Leadership, You and Others
Fostering individual versus group qualities
It is estimated that there are over 50,000 books available on Amazon with the word “leadership” associated with it.
50,000? That is staggering.
This number of books is akin to a white noise machine on high volume blasting in one’s ears.
How can we have a meaningful conversation under such conditions?
Part of the problem is the very word “leadership.”
The word itself seems to be a nebulous visage of many perspectives.
I once heard a great example of leadership being compared to that of a football field goal kicker [1].
We don’t say the field goal kicker is good at “kickership.”
The word kickership? What the hell does that mean?
Why, then, would we distort the act of leading with a “ship?”
With such a vague and esoteric set of boundaries, like sending ships against the Great Wave of Kanaga, it is no wonder that we are drowning in a sea of 50,000 books [2].
If you would like to get articles like this sent directly to your email, click HERE to subscribe. It’s completely free.
Most people read leadership books to learn from the greats and how they can emulate them, hoping to become great leaders themselves someday.
Among the many notable leadership books, one commonality is that they identify traits that successful leaders possess.
Some trait groupings are centered on a single individual use case, such as Steve Jobs, Nelson Mandela, or Queen Elizabeth I, who inspire emulation.
Other trait groupings are gleaned from a pattern of behavior exhibited across many effective leaders, more akin to a clinical trial sample.
Clever mnemonics are associated with these, everything from 3Cs, 4Cs, 5Cs, 7Cs, 8Cs, even 5Ps, 5Es, 5As, 6Ls.
Some industrious people have come up with more sophisticated and catchy acronyms such as “LEAD,” “CREATIVE,” and “STORM,” to name a few, each letter representing a key quality of leadership.
How about XYZPDQ?
These approaches are fine and good and have value when the ideas are absorbed in isolation.
However, like the 50,000-book problem, we have entered some strange form of mnemonic hell.
I need a mnemonic to remember the mnemonics— like some weird meta-mnemonic.
I will not propose a magic solution to the 50,000-book or mnemonic problem, nor am I arrogant enough to think I am more intelligent than the thousands of people who have come before me on this topic.
However, I will point out a simple set of observations:
Leaders are individuals. A leader needs a group. Without a group, there is nothing to lead. No group, no leadership.
A leader without a group is like a bottle cap without a bottle. That is to say, to be an effective leader, success is dependent on both the cap itself and the bottle it is fastened to [3].
When people define the qualities of successful leaders, there seems to be no distinction between the qualities intrinsic to the individual leader and the qualities the leader cultivates on the group.
In other words, two distinct types of attributes drive leadership success: intrinsic versus group-focused.
While there is an interplay between the two types, they are contrasting notions.
Most authors seem to conflate these attributes, and it only adds more fog to a spooky evening in Derry.
What has been useful to me is to delineate the two vantage points.
For you to lead others, it is REALLY helpful to know this delineation.
There are at Least Two Sets of Qualities
There are the leaders themselves as individuals and the group they lead.
Each one of these domains requires a slightly different set of characteristics to be effective.
Thus, there are individual qualities and group-focused qualities.
Individual qualities are the requirements of you as a leader.
Group-focused qualities are the attributes you cultivate in others to build high-performance teams.
When put together, like nuclear fission, they react to each other exponentially as an explosion of positivity.
None of the qualities I will mention here will be novel or revolutionary, and they mirror what many people much smarter than me have already demonstrated with acronyms.
The only difference is that I will help put them in their correct place.
To help people, as Stephen Covey puts it, sharpen the saw.
The following diagram illustrates the two sets of qualities:
Let's break down each set.
Individual Qualities that Make Great Leaders
There is magic to the number three in learning.
Our brain processes information in chunks, and three seems to be the most reasonable cognitive bite-sized portion, allowing our mind to group data without getting overwhelmed.
As Daniel Coyle says in his book The Talent Code, “chunk it out.”
So here is our first chunk: the top three qualities leaders need to possess as individuals are integrity, fortitude, and empathy.
To up the ante, leaders do not only want to possess these attributes themselves but also instill these attributes into other individuals within the group.
Let’s go into each.
Integrity
It is universally agreed that one of the top and most consistent traits extraordinary leaders must possess is integrity.
Integrity is a firm adherence to a code of principles or moral values.
Shared values between individuals formulate the bedrock of trust.
It involves a display of behavioral consistency without succumbing to the whim of emotion.
You want to be the iron buoy that others can grasp onto in the dark turbulent river of conflict, uncertainty, and change.
Critical to integrity is honesty.
Simon Sinek, one of the top thought leaders in the domain of leadership, summarizes integrity the best:
“It’s really easy to be honest, just tell the truth.”
Empathy
Chris Voss, a world-famous hostage negotiator and keynote speaker, considers tactical empathy one of the foundational skills for success, whether in negotiations, sales, or dealing with conflict.
A systemic part of a leader’s job is to help communicate, convince, and negotiate with others through various states of change, making tactical empathy one of the most vital tools in leadership.
Empathy is the gateway to the other emotions.
Sympathy, empathy, passion, and compassion are related but not all made equal. These qualities are social-emotional. They tug at the heartstrings.
Empathy is a different animal. It touches the social-emotional brain, but it also touches the rational brain.
In other words, empathy connects the social-emotional to reason. It is a bridge between the two worlds.
Many have said that communication is one of the central qualities of leadership.
However, communication alone is not robust enough, as not all communication is good.
How we communicate as leaders is the key.
Empathy gives us the how.
Chris Voss says it best:
“Yes, is nothing without How.”
