How to be a Naked Autocrat
Rajeev Peshawaria’s Five Keys to Positive Autocratic Leadership
Lately, I’ve been wondering how to square the discipline of leadership with its realities. Leadership theory is all about inclusion, collaboration, and a servant-like approach. Leadership reality…well, you can read the headlines in any paper of record for that. To me, they reveal what seems to be an unbridgeable chasm between theory and reality.
That’s why I was curious to see what Rajeev Peshawaria had to say in his new book, Open Source Leadership. Peshawaria is CEO of the Iclif Leadership and Goverance Center, a consultancy, and before that he was Chief Learning Officer at Coca-Cola and Morgan Stanley. I figured it anyone had a realistic take on leadership, it would be a guy who was responsible for developing and nurturing leaders in major companies.
Peshawaria didn’t disappoint me. He doesn’t pussyfoot around the realities of leadership. “To drive breakthrough results in today’s age of speed, top-down autocratic leadership is indeed required,” he writes. Moreover, when he and his colleagues surveyed 16,000 managers in 28 countries, 75 percent of them agreed with him.
But if we let autocrats run our companies and countries, what will protect us from dictators? In the excerpt below, Peshawaria says that our best defense is “naked autocrats” — leaders who are driven by values and purpose, but who also treat people with compassion, humility, and respect. If they are our best defense, hopefully we’ll be seeing a lot more of them very soon.
The following excerpt from Chapter 2 of Open Source Leadership: Reinventing Management When There’s No More Business as Usual (McGraw-Hill 2017), by Rajeev Peshawaria, is reprinted with permission of the publisher. All rights reserved.
In the open source era, leaders can apply autocratic leadership by practicing the following principles toward positive autocracy:
1. Earn the Right to Use Autocratic Leadership
Lee Kuan Yew, Nelson Mandela, and Mahatma Gandhi were true leaders. They wanted to build better futures for their people. The key word is better. They had tremendous leadership energy that was derived from a values-based purpose. People deeply believed that the three of them were each working solely to create a better future. Singaporeans were willing to forgo some liberties because they strongly believed that Lee Kuan Yew had their best interest at heart. So great was the trust between him and his people that people allowed him to be autocratic. The case was the same with Mandela and Gandhi. In other words, unlike ruthless dictators who used force, Lee Kuan Yew, Mandela, and Gandhi had earned the right to use top-down, autocratic leadership.
2. Be Autocratic About Values and Purpose While Remaining Humble, Respectful, and Considerate with People
Mandela, Gandhi, and Lee Kuan Yew each arrived at their values and purpose slowly, deliberately, and thoughtfully. Because of their deliberate thoughtfulness, they were sure that they were on the right track. Gandhi decided after much careful consideration that his purpose would be to obtain India’s independence from British rule, in a nonviolent way. “For this purpose, I am prepared to die, but there is no purpose for which I am prepared to kill,” he would say. Mandela was sure that the better future for South Africa was possible only through forgiveness and reconciliation, not revenge and bloodshed, and was not prepared to compromise on those values under any circumstances. Lee Kuan Yew recognized that discipline was sorely needed to make Asian nations prosperous, and there was little time to lose. All three recognized that democratic leadership alone was inadequate to bring about positive change, and that a certain amount of push was needed even without consensus. Again, unlike ruthless dictators, they did not use power to force people into submission. They balanced the need for autocratic action with respect, humility, and consideration. The biggest key to their success at using autocratic leadership was that they were autocratic about their values and purpose while being considerate, humble and respectful with their people at the same time. It is perfectly possible to do both. As Lee Kuan Yew famously said, “If there was a good reason why it is ‘no,’ then it must remain a ‘no,’ but the man must be told politely. You lose nothing by being polite.”
3. Provide “Freedom Within a Framework”
I first heard the phrase “freedom within a framework” in 2006 at Coca-Cola where I was chief learning officer. Neville Isdell had just come back to the company from retirement with a mandate to turn the storied ship around. Given the breadth of Coke’s operations, he knew he couldn’t lead the turnaround with a centralized command and control strategy. He also knew that what was good for one market was not necessarily good for another country even in the same neighborhood. Yet, he was convinced that the only way the global giant would be successful again was if the entire company adhered to some common principles. So, he laid out a broad, values-based framework, and told his top 150 people that they had full freedom within the framework. They could use whatever local strategies they needed, provided they played by and within the framework. Results were spectacular, and Coke began to get its mojo back in no time. Gandhi, Mandela, and Lee Kuan Yew practiced the idea of freedom within a framework too. While their values and the values-based purposes they pursued were nonnegotiable, for everything else they provided full freedom to their people. As long as the values were adhered to, how results were obtained was left to people to decide in their own way. Business leaders today need to do the same.
4. Listen, Learn, and Reflect Continuously
The work of leadership involves walking a very fine line. On one hand, the high- speed, open source era requires a significant amount of top-down, autocratic leadership. Leaders must be prepared to push hard on their vision despite initial opposition and resistance. On the other hand, too much autocracy can make leaders blind to the changing needs of society and lead to their downfall. So, while they must practice autocratic leadership to drive results, they must make every effort to listen carefully for how things might be changing around them, and question themselves regularly about the efficacy of their values and purpose. Leaders must repeatedly and regularly ask themselves the following questions:
● Are my values still relevant in today’s context?
● Will my purpose still create a better future?
● Why should I not pursue my purpose?
If, after careful listening and consideration, they remain convinced about their values and purpose, they must continue along the chosen path. But they must play devil’s advocate regularly to ensure that the path is still correct. Listening with an open mind without being defensive is key here, because effective listening leads to learning. Regular effective listening either reaffirms a leader’s belief in her vision, or prompts her to change or adjust it. In the open source era, leaders have a heavier onus to continue listening and learning. However, the open source era also places heavy demands on leaders’ time. They are bombarded with distractions, and in this busy-ness it is easy to slip into not-listening-and-not-learning mode. To avoid this trap, leaders must make time for regular silent reflection. I know this because I have been coaching C- level executives around the world for over 20 years now. Driving in the heady fast lane of corporate business, they become too busy to take a pause and reflect. In order to keep up with their ever-increasing workload, they begin to multitask, and do with less sleep. They think they are being efficient, but often realize too late that they’ve made some fatal mistakes. They should talk to themselves regularly to challenge their assumptions about the better future they want to create. The open source era enables followers to disempower leaders with the same ease with which they empower them in the first place. Only if people continue to believe in a leader’s values and purpose will they allow him or her the right to top-down, autocratic leadership. To retain the right to top-down leadership, leaders need to retain the trust of their people. Only regular listening and learning combined with honest reflection can enable them to do so.
5. Forgive More Often
Leadership is about creating a better future. Holding grudges and anger creates negative energy, and bogs a leader down from her core work of creating that better future. Forgiveness, on the other hand, frees up the leader to focus on the positive work of leadership. Two quotes sum up why forgiveness is one of the most important (yet perhaps the least understood) leadership tools.
“To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.”
— Lewis B. Smedes
“Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future.”
— Paul Boese
Many examples of forgiveness abound in history, but two of the three names we’ve been discussing stand out as those who conducted greatest acts of leadership in the twentieth century — Gandhi and Mandela. In fact, I believe they will remain evergreen examples of powerful leadership for centuries to come. While punishment and revenge have been part of the natural human condition ever since the dawn of humanity, these two men rocked the history of the world by doing the exact opposite. It takes huge courage to forgive. It is far easier to nurture anger and continue to seek revenge. Forgiveness requires one to rise above the hurt and focus on a better future. In the words of Gandhi, forgiveness is not for the weak. Only the strong can forgive.
In the open source era, forgiveness is more important than ever. In this age of speed only those who take risks and try new things will succeed. If business leaders create an environment where it is not safe to take risks, no one will try anything new, and eventually the business will suffer because of a lack of innovation. In a forgiving culture, mistakes and failures are seen as learning steps rather than acts that deserve punishment.
The five keys to positive autocratic leadership allow leaders to respond to market conditions with lightning speed to create breakthrough success. Failure to practice the five keys can easily turn autocratic leadership into a toxic dictatorship. Fortunately, the open source era has a built-in check and balance system for leaders today. Because followers and ordinary people are so connected and empowered today, leaders have no choice but to stay acutely focused on the five keys. This is why we call them naked autocrats rather than just autocrats. The nakedness reminds leaders of their vulnerability and keeps them honest to the ideas discussed in this chapter. This is not to suggest that bosses today don’t ever cross the line toward dictatorship. They do. But the open source era will not allow them to get away with it for too long. Only real leaders (as against bosses) understand the delicate naked autocrat dance of leadership. Only real leaders succeed in creating a better future.
