What makes a good Leader?

Mon, 16 Jan 2006

Now this is a loaded question. We might want to ask ourselves, what makes a Leader? Once we agree on that, we might start figuring out what makes a good one.

Leader:

1. One that leads or guides.
2. One who is in charge or in command of others.

Guiding. Leading. That implies being in front right? We can almost hear sentences like "leading by example", or "showing the way". We might argue over details of a specific sentence, but deep down, we all know.

• A leader is someone we follow.
• An effective Leader (notice the capital 'L') is someone we follow willingly.
• A bad leader will need a position of authority or use fear to get us to follow him.

And a good Leader will make us go to places we wouldn't have gone without him.

Places that were just out of reach, maybe because we lacked faith, or confidence, or purpose, or focus. But whatever it was, we were lacking, and the real Leader has made us become, if only for a short while, better than we were.

And not only as individuals, but also as a group. A good Leader has a way of making a group be more than the sum of its parts. He can make us belong, he can take individuals, and turn them into a team. A Leader is someone that make us want to join into something that we will talk about years down the road. Something to be proud of.

So ok. We know how to recognize a good Leader. Now, what makes one? What is it that make us want to follow? I will tell you in one word:

responsibility.

What I hear you say? What about charisma? What about drive? What about vision, integrity, intelligence, wisdom, experience, energy, dedication, fairness? And all you can come up with is responsibility ?

Yop.

Responsibility is the keystone of good Leadership. All the other qualities of a Leader are helpful, sometimes extremely important, but the one that makes or breaks the goodness of a Leader is (let me write it again) responsibility!

Now that most of you think I'm a lunatic (took you your own good long time to figure that one out, didn't it? ;-), let me make my case.

Ok, you want to be a good Leader. Good for you (and others), but first things first. What is the essential thing you need before you accept responsibility for anything?

That's right, power. Power to choose, power to change, power to act. Because responsibility without power is suicide. And how often have I seen this in my life. Someone ask you to take responsibility for a project, but give you no power over the fate of that project. How completely, ultimately moronic!

Sorry, but I can't help myself. This is the single most important reason some companies have so much trouble having projects succeed. They ask you to take responsibility (for your work, for the deadline, etc), but give you no power over the things that will cause it to succeed or fail.

Let me make this absolutely clear. Never accept responsibility without the proper amount of power to influence the outcome! Ever, ever, ever.

Aaaaaah. Now I feel better (if only for this advice, this blogthing will have been worth it ;-)

Now we have a goal, power to influence the outcome, what do we need? Yes... Responsibility. In order for you to understand what I mean by responsibility, let us pretend we are part of a group that has to do a project. And, what's more, let us pretend that I am in charge (I don't want nobody starting to run or press the back-button on me yet!).

Ok. We are in this together, so you might as well know how I am going to deal with our respective responsibilities.

What are my responsibilities. To the boss/owner/organizer.

Well it's pretty clear.

If we succeed. WE succeed. Our team, you and me. Us. Congratulation.

If we fail. It's MY fault. Alone. As in "don't go looking for a reason or someone to blame boss, you have him sitting just in front of you."

How can that be? Well it's because of that little thing I might have mentioned before (I did right?). The responsibility thing, remember?

And why is that? Why is it my fault if we fail (I will come back to why it is our success, not mine alone in a bit)?

Simple. Let's pretend that it was impossible to succeed. Well there are a few possibilities as to how we got into that sinking boat.

1. I did not have enough power to make it work. Who did accept the responsibility for this project without enough power? Yea, me. So who's fault is it? You got it. Mine.
2. Success was impossible. Now who took responsibility for this project again? Would that be me? Yop. Mine (2 in 2, not bad).
3. Someone working with me in my team did not succeed at his tasks. Now this might not be as simple, but the possible reasons are still clear.
   • That person was not capable of doing this task. Now who picked him for this? Who? Me? So who's responsibility was it to pick the right person? Mine.
   • While the person was capable of doing the work, he did not received the necessary support to give him a chance to succeed. Who is responsible for making sure he has all he needs to succeed? Yep. Me. Mine again.
   • He didn't want to succeed, and he made sure he would fail (bad, bad person -- this is hypothetical, don't get mad...). Now who's responsibility is it to make sure that bad apples don't end up ruining the pie? Me again. Yes, ultimately, if I don't fire someone who is making his best to make things worse (after long and deep discussions where we try to find what is wrong and how we can fix it), well if that is the case, I am still responsible for that person's dirty work.

On the other end, why is it that it is our success if things go right? Simple. Because I did not do it alone. Or the corollary, alone I would not have done it. Not in the same amount of time, or with the same quality. What you did, as an individual and as a part of the group, only you could have done it in exactly that way. And your good work is part of the success, as is my good work. Separate, they amount to not much, but together, they are synonymous with success.

You want to know how to recognize a good Leader? Next time you sit in a meeting, listen to the project managers. If you hear things like this:

• "John had a fantastic idea, and it save us a whole day of work!"
• "Mary was finished early, so she could help with some other things that turned out to be more complex than we first thought."
• "We are late for this deadline. No, it's nobody's fault in particular. I told you we would deliver, and we didn't. I probably evaluated the problem too lightly."
• "Jack is fine. He will be ok. We are making sure he gets all the help he needs for this complex task."

You might have just found a good Leader.

If, on the other end, you hear things like this:

• "Yes, I had this great idea that they implemented like I told them to."
• "I don't know why we are late. I explained it to Karl, and it's not that complicated. What can I say?"
• "I don't know how to make them work harder. I asked them, but they just keep on not delivering!"
• "I am very proud to report that I have reached the deadlines I set for this task. Oh! And the team did a good job too..."

It might be time to think about changing group ;-)

Oh yea, one last thing. What about your responsibilities?

Well. You know what I expect from myself regarding my boss right? You should be able to figure out on your own what is expected from you... ;-)