Top business leaders have moved away from outdated strongman models of leadership. It is wholly unrealistic to expect that any one person, no matter how self-assured, smart or talented, can singlehandedly possess all the skills required to navigate organisations through today’s increasingly complex and rapidly changing business environment.
Yet politicians seem to be moving in the other direction. In the US, Donald Trump claimed “I alone can fix it”, and successfully convinced Americans to elect him president. He has spent the last four months demonstrating that, even if it were realistic for one person to single-handedly fix the country’s problems, he is not the man for the task.
Here in the UK, the Conservatives and Theresa May are flirting with a similar message of leadership, though admittedly with less bombast than Trump. She has stated there is no “Mayism”, but the call for a general election to strengthen her mandate and the relentless hammering home of her “strong and stable” mantra conveys the message clearly: it is not the Conservative party we are asked to trust when we cast our votes, but May herself. “Bloody difficult,” yes, and the only hand strong enough to hold the tiller and keep us on course.
Successful business leaders understand that they don’t have all the answers. Unrealistic expectations of their own abilities hinder, rather than help their organisations. The marker of an exceptional leader is the ability to determine honestly and objectively what their abilities are. They can then call on the talents of others to make up for their weaknesses.
For any leader who believes they can (or ought to) single-handedly do it all, the Harvard Business Review article, In Praise of the Incomplete Leader, is a useful tool for realigning those unrealistic expectations. The authors identify four key capabilities that an organisation needs from its leader to succeed in challenging times. These are “sensemaking”, “relating”, “visioning” and “inventing”. No lone individual is going to be good at all of these but having the right people around you can help shore up any weak spots.
“Sensemaking” is the ability to understand changes in the business environment and interpret their effect on your industry and your company. If you feel strongly that you’re always right, if you often get blindsided by changes in your company or your industry, or if change tends to make you feel resentful, this is a skill you need to work on.
“Relating” is the capacity for building relationships and networks of support. Leaders who are strong in this area can put forward their own point of view but also ask for and listen carefully to differing opinions. You may have problems “relating” if you tend to blame others for failed projects or feel they are constantly letting you down or can’t be trusted.
“Visioning” means setting a clear view of a future direction that the people in your organisation will buy into and want to work to achieve. You need help with this if you lack a sense of a bigger purpose or perhaps can’t even remember the last time you really felt excited about your work.
Finally, “inventing” is all about finding new ways to approach tasks or to overcome seemingly insurmountable problems so that plans can become a reality. If you’re weak here, things may tend to revert to business as usual even if you have powerfully articulated your vision.
There’s a lot of talk about “vulnerability” and “authenticity” as cornerstones to good leadership, but it’s not always clear exactly how to achieve this in a way that feels comfortable and safe. The capabilities above can offer a great place to start. By recognising points of weakness and getting help with them, you are demonstrating vulnerability. And the more you work in your areas of strength without feeling the need to disguise where you are weaker, the more authentic you will feel and appear to others.
In challenging times, a strong leader is one who recognises their own weaknesses and is confident enough to let others help offset them. Stability should mean agile adjustment to changing circumstances, rather than rigid adherence to a fixed point of view. It’s too early to know whether this is actually what May means when she touts her strong and stable leadership line, but in the face of the mind-bogglingly complex Brexit that lies ahead, one can only hope.
Keith Krasny is a senior leader coach and partner at The Alexander Partnership
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