“Travis may be UBER, but UBER cannot be Travis”: The curious case of charismatic leaders
Travis Kalanick is driving more traffic on social media these days, than probably Uber cars on streets.
It is just that, I expected all the traffic will be in one direction; i.e everyone would feel the same way about his exit:
- Justice for the women engineers
- Individuals empowered to tell their side of the story
- Leader held accountable, you cannot escape just because you are successful
- Not everything is wrong with this world yet, etc, etc
Afterall, how can anyone have a different opinion on the outcome of the investigations at Uber, where human dignity was so blatantly trodden upon?
Yet…
There are petitions being prepared to bring Travis back. People are have slowly begun to worry about the plight of Uber without Travis.
It has only been a few weeks since the CEO left, and employees are already demonstrating withdrawal symptoms.
4 comments from petitioners as reported in articles, particularly caught my attention
#1- “Nobody is perfect”
#2- “Employees are more important than the media”
#3- “Uber is Travis Kalanick and Travis Kalanick is Uber”
#4- “Company maybe slammed because of work-culture, but CEO resignation is a bad idea for business and growth”
The flaw in those arguments is obvious.
True, nobody is perfect. The imperfection we are talking of here though is a leader’s failure to ensure the dignity of his team members, and being party to creating a culture that doesn’t. If the leader is not accountable, who is?
True, employees are more important than media. Susan Fowler and other women engineers were employees too.
But punching holes into those arguments will serve no purpose because the petitioners are experiencing,
classic withdrawal symptoms people feel during the exit of a charismatic leader
The ridiculous arguments are merely the outcome of that sense of loss. Comments that “Uber is Travis Kalanick, and Travis Kalanick is Uber” are very telling of that emotion.
While Travis, on one hand, had his masochistic flaws — on the other, he seems to have driven Uber’s pace of growth with that very personality. It is apparent from the employees’ willingness to forgive their CEO and get him back, that Kalanick was a charismatic leader of some kind.
Charismatic leaders are very interesting. History has been witness to the capability of charismatic leaders in changing course of nations and organizations. They become a rallying point, beacon of hope, the expression of combined aspirations of everyone who follows them.
But charismatic leadership is like a double-edged sword
When such leaders are around, they drive things by the sheer power of their charisma.
But, their strength is their very fault
When charismatic leaders have to exit for some reason, things fall apart. They seem to leave behind a lacuna which is hard to fill. No one appears good enough to step into their shoes. The outcomes that charismatic leaders achieve when they are around, come under threat with and as a result of their exit.
Management guru Jim Collins, in his research spread across multiple organizations and years, found that organizations which create sustainable growth are led by people who are NOT charismatic leader-types.
In his famous book, Good to Great, he mentions two qualities of the kind of leaders (the “non-celebrity CEO”) who help organizations grow sustainably:
Humility and will.
Charismatic leaders probably have as strong a will as level-5 leaders, maybe not as humble. The very nature of charismatic leadership rests on the individual personality — which renders it so difficult to replace them. Level-5 leaders on the contrary are known to build a strong 2nd line of leaders. This is probably why the growth sustains even after the exit of Level 5 leaders. This is not the case with charismatic leaders, where the results are known to dip after their exit.
Employee sentiments of “bring Kalanick back in an operational role”, is indicative of the lacuna that charismatic leaders leave behind.
The problem is not charismatic leaders. Infact certain kinds of business situations benefit from charismatic leaders.
Problem is not preparing for the limitations of charismatic leadership
One of the most neglected organizational systems in succession planning, which in simple layman’s term is — if your key leaders leave, who can fill in for them internally.
Most organizations will claim to have an established process, with identified “talent”, but in reality only a few organizations have a real pipeline in place. Particularly, when things are going well, it seems difficult to be serious about preparing for a replacement.
And if it is a celebrity CEO, replacement seems even more difficult to prepare for.
Start-ups might be particularly vulnerable to this
Start-up is nothing but the early stage of a business which is trying to prove its worth to the world, and fighting to survive and thrive.
In a real start-up life, everyday focus is to be able to “live another day”
One has to bend rules often, operate outside systems and processes to make things work. The very nature of work at start-ups might lend itself to a Charismatic leadership style.
A start-up, therefore, is more prone to get caught in a situation like Uber, when the charismatic leader exits suddenly — without someone to immediately fill the vacuum
Coming back to where this article started. The first time I read about the petitions and comments supporting it, I was taken aback for a while. How can we compromise on holding a leader accountable for something like what happened at Uber, just for “business”?
But the reality is, the Uber case, from an organizational study perspective, cannot be analysed from just the angle of right and wrong.
That, Uber has changed the way we commute, be it New York or New Delhi, is undeniable. And maybe Travis had a lot to do with the expansion. Uber has launched a whole new business model, where so many entrepreneurs around the world want to build an “Uber-of-something”.
Therefore, Uber must stay and grow with or without Travis.
Travis may be Uber
But Uber cannot afford to be Travis
I am not sure about the inner workings of Uber. Could the board have prepared for a possibility of replacing Travis when the Susan Fowler blog took the media by storm? Or when some of the other business issues starting occuring? Perhaps they already are in search of a replacement CEO.
Whatever the case maybe, it will be unfortunate if Uber softens stand on the exit of their CEO.
Having to trade-off between PRINCIPLES and PERFORMANCE, is a criminal choice; whether for society or an organization
Particularly when it comes to leaders, it is not just about how much they personally perpetuated a situation, but about the ethical standards they are expected to represent.
That situation can be avoided simply by preparing ahead for the day your Rockstar Leader might have to leave
Finally, there could be a section of people feeling personal sympathy for Travis Kalanick. Some articles called him an “intelligent jerk”. Whether or not, one has any personal sympathies for Kalanick, it is a sad situation for the world if our intelligent people turn out to be jerks. Maybe we are doing something wrong as a society.
And to that end, let us hope Travis Kalanick finds his redemption. Afterall, it would be becoming of a charismatic leader, if he can someday rise from his own ashes.
But Uber has to move on, and find a leader who not only drives Uber to the next highway of growth, but does so — without running over culture and human dignity.
It seems then, that both Travis and Uber, have to learn, to live and grow, without one another.
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Swati Jena is a writer and entrepreneur. Swati Jena is a writer and entrepreneur. She is the founder of GhostWritersWorld (www.ghostwritersworld.com); @writingspells on twitter
While she writes on a wide variety of subjects, her favorite topics are leadership, culture, artificial intelligence, education and ‘self’.
You can read her articles on LinkedIn or Medium (Use this link to Medium blogspot)
Her other articles include:
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- The Monkey Catcher’s Lesson: Why we get stuck in our jobs, situations, emotions..
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- Love in the time of Artificial Intelligence: Valentine’s Day 2030
- 3 unforgettable lessons I learnt from an Indian Ed Tech Leader
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- Why the ‘Corporate-style Women’s Day Celebrations’ gives me the creeps
- Man or Woman? Who should lead gender diversity? Why we are simply asking the WRONG question.
- The (difficult) art of doing nothing and why it matter in a world proud of “busy”
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- The OOUCH of maternity leaves: Why managers secretly dread it
14. 500 Uber rides without driver talking on the phone: My personal starfish story
15. Sophisticated-fear-based-management: 3 unmistakable signs
16. “Here is a muffin that will make you successful”: The unspoken truth about success
17. 5 reasons we should ‘stop fighting for a cause’
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19. LOL … driverless cars for India??: When AI meets Cows, Rajinikanth and Ganpati
20. “I love solving problems”: The BIG problem with problem solving