Fortitude
Bruce Daisley is a bestselling author, tech executive, and work-life balance expert.
In his acclaimed book Fortitude, he expresses the quality of fortitude as a mechanism to build practical paths to greater self-confidence, inner strength, and courage.
Fortitude is more holistic than either courage or resilience.
Courage is the ability to take a stab at the unknown, chart new territory, break norms, and create new ways of thinking. Leaders need the ability to do this.
Steve Jobs had courage.
However, great leaders also need the ability to be resilient and persevere, the strength not to give up, to hang in there, to stay the course, and not quit in the face of adversity.
Steve Jobs also had resilience.
Fortitude encompasses both courage and resilience.
Steve Jobs had fortitude.
Leaders need fortitude.
Everything I have said so far has been espoused by many great thinkers.
Other qualities can affect success, but the three described are the base intrinsic qualities at an individual level — the first chunk.
Without these qualities, you are not leading anything — no one will follow, or at the very least, if they do, it will be temporary at best.
When great leaders are engaged in their work, their minds do not focus on these qualities.
They are not self-conscious or dwelling on how much integrity, fortitude, or empathy they have.
They are outward-focused, problem-solving, collaborating with people, and driving solutions.
What attributes enable leaders to engage in integrity, empathy, and fortitude, and put them to work?
Recall there are two types of qualities: intrinsic and group-focused.
Group Focused Attributes that Make Great Leaders
What are the group qualities that a leader cultivates?
The top three, and our next chunk is: talent, opportunity, and ideas.
Let’s roll up our sleeves and break these three qualities down.
Talent
Anyone thrown into a leadership position cold turkey for the first time always has an epiphany moment.
I need people!
Not just any people, but people who I can trust to do the job.
To lead means to lead people. If I am by myself, I am not leading. I am just working — a cap without a bottle.
Since time is always a constraint, a sense of urgency erupts: how do I obtain talent?
Talent must be acquired or fostered within the group — your success and theirs depend upon it.
For example, the iconic filmmaker Stephen Spielberg provided world-class leadership during the production of the 1983 film Raiders of the Lost Ark.
At his side, he had Harrison Ford.
The combined leadership of Stephen Spielberg’s direction and Harrison Ford’s talent is what made the movie so successful.
Ideas
The concept of the idea as it pertains to leaders can be unpacked in two ways.
First, the leader needs to express a compelling vision to the group.
One that provides benefit, is practical, and actionable.
A vision is an idea.
Second, once group adaption is formed and the original idea starts to propagate, the leader needs to enable people in the group to develop their own ideas.
Ingroup idea enablement drives scalability.
Diversity is critical when it comes to ingroup ideas.
The more diverse the idea pool, the better ideas one will have access to.
However, there is a dark side to diversity that no one likes to discuss.
Healthy diversity is not an end state; it is just a beginning.
That sounds ominous. The beginning of what?
Diversity is the beginning of a process of elimination.
This process means seeking good ideas and cutting out bad ones to shrink the idea pool to only the best ones.
In other words, diversity expands the pool to shrink it.
This process of expansion and contraction yields harmony.
The word “harm” exists in harmony, as it does not come without pain, and unfortunately, not everyone makes it.
Opportunity
Opportunity is a P&L.
There is two parts to a P&L, there is the profit and the loss.
As Milton Friedman used to say, the loss is more important than the profit.
The P&L principle applies to opportunity in leadership.
It is not just the opportunity to succeed that is important; it is also the loss.
It is through the loss and failure that growth occurs. The profits and successes are the flourishing that springs out of the loss and growth.
Like trimming hedges, they seem to grow fuller and more robust.
A good leader will tolerate a certain threshold of constructive losses within the group to allow for hedge trimming and enable growth.
A good leader creates a culture of, “I have your back.”
Providing opportunities for people to take calculated risks without fear within the group is crucial for talent retention.
You and Others, Holistic Development
Short of going to school, getting a job, creating a business, or reading books, how do you best sharpen the saw of these qualities to enable yourself to become an effective leader of others?
Have kids.
Kids yield day-in and day-out practice with no escape and no excuses other than a night out on the town now and again when you can get a babysitter.
Unlike a school or a job, it never turns off.
Enforced discipline.
Maintaining a healthy family involves constant personal growth of integrity, empathy, and fortitude.
The development of thriving kids involves fostering their talent, helping them develop ideas, and maximizing opportunities for them.
It is the perfect petri dish.
Nothing enhances and rounds your leadership skills more effectively than you caring for others who depend on you, and the most holistic leaders understand the immense personal sacrifice of being unconditionally relied upon.
Good luck. I hope this helps you, if not just a little inch, sharpen your saw.
References/Footnotes
[1] — I do not have a record of the source. Please let me know if you are out there, and I will mark you with credit!
[2] — Despite my disdain for the word “leadership,” I will continue using the term. Per the words of Doc Holiday, “My hypocrisy only goes so far.”
[3] — Graham Gehring, his analogy on leadership while sitting on the 15th Street Ocean City beach.
About the Author
For more on Scott:
www.scott-gehring.com
www.linkedin.com/in/scott-gehring/
Scott Gehring — Medium
https://www.epocmartialarts.com/
Self-Empowerment, Anti-Victimization, JKD Kenpo Instructor, Scott Gehring, Profile, Bio, Credentials
Amazon.com: Strategic Engagement of Force: A Field Guide for the use of Martial Arts Strategy and Tactics eBook : Gehring, Scott: Kindle Store
