Discovering the Leader in You | organizational realities, demands, and expectations

In Chapter One, we described a number of situations that raise

questions in the minds of leaders. Many of these come about because

of changes that organizations face. Reductions in force, restructuring,

changes in a boss, loss of a job, and new job opportunities all affect

leaders. Many of these organizational changes result from external

forces such as greater competition, loss of revenue, or other economic

forces. All of these changes affect what leadership opportunities are

available to you, the nature of the opportunities, the challenges they

bring, the kind of leader you want to be, and what you can accomplish.

These changes also influence how leaders are expected to act, be, show

up, and lead.

These issues often cause some leaders to ask, ''Is being a leader

worth it?'' Unrealistic expectations or criticism from others can leave

you paralyzed or drifting. Perhaps your team expected you to be a heroic

figure and save the organization or to continue driving the mission like

the former senior leadership team. But is that (and its costs) what you

had in mind?

Thus, the first step toward discovering the leader in you is to gain

more understanding of your personal leadership situation. To aid your

thinking, this chapter briefly describes recent trends in organizational

21

22 Discovering the Leader in You

life. It explores the impact of organizational life on current expectations

of leaders, leaders' own expanding views of leadership, and perceived

costs of leading. Reviewing this part of the leadership framework should

give you insights into why you are adrift and possible steps and choices

that can help you get out of drift.

HOW ORGANIZATIONS

AND ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE

ARE CHANGING

We can no longer define organizations as clearly as we once could.

Many have become so diffuse and pluralistic that static models like

command-and-control hierarchies and interrelated systems (organic or

machine) are no longer as relevant. Back in 1995, management guru

Peter Drucker portrayed organizations as inherently unstable because

they ''must be attuned for innovation, for the systematic abandonment

of whatever is established, customary, familiar, and comfortable'' (p. 77).

Today the external environment continues to change constantly, and

so too must organizations and their leaders.

In 2007, CCL researchers published survey data from nearly four

hundred participants in CCL's Leadership Development Program. A

little over half were from the United States, and most held middle or

upper management positions. Most (84 percent) said the definition of

effective leadership had changed in the past five years. When asked

how, respondents mentioned needing more flexible, cross-boundary,

collaborative, and collective leadership skill sets. Were we to repeat this

survey in five years, a few new factors would likely emerge. The point

is that to be effective as a leader, you must be a student of the contexts

in which you lead and develop or refine your leadership skills to meet

new demands.

We've all heard the story about the buggy whip industry in the

early twentieth century, about the time when automobiles entered the

marketplace. Some buggy whip companies thought that they were in

Organizational Realities, Demands, and Expectations 23

the business of making buggy whips. Others realized that they were part

of the transportation industry. Most of the former went out of business

since buggy whips were not all that useful in getting autos moving down

the road. Those who understood that they were in the transportation

industry stayed in business, albeit with different products and business

models. Most leaders these days are like the buggy whip manufacturers

of one hundred years ago. It's easy to become a disengaged, out-oftouch leader, knowing that you have to change but acting along the

lines of a common definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and

over and expecting a different outcome. If you pay keen, multisensory

attention to the changing context inside and outside your organization,

in your private and your public life, and you adapt to the challenges

and opportunities change brings, then your leadership effectiveness will

grow. It requires using all of your senses, and it's not easy work, since

what's happening around you is often not clear.

Let's take a look now at some broad contextual factors that affect

organizational life today and the changing requirements of leaders

worldwide:

• The current organization-customer relationship

• The changing definition of careers and work

• Diversification of the workforce

• The rise of globalized organizations

• Technological innovations

If these factors don't fully capture your reality, take a moment to

identify additional ones that are important to you and the context in

which you lead.

Changes in How Organizations and Customers Connect

Many years ago when flappers danced the Charleston and what was

good for General Motors was good for America, status and hierarchy

were understood and accepted as primary qualities of organizations.

This time of innocence was marked by a common understanding of

assets, ownership, employees, bosses, and customers. Distinctions among

24 Discovering the Leader in You

roles were clear and accepted. Organizations owned or controlled

whatever they considered their business. Efficiency was a question of

continuous high levels of production and sales that pushed volume

beyond a fixed break-even point: the greater the volume, the greater

the profitability. Customers were on the receiving end of organizational

outputs or products, and customization for the customer was not a part

of the organizational lexicon.

But change was in the air even then. Technological advances led

to continuous change, faster communication, and new product lines.

Products became more sophisticated. More assets became intellectual

than physical. And customers began to have a direct influence on the

future plans of organizations.

Today the Internet provides customers with knowledge, power, and

access to competitors' products and the ability to rate the quality of

products for everyone to see. Buyers expect more for their money and

will cross whatever oceans, deserts, or Web pages may be necessary to

find the right product or service. They need no longer walk into stores or

drive to distant malls. Because customers now demand customization,

product and service options have multiplied.

In response, organizations now strive for highly competitive, qualityand cost-conscious environments where flexibility and responsiveness

are paramount. Rapid cycle time is now seen as a major source of

competitive advantage, and the norm is to have the next version of a

product gearing up before the last one has fully rolled out. Innovation,

entrepreneurial ventures, and new distribution channels are the name

of the game.

Structurally many organizations are moving from primarily hierarchical structures to collective forms to meet customer needs anywhere

and at any time. This often causes a movement toward decentralization

or regionalization. A competing force or tension is that in order to

grow, large organizations must acquire smaller ones or establish key

partnerships if they want their business to grow. Growing in size often

leads to centralization of services, yet at the same time, dispersal of

Organizational Realities, Demands, and Expectations 25

authority and expertise and a decentralization of power are necessary

to meet customer needs.

In light of these changes, think about the following questions:

• How have increased customer demands affected your organization

and your role as a leader?

• How has your organization responded to dynamic changes in the

broader marketplace, and what are the implications of these changes

for leadership needs in your organization?

• What structural or role changes have taken place in your organization in response to customer demands?

• What differences have these changes made to your relationships

with peers, your boss, and people who work for you?

• Have any of these changes left you adrift? In what ways?

Changes in the Definitions of Career and Work

As authority disperses and organizational structures alter, employment arrangements have also changed. Employees are increasingly

likely to change jobs and organizations many times over their career.

The proverbial gold watch for ''lifers'' is now rare. Organizations no

longer have the obligation or desire to employ everyone full time.

Increasingly, organizations are using temporary, part-time, flexible,

partnered, telecommuting, outsourced, and interim manager roles. By

such arrangements organizations manage particular risks, such as avoiding the high cost of layoffs in a downturn yet preserve the labor they

need to respond to peaks or emergencies. Role flexibility and fiscal

responsibility become paramount in workforce strategies.

Such changes can fracture engagement and loyalty if they are

not managed carefully. Keeping a disconnected and temporary workforce engaged, focused, loyal, and committed is not an easy leadership

task. Finding common motivations and purpose is more difficult. When

employers spend more time managing risk and less time valuing employees, loyalty diminishes on both ends. Resulting higher turnover can be

costly to employers and compromise customer service when organizational knowledge walks out the door.

26 Discovering the Leader in You

These employment changes have triggered new orientations to jobs

and careers, with a greater emphasis on tasks and assignments and less

on ongoing jobs. Increasingly, although workers perform tasks, they

also need to create their own tasks to become more entrepreneurial.

The location of work is also shifting, from brick-and-mortar sites to

networks spanning oceans. More people work from home, on planes, in

hotel rooms, and in other settings. More people are ''vendor-minded''

temporary workers, looking for unmet needs to which they can apply

their skills, and interacting with peers, bosses, customers, clients, and

organizations through social networks. In short, how future work gets

done and who is involved will largely be up to individuals who are

managing their own negotiations, not by traditional organizational

decision-making structures using traditional work processes.

Think about the following:

• What has been the impact of this new orientation to work and

careers on you?

• How has it changed the way you lead and the pressing leadership

challenges you face?

• How can you better manage your own career?

• What strategies can you and other leaders use to increase engagement and commitment around the work?

• What can you do to maintain your own commitment and

engagement?

Leading a More Diverse Workforce

Over the past several decades, the workforce has diversified dramatically. Research and discussions in workplaces and at home proliferate

about trends: the aging baby boomer generation on the brink of retirement; the presence and impact of Generations X and Y and the

millennials; the increase in the number of women in the labor force; and

the increase in Hispanic/Latino, African American, and Asian workers.

Attracting and retaining a diverse workforce has become a business

financial imperative, from having enough of the right resources to

Organizational Realities, Demands, and Expectations 27

understanding the increasingly diverse customer pool in order to provide

the right products and services. In James Canton's (2006) list of the top

ten workforce trends for 2009, six of the ten relate to global talent, the

aging population, women, and broader diversity issues. Understanding,

attracting, retaining, leading, and engaging a diverse workforce have

never before been more important.

How do these trends relate to drift? As a member of the workforce,

we all want to be valued and understood. Drift may be a result of not

feeling valued or not finding the right fit within an organization or with

an entrepreneurial venture. It might be the result of not feeling that

you have sufficient power or influence over your own career choices.

Drift might also result from uncertainty in how to motivate and retain

individuals who are different from you. Reflect on how the factors

discussed below bear on you and your leadership situation as it relates

to drift or to the process of discovering the leader in you.

Generational Diversity

Considerable attention is given today to the number of generations

working side by side in organizations, and it's commonly assumed that

major differences between generations cause conflict and dissatisfaction

in the workplace. In particular, a common stereotype is that the younger

generations (for example, Gen X, born between the mid-1960s and the

late 1970s, and Gen Y, born between 1980 and 2000) are very different

from each other and from earlier generations (baby boomers and

the silent generation). Despite the common notion that generations

are fundamentally different, Jennifer Deal (2007) argues that there are

more similarities than differences between generations, especially in the

area of personal values such as family, integrity, achievement, love,

competence, and happiness. Why is the belief that different generations

have different values so prevalent? Why do so many of us extrapolate

from that belief that it's difficult for leaders to create cohesion among

teams and work groups composed of differently aged workers, and that

it's difficult for young and old workers to get along at work? Deal explains

that the differences are found in how people of different generations act

28 Discovering the Leader in You

on those values, not in the values themselves. When one group of people

acts differently from another group, people of either group make faulty

attributions about the causes of behavioral differences and often blame

different values rather than chalking it up to the different ways people

have for interacting with the world.

