Leadership: I Know It When I See It
January 2009
What is leadership? A Google search on the
subject yields 166 million hits, and an
Amazon search yields over 300,000 books on the subject. For a term
frequently bandied about, both in everyday conversations and by the media,
it is a remarkably amorphous concept for most of us to pin down.
by Corbette
Doyle
Is it like the now-infamous quote by former Supreme Court Justice Stewart
on pornography, "I'll know it when I see it"? Most of us can point to
examples of leadership luminaries ranging from warriors for justice like
Martin Luther King to great coaches like John Wooten. Similarly, even Joe
the Plumber can point to numerous Wall Street examples of how not to lead.
But can we define effective leadership in a way that allows us to
objectively identify individuals who "have it" for critical roles such as a
CEO?
What Constitutes Leadership?
A question closely related to the definition of leadership—and the
identification of who "has it"—is the question of whether leaders are born
or made. If leaders are born, then our ability to identify future leaders is
critical to the success of an organization. If leaders are made, then we
have the opportunity to grow and develop candidates from an organization's
talent pool—and we, as individuals, have the opportunity to fine-tune and
enhance our leadership potential.
So, what is leadership? Theoreticians define it as a process of
influencing a group to achieve a common goal. That's broad enough to
resonate with most of us, yet still too vague to help us select either the
most likely-to-succeed next Cabinet member or a CEO likely to lead a
floundering insurance company out of its current morass.
Who Constitutes a Leader?
In reality, choosing leaders is no easy task. The same person might
succeed as CEO of one insurance company but not another, or might succeed at
the same company at one point in its history, but not in the current
economy. Many of us have seen this firsthand in the brokerage industry in
entrepreneur CEOs who succeed in launching, growing, and selling a startup,
only to watch them fade and wither within the larger confines of the
organization to which they sold their company. Some of these CEOs retire,
and some of them leave, wait out their non-compete, and then start again.
Relatively few move into the CEO slot of the new, larger firm into which
they sold.
Perhaps the answer lies in the life stage of an organization. Some
individuals may be suited to lead startups, molded around their personal
vision; others to lead large, complex organizations; and still others to
lead troubled entities back onto a path to success.
Such a view is unsettling as it feeds the "leaders are born" mindset,
rather than the "leaders are made" view that gives each of us an opportunