects on partners, customers, and employees. The people at ground level who are best equipped to save the organization from itself are ignored, and the avoidable iceberg is ploughed into.

The aggressive, grow-at-all-costs perspective masked as business ambition can hide a startling ignorance of the limitations of the business infrastructure, most importantly its personnel. The leaders around such executives may say nothing, as there is little point in arguing anymore. Instead of performing nearer to their potential, such organizations fracture under the weight of unrealistically ambitious plans.

An already-siloed organization can exacerbate the problem by allowing ego and pride amongst leaders to prevent real idea-sharing and collaboration. When that happens, those at the top had better be very right and perfectly accurate about the direction and capabilities of their organization—every single time. That, of course, is a bet that most of us wouldn’t make. The egotist leader is blinded to the odds and the law of large numbers in arrogant decision making—meaning that the more decisions they make on their own, without the input of others who could have truly helped them, the more the quality of their decision-making reverts toward the mean amongst all people. At this point, raw intelligence doesn’t matter if even the most genius among us sacrifices decisioning quality for the opportunity to take sole credit for successes.

Egotism and narcissism also distort reality regarding our own skills and limitations. Ryan Holiday discusses this in his book Ego Is the Enemy, a great read that I highly recommend. Egotism and self-love blind us to the gaps in our personal and professional skills. We cannot improve because we believe there’s nothing to improve. Because we are already smarter, more skilled, more confident, and better in our rhetorical skills, we can’t imagine taking significant steps to learn and grow because we exist instead to allow others to learn and grow from us. We are the wellspring of knowledge for them.

I believe in the executive c...