While people of different generations behave somewhat differently

(especially when it comes to communication or the use of technology),

many underlying values, beliefs, and aspirations are more similar than

dissimilar. Generational conflict in the workplace is more likely due

to issues of control, power, and authority than to more fundamental

problems. As Deal (2007) argues, a lot of the conflict experienced at

work emerges in struggles of authority and power, which are often

exacerbated between older and younger workers: younger managers

seek authority and power, and older managers often want to maintain

the authority and power they have built over the years. We could reach

the same conclusion about differences of race, socioeconomic status, or

other such factors. Many so-called differences come down to power,

control, and authority. A perceived lack of power, control, and authority

can often lead to drift when it creates a sense of not feeling valued or

not finding the right fit with an organization.

Do generational issues play a part of the context of your leadership?

If part of your current organizational context labels you as a member of

a younger generation than the current leadership and so detracts from

your being taken seriously, how might you reframe the situation and

make different attributions about the values and beliefs of older generations? If you lead multiple generations, how can you lead differently?

If you are managing a person twenty years older than you, how might

you better bridge any misunderstandings or conflict?

Gender Diversity

If generational issues don't have an impact on you as an individual

or leader, gender issues might. For many years, research, articles,

programs, and informal discussions have focused on a number of

gender questions. Why don't more women hold the top positions in

Organizational Realities, Demands, and Expectations 29

organizations? Do men and women lead differently? Are men or women

seen as more effective leaders? Do women and men bring different

communication styles to organizations? Why do fewer women than

men occupy line positions? What impact do different cultural attitudes

toward men and women have on leadership practice and potential?

These and other questions have led individuals and organizations to

examine their assumptions, beliefs, policies, and practices about both

men and women in the workforce.

In the United States, statistics related to gender have changed

dramatically over the past five decades. For example, Gail Collins (2009)

notes that in the early 1960s, ''women were vigorously discouraged from

seeking jobs that men might have wanted'' (2009, p. 20). She compares

that sentiment to today, when women claim almost half of the seats

in U.S. medical and law schools. These trends continue: more women

than ever before are enlisting in the military, becoming engineers, and

starting their own companies.

Another data trend shows that in the 2008 economic recession, more

men than women lost their jobs. This is due in part to more women

than men in part-time positions and in lower-paying jobs. However,

women now make up over 50 percent of the labor pool and are being

recognized as strong consumers in the marketplace. Women make

purchasing decisions on 94 percent of home furnishings, 92 percent

of vacations, 91 percent of homes, 60 percent of automobiles, and 51

percent of electronics (Silverstein and Sayre, 2009). Organizations now

look to their female employees for product and service ideas to attract

this consumer base.

In addition, more research studies conducted in the United States

have reported the positive financial contributions that women make in

the workplace (see, for example, Desvaux, Devillard-Hoellinger, and

Meaney, 2008; Shipman and Kay, 2009). All of these forces have

led Heather Boushey and Ann O'Leary, the authors of The Shriver

Report (2009), to identify the coming decade as one of transformation

comparable to the age of industrialization, the civil rights movement,

and the creation of the Internet.

30 Discovering the Leader in You

What is the effect of these trends in organizations? Some women

are finding their way to more senior levels in organizations. Some are

leaving to start their own companies. Some are achieving equal pay for

equal work, but many are not. Some are leading the charge for more

flexible work arrangements. And others are facing challenges related to

leadership choices as they address their own questions: Where do I best

fit? Can I balance the responsibilities of a demanding leadership role

and family responsibilities? Can I break into an established network?

Men are not immune to these same challenges, and they certainly

experience drift and uncertainty in considering themselves as leaders

and how they might lead. They are also choosing to start their own

businesses or work part time; others, due to the economy, are being

forced to change their work hours, become the stay-at-home spouse,

or make other career choices that they had never before envisioned.

Both men and women encounter gender differences, stereotypes, and

bias. Because of these changes in how both men and women work,

negotiation increases at home over family schedules, household chores,

and travel conflicts.

All of these changes affect organizations, leaders, and individuals.

How do leaders ensure that they have the right talent, whether men or

women, in their organizations? How can leaders combat gender bias

and stereotypes? How do gender issues at work and at home affect you?

How might this dynamic contribute to or inhibit discovering the leader

in you?

Cultural Diversity

With changing demographics and a more globally connected world,

diverse cultures have proliferated in our schools, communities, neighborhoods, religious institutions, and organizations. As the world gets

smaller, we experience differences in traditions, communication patterns, language, personal space, consumer habits, humor, orientation

to time, attitudes toward work, responses to authority, family expectations, expressions of identity, norms, how knowledge is acquired, and

responses to change. These differences have changed how employees

Organizational Realities, Demands, and Expectations 31

interact with bosses, how teams work together, how groups communicate across geographical distances, how work gets done, and how

conflict gets dealt with or not, and how leaders need to engage a diverse

workforce. Cultural diversity also affects how well the supply chain

works, how global partnerships succeed or fail, and how governments

determine new policies. What does it mean for all members of a workforce to feel valued and appreciated? What members of a diverse culture

might be more prone to drift? How does this trend affect you, and in

what way might it contribute to your feelings of drift?

Now think about the following questions and how all of the changing

demographics of your workforce affect your role now and in the future

as a leader:

• How would you describe the changing diversity in your organization

(generational, gender, ethnic, cultural)? What impact is it having?

• What do you anticipate as further changes around diversity that

will arise in the next five years?

• How is your organization taking advantage of the new workforce

playing field in order to be more competitive?

• How might these trends be connected to your challenges or feelings

of drift as a leader?

• In various respects, how would you describe your status as minority

or majority? How might that status influence your behaviors or

your feelings of value as a leader?

• As you look forward five years, what skill sets and worldviews do

you need to develop to be a more effective leader in an increasingly

diverse world?

Globalization

Is the world indeed flat, as Thomas Friedman (2005) claims? He

argues that technology innovations allow individuals and organizations

around the world to grasp unprecedented opportunities by reducing

the obstacles to labor, resources, and markets to the same level for

every organization. But when Richard Florida (2005) examined global

32 Discovering the Leader in You

economic data, he reached a different conclusion. He argues that the

world is spiky, full of growing disparities and inequities (peaks and

valleys) that vary across populations and geographies. Indeed, he found

that although more people were living in urban areas than at any

other time in the world's history, the economic output of the world's

largest cities varied greatly. He also found that by various measures of

innovation, there are tremendous differences across regions, countries,

and cities. For example, in 2002, 85 percent of the patents granted

came from just five countries: the United States, Japan, South Korea,

Germany, and Russia. Whether seen as flat or spiky, the world is more

connected than ever before because of technology and communication

developments that create more opportunities to lead growth.

The global recession beginning in 2008 illustrates the tight

connections among economies of different countries and different organizations. When businesses and nonprofit services in the United States

suffer an economic downturn, small and large countries around the

world feel that pain. In November 2009, for example, after years

of explosive growth in Dubai, the global economic recession caused

massive debt, and the country struggled to pay off loans. Its request

for a six-month reprieve on its bills caused an immediate drop on

world markets and led neighboring Abu Dhabi to provide significant

economic assistance. Likewise, when a single, large multinational

company goes out of business or into bankruptcy, as Lehman Brothers

and General Motors did, the reverberations are felt far and wide.

The rise of globally connected companies causes many leaders to

talk about the challenges they face in working across time zones and

cultures, ranging from the mundane (such as finding a suitable time for a

conference call involving people from different countries) to the critical

and complex (cultural differences that can derail a project because of

miscommunication or misperceptions). Global connections have also

led to more opportunities to live abroad and take on the challenges

of expatriation.

Organizational Realities, Demands, and Expectations 33

In 2008 and 2009, CCL researchers asked senior executives who

participated in its Leadership at the Peak program about such boundaryspanning challenges. Most of these leaders (86 percent) reported that it

was extremely important for them to work effectively across boundaries

in their current leadership role. They needed new leadership skills to

address problems at the intersections of all kinds of organizational, cultural, demographic, and geographical boundaries. Leaders increasingly

realize that they need to operate beyond the boxes and lines of the

organizational chart. Yet only 7 percent of those whom CCL surveyed

believed they were very effective at it (Ernst and Yip, 2008).

Think about the impact of globalization on you and your organization:

• Does your organization have a global reach? What leadership

opportunities are available to you beyond where you live? If you

lived in a different city or country, how would that affect your future

effectiveness as a leader?

• What is the impact of globalization on your leadership? Compared

to five years ago, do you have more or fewer boundary-spanning

tasks?

• What challenges do you face working across time zones, geographies, cultures, or religions?

• How does the complexity of working globally and across boundaries

contribute (or not) to feelings of drift?

Technology and Other Innovations

Technological innovations give individuals unprecedented global access

to people and information. Technology has also led people to work more

synchronously (through teleconferences, Web meetings, and the like)

and asynchronously 24/7 (by e-mail, recorded Web-based presentations, and such). Smartphones, mobile phones, and a host of digital

accessories connect more and more of us to colleagues, reports, and

customers at all times and in all places. Disconnecting from work, even

for a few hours, now takes a conscious effort.

34 Discovering the Leader in You

Technological changes have been profound and continuous. In

response, organizations look to instill a culture of innovation in order to

compete more effectively in an ever changing environment. Pressure to

create lines of new and innovative products continues, as evidenced by

the 92 percent of the senior executives polled by CCL who called innovation a top driver of organizational strategy. What kind of leadership

supports innovation? Is that the leadership to which you aspire? Think

about the following questions:

• What has been the impact of technology on you as an employee?

As a leader?

• Is your role about finding the next innovation for the organization

or preserving a cash cow?

• Has this trend contributed to your feeling adrift and unable to adapt

to the changing environment? If so, in what way?

• Is burnout from the 24/7 access people have to you contributing to

the drift you might be experiencing?

• Do you believe you can keep up with all of the technological

innovations relevant to your work?

We've just discussed trends that are changing the way that organizations, leaders, and individual contributors work. What other trends

could we have listed that affect you now?

WHAT DO THESE CHANGES MEAN

FOR YOU AS A LEADER?

Shifts that are external and internal to organizations often demand that

leaders think and behave differently from the past. Being attuned to

these shifts and resulting demands keeps leaders at the forefront of what

organizations need and maintains their value to the organization.

In Chapter One, we wrote about the need for leaders at all levels

in organizations (what some might call collective leadership), not just

Organizational Realities, Demands, and Expectations 35

at the top. Now you know why. In order to increase flexibility and

speed in responding to customers, organizations need to decentralize

management and provide leadership at numerous intersections across

functional boundaries and at more customer touch points. As a result, all

levels of the organization need shared understanding of organizational

vision, strategy, and execution. Old patterns of command and control

are replaced by or mixed with patterns in which who controls and who

commands are in constant flux. More than ever before, leadership is

as much about influence and interdependence as it is about authority.

The growth of collaborations, alliances, and value chains has shifted

the boundaries of effective management so that the emphasis falls on

working relationships fueled by good communication. Leadership also

means paying attention to organizational culture, since culture guides

employees and how they interact with customers.

John McGuire and Gary Rhodes (2009) distinguish three types of

organizational cultures:

• Dependent. Those in formal positions of authority are responsible for

leadership.

• Independent. Leadership emerges based on technical knowledge and

expertise.

• Interdependent. Leadership is a collective and interdependent activity.

As leaders face more complex challenges that defy easily identifiable solutions, McGuire and Rhodes argue, they need to move

from dependent and independent leadership cultures to an interdependent one.

What does all of this mean for your own leader skills and perspectives? It means you have to understand the complex issues involved in

coordinating systems and promoting collaboration across boundaries,

and develop the means of paying attention to the interdependencies

among various people and systems. Leaders must continuously respond

to a variety of work routines, communication patterns, and performance

standards. Harnessing collaboration becomes more important to leaders

than worker supervision and managing upward. Leaders must develop

36 Discovering the Leader in You

the ability in themselves and their staff to discern customer needs and to

be innovative, responsive, flexible, and comfortable with ambiguity and

change. The days are gone when a leader can simply stay the course and

manage incrementally. In organizations large and small, leaders need

to reexamine and reenvision all aspects of the organization-customer

interface. They must also reach out and function effectively across

boundaries of time zones, geographies, gender, countries, cultures,

religions, and worldviews, leading a diverse and dispersed workforce.

Take a moment here to review the contextual challenges your

organization faces and the impact they have on your own leadership

and the leadership of your colleagues. It's important to consider both

the potential benefits of these changes (for example, opportunities to be

involved in leadership roles even when you don't have the formal title,

or chances to work on issues that make important differences in the

lives of others) and their costs. Unknown costs may push you into drift,

making you temporarily unable to take action. Think about what you

have seen going on around you, and consider the implications for how

you lead, how you can be even more effective as a leader, and how you

might work your way out of drift:

• How do these contextual challenges manifest themselves in your

organization and industry?

• What implications have the changes had for leaders in your organization?

• Do you see different kinds of leaders evolving now than in the past?

• How has the changing nature of leadership affected you? What

new skill sets or perspectives do you need to develop in order to be

effective in the years to come?

• What opportunities for leadership are presented to you that a

decade ago may not have been possible?

• How have these changes helped or challenged you recently as a

leader?

• How have any of these trends or changing skills contributed to drift

in your work?

Organizational Realities, Demands, and Expectations 37

• How have other individuals failed because they didn't adapt to the

changing times?

• What do you want to do differently as a result of gaining insight

into your current context?

CHANGING PERSPECTIVES

ON LEADERSHIP

As organizations have become more complex and the problems that

leaders face more challenging, definitions of successful leadership have

also expanded. Let's look at how views or perspectives on leadership

have evolved over the years, beginning with the idea that leaders aren't

necessarily identified by title or job description and that current diverse

and rapidly changing contexts mean that new and different leaders can

emerge at any time. Expanding your perspectives on leadership can be

both motivating and overwhelming. Your challenge is to understand

the impact that contemporary perspectives have on your own views and

images of leaders and leadership. You will also want to think about the

compatibility of your views with those of others, and how these may

contribute to feelings of drift or your own perceptions of choice. Think

too about what view you wish to instill in others.

Nine Common Perspectives on Leadership

The nine common perspectives on leadership that follow blend fact

and fiction, stories and experience—the received, unquestioned beliefs

of a particular culture. Each perspective carries its own implications,

though people can easily hold several of them simultaneously. Some

perspectives deal with who becomes a leader and how, and others with

how a leader should lead. As you read them, think about how they

might affect your sense of yourself as a leader and the ways you interpret

that role. Also think about the contexts in which you lead and which of

these perspectives is appropriate—or not. Keep in mind that there is no

single right perspective; one size does not fit all.

38 Discovering the Leader in You

Leaders Are Born

This fixed mind-set holds that some people are born with leadership

talent and others are not. In other words, only certain people can learn

to lead effectively; they're naturals. If you were born with it, you are

destined to lead. If you were not, you will never lead.

Leadership Can Be Learned

In this view, you can study leadership carefully, practice what

you study, and become a more effective leader, no matter how good

you are now. This is the opposite of the genetic ''leaders are born''

view. Research in the social and neurosciences increasingly suggests

that human characteristics we once thought of as permanent (like IQ,

personality, and some cognitive skills) are actually malleable through

learning.

Leaders Are Heroes

From this perspective, the only good leaders are those who perform

risky, courageous, wise, and benevolent feats that are beyond the rest

of us. These heroes, always handsome or beautiful, are extroverted

and charismatic, and they command attention whenever they walk into

a room. Think about the characters portrayed by John Wayne, Clint

Eastwood, Denzel Washington, Angelina Jolie, and Meryl Streep. Some

are leaders with the uncanny ability to get the rest of us out of trouble.

Or think of real-life recent heroes such as Erin Brockovich (in the toxic

wastewater case against Pacific Gas and Electric) or executive Sherron

Watkins, who called out Enron's massive fraud.

Leaders Are at the Top

This is the view that leadership happens only at or close to the top

of an organization. In command-and-control environments, your role

is to simply follow orders unless you occupy a top position. If you're

not on the senior leadership team, you are perceived as having little

leadership to offer. Members of management hold the cards, for better

or worse.

Organizational Realities, Demands, and Expectations 39

Leaders Are Called to Serve

When it's your time to lead, you'll be asked. When asked, you

should accept and be grateful. After all, not everyone is asked. Social

scripts create expectations about who is likely to be asked to lead and,

when asked, how a leader should behave given the context in which

he or she functions. We often internalize such scripts from powerful

influences from early family life and our surrounding cultures; although

sometimes difficult to identify, their effects are profound.

Leaders Are Defined by Position

If you're in the job and have the title, you're the leader. This notion

is traditional in bureaucracies and highly structured organizations, and

it carries some validity even in less hierarchical systems. If your title says

''director of'' or ''head of,'' your leadership abilities and effectiveness

are assumed unassailable. You have power, authority, and possibly a

corner office.

Leaders Depend on and Are Created by Others

Some leaders view the deep involvement of other people in setting

direction and making decisions as the cornerstone of a leader's success.

In this view, the leader's goal is to unleash the talents of others. The

view focuses on the collective and interdependent processes we discussed

earlier in connection with transformational leadership. As Lao Tzu is

quoted as saying, ''A leader is best when people barely know he exists,

when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.''

Leadership Is Temporary

Organizations lacking a pipeline of leadership talent are often

forced to select a sometimes reluctant leader with an ''interim'' title or

status, to fulfill a leadership function. Individuals often take on such

roles because they are persuaded to do so or are strongly committed

to the organization. Some grow into their leadership role and by

mutual agreement become officially more permanent. Others accept

the assignment for a limited time while the organization selects a more

permanent leader.

40 Discovering the Leader in You

Leaders Are Servants

A call to lead out of a desire to serve others can be quite compelling

to some people. It involves a deeply felt sense of mission, private purpose,

inevitability, or legacy. The call may be so powerful that the person

feels practically unable to turn down a leadership opportunity. A calling

isn't always rational, but it's personally passionate. The servant leader

doesn't leave it to others to judge whether his or her desire to serve

others is valid or appropriate. Equally compelling might be the absence

of that inner voice.

What Can Be Gained from Exploring?

Each of these views is worth exploring and can lead you to unexpected

places. When a particular view doesn't match the organizational context,

for example, questions can arise as to whether a leader is the right fit

for the organization: Can this person be successful in this role or this

environment? When the view is reinforced and rewarded, value and

excitement can be realized.

Some organizations may operate as a strict hierarchy, despite

signals of a more equally competitive environment or the advances in

communication technology. Other organizations reward individuals for

following a social script. Some organizations may intentionally change

the kind of leadership perspectives that it rewards, and so confusion

may run rampant. You may need to do some digging to understand

which view or set of views predominates in your organization. History,

culture, and existing leadership will have a great influence here.

Consider this story about a servant leader whose own questions of

fit led him to seek other choices.

For many years, Paul wished he were helping others see their

potential as individuals and as members of a tightly knit community.

An early career in sales had been disappointing: it made a living and

the products were honest, but they didn't come close to touching

lives.

Paul left sales for the seminary and became a minister, but ministry

didn't work for him either. To him it seemed too parochial and

ritualistic. Next, he accepted an offer from a nonprofit organization that

Organizational Realities, Demands, and Expectations 41

needed a manager to run a unit that provided development experiences

for people across the country. Paul did well at this work. His staff liked

him, and his counseling skills were useful. For a while, the world seemed

fine. Then Paul found that the organization's growth meant that his

leadership role was becoming more about managing than serving. So

at a time of peak effectiveness in his organizational career, he stepped

away from running a department and became an individual contributor

within the organization. Paul found he could promote his deeply held

values more explicitly when he worked side by side with others and

could serve as a sounding board and mentor.

For now, at least, the world seems fine to Paul. He's found a

comfortable and effective way to be what he wants to be. We believe

that in his new role as an individual contributor, he will have ample

opportunities to be a leader, even if his span of control is narrower than

it was previously and his budget lower.

The Value of Knowing Your Views

The views of leadership we've described aren't mutually exclusive, and

your own are no doubt a blend of many ideas, experiences, worldviews,

and theories. Views of leadership are informed by success, trial and error,

input from others (such as coaches, friends, family, and coworkers), and

observing the good and bad practices of leaders. You're much better

off if you're aware of your own views and how you and others might be

affected by them.

If you pay attention to your own changing views and the views of

others, you can develop yourself to take better advantage of opportunities

and overcome inevitable obstacles that can cause you to drift into

inaction. Certain choices about leading may seem desirable and make

more sense to you than others do. It's important to maintain broad

attention and see how these philosophies or views of leadership may be

relevant to your work today.

The difference between managers who are comfortable as leaders

and those who aren't is that the former can articulate the views and

images of leadership that guide them through thick and thin and that

integrate career, family, and community. That awareness helps them

42 Discovering the Leader in You

recognize how well they match the leadership roles their organizations

envision, and they make work and career decisions accordingly.

To help you integrate the views of leadership in your environment

and in yourself, we encourage you to develop a flexible but sustaining

personal view of leadership. How you think about leadership should be

based on what you want to accomplish in life. Why are you leading?

Your views of leadership aren't cast in stone. At each stage of your life

and career, you will need to question and rebuild your views based on

new learning and new experiences. The more comprehensive your view

and the more frequently you reflect on it, the better it will serve you as

an integrating tool.

Some of the following questions may sound simple, and you may

already have addressed them. But if you haven't taken the time to stop

and reflect on your answers in some while or have never considered the

power of such questions to illuminate your decision to serve as a leader,

we encourage you to do so now:

• How will being a leader help you create the impact you desire?

• Which views about leadership (from those previously described or

those you have experienced elsewhere) resonate with you? Why?

• Which view or views about leadership are disagreeable to you?

Why?

• How conscious are you of your leadership views? How do they play

out in your behavior?

• What views of leadership have been preferred in organizations in

which you have worked?

• How closely matched are your views and those of your organization,

or how closely matched are your views and the views of people you

lead?

• What changes in your view might make you a more effective leader

in the contexts in which you now lead?

By now, you recognize the amount of complexity flowing from

continuous change in organizations as well as from expanding views

Organizational Realities, Demands, and Expectations 43

of leadership. This complexity is not without its consequences or costs,

which is where our discussion now turns.

INCREASING DEMANDS ON LEADERS

More leaders than ever before question whether they were right to

have chosen the leadership path. Many ask: Is being a leader worth

the effort and sacrifice? For example, a survey by Adecco Group North

America found that 61 percent of employees would decline to take their

manager's position with its greater pressures (Winter, 2009).

In the letter excerpted below, a senior leader who attended a CCL

program articulates how he needs to better allocate his time across

work and nonwork activities so that the cost-benefit ratio of leading

is more favorable to his overall well-being. This is the first of several

excerpted letters that we include in this book . These letters were written

by executives to themselves as part of a classroom-based goal-setting

activity (they are all italicized to help you find them easily):

Dear—

It is time for you to reflect on your life and decide how you will spend the

next half of it.

It's time to decide to be a happier person by taking more time for yourself,

taking family trips to the coast or the mountains. Travel to places you have

never been and return to those that you love. Play your guitar more, write songs

that have been waiting to come out. Describe the world as only you can see it.

Visit those that are special to you and tell them so. Play music and share it

with others.

Continue your education, not for some fancy degree, but for the experience

and for the sake of learning something new.

Follow your passion, not your pension.

Be more loving and affectionate to those you love most, your family—

Most of all, love yourself. Care less about others' opinions of you and more

about your heart. Be kind to yourself. Relax and enjoy the ride.

44 Discovering the Leader in You

It's important to understand the demands inherent in many leadership positions. Use all of the information at your disposal to determine

what those demands are in your case. The managers we spoke to

while writing this book never hesitated over questions about costs,

sacrifices, and difficulties. They told us about high stress levels, irritability, dealing with problem performers, or having to lay off employees.

Some bemoaned a loss of freedom. These costs were obviously painful,

though, as one said, ''If you assume the mantle, you've got to pay the

price.'' Understanding these demands helps you develop strategies to

offset them, ignore them, neutralize them, or seek a different role where

the costs are lower.

Here are the types of costs that were frequently mentioned. Of

course, what is a cost to one leader may be some kind of reward for

another.

Visibility

You're in the fishbowl, and all eyes are on you: ''Who's she spending

time with?'' ''Who's he including in his meetings?'' ''Why is she having

lunch with him?'' ''Did you hear what he did to her?'' ''Take a look

at what she's wearing today.'' ''He's in a bad mood—must be fighting

with his wife again.'' As one executive said, ''Just walking out in my

work area (there are ninety folks in my operation), I know they watch

me all the time. . . . It's like walking a tightrope.''

Public Duties

The higher you rise in an organization, the more you appear as its brand

and spokesperson, and so the more you take on public relations responsibilities. You give speeches and make introductions for other speakers.

Your attendance is required at community dinners, cocktail parties,

receptions, fundraising activities, and so forth. You greet and entertain

visiting dignitaries. These are important tasks. Shirk them at your peril.

Separation

The leader is no longer one of the gang. The former peer group is gone,

and the new one sometimes is made up of people who are competitors

Organizational Realities, Demands, and Expectations 45

for other choice spots. It's important for leaders to maintain some personal distance from their colleagues. Relationships that become too close

can lead to faulty decisions or considerable pain when, say, reducing

staff. It's not that leaders must be isolated socially; rather, they often

lose long-lasting, genuinely comfortable relationships that are hard to

replace. They miss the few people with whom they can openly talk.

Caretaking and Emotional Strain

Leaders are responsible for those they lead and are often expected

to take care of others. Care ranges from helping others improve in

their roles, to setting performance expectations, to listening to personal

disappointments. These activities are important and require time and

energy. On many managers, responsibility for direct reports weighs

heavily. One executive we spoke with observed, ''You have a significant

measure of control over people's lives. You know—promotions and

demotions and firings. You have to be willing to understand that and

make judgments and do it extremely carefully. In a way, you're really

fulfilling a trust that some organization is putting on you.''

Trust is the foundation on which relationships are built and in

the collaborative climate within which current organizations operate

relationships are how work gets done. Therefore, leaders feel tremendous responsibility for not violating any trust as they navigate to meet

organizational and individual needs.

Stamina

Leadership requires energy, stamina, and the ability to impart to others.

It often brings with it long hours, long meetings, loads of e-mail, and little

time for family and recreation. Don't mention the travel, with its stuffy

waiting rooms, bad food, cramped seats, and delayed flights. Exhaustion

hovers, and you have to take care of yourself. CCL research indicates a

strong correlation between health and leadership effectiveness. Leaders

with better health status (as measured by physiological factors such as

blood lipid and blood glucose levels and body-mass index ratings) were

more likely to be seen by peers, direct reports, and bosses as effective

leaders than were their less healthy counterparts.

46 Discovering the Leader in You

Job Insecurity

Leadership roles are not secure. Most senior executives in public and

private organizations rate job security lower than anything else about

their organizations. Senior leaders are judged on the basis of the success

of the whole enterprise, which results from many influences beyond their

control. Merit is defined and rewarded more selectively for leadership

than for professional roles. And leaders can't discount politics or career

dynamics. Someone else may really want your spot, or just may not

want you in it anymore. In cases of mergers and acquisitions, leaders

can find that they are redundant.

Less Freedom of Expression

The higher you climb in an organization, the greater the need is to

tightly regulate your words and expression of feelings. People will weigh

your speech more heavily than the speech of those below you. You can't

think aloud because people may interpret your musings as directives.

You may want to relax, joke around, and be one of the gang, but even

in relaxed situations, people are keenly aware of what you say and how

you behave. You must always be aware of your image.

Infrequent Relief and Its Strain on Your Family

You must keep an eye on the bigger picture (people expect you to

see around corners and beyond the horizon) while focusing attention

on current priorities. You must also be able to determine which small

brush fire might turn wild. You receive few easy breaks and may take

work home every night just to stay on top of your priorities. Even on

weekends or on vacations, you're probably mulling over work issues.

Your name is first on the emergency call list, and you are copied daily

on, say, a hundred or more consequential e-mails. One bank executive

told us, ''I think my family has probably paid more than it should. I

have a tendency to be a workaholic, and so if anything has suffered, it's

been my personal life. I have this psychological thing, you know—as

long as it's light out, I can work. When the sun goes down, I go home.''

Another executive reported, ''The biggest cost is actually to the self,

Organizational Realities, Demands, and Expectations 47

because you're forced into limited time for self and family, and so the

self goes far down on the list. Family takes a hit, and you feel bad about

the family. So you try to take more and more out of the self portion to

prop up the family.''

Infrequent Honest Feedback

When you need honest appraisal the most, you are less likely to find it.

The higher your rise in an organization, the less useful the feedback you

receive is. Everyone else seems to have some personal bias or agenda;

information is plentiful, but the truth is elusive. People are prone to tell

you what they think you want to hear rather than what you need to

hear. Good leaders sometimes identify truth tellers in the organization

to mitigate this problem, but such people aren't easy to find because

there are often consequences to being the truth teller (for example,

others in the organization may view truth tellers as simply trying to

advance their status with the boss).

These costs we've discussed don't comprise an exhaustive list. You

may have other costs that are specific to your leadership scenario. Do

those costs contribute to your leadership drift? Do they push you into

action? Think about and document the costs you experience.

Of course, there are also rewards, though these can also lead to

drift. Sometimes you can be so attached to a reward that you stay in a

role too long. We discuss benefits and rewards further in Chapter Six.

There you will have the opportunity to weigh the costs and benefits of

your current and future leadership choices.

CONCLUSION

In this chapter, we described changes in organizations and the resulting

expectations placed on leaders, and the fact that more than ever

before, leaders wonder if the cost is worth the rewards. Our discussion

48 Discovering the Leader in You

surveyed shifting perspectives and views about leadership today that

can complicate your choice to lead.

Reflect on the following final questions to better understand your

leadership context:

• What are the most important organizational factors that have an

impact on you?

• Have changes in the context pushed you into a state of drift?

• What are the current leadership demands on you that provide

motivation or frustration, or both?

• Have you clarified your own views on leadership and how they are

compatible with others in the organization?

• What are you experiencing as the costs of leading right now, and

do you need to reduce the costs to be a more effective leader?

• What insights about drift in your own leadership scenario have you

gained from this chapter?

In Chapter Three, we look at leadership vision and how it can

clarify your actions and choices and lead you out of drift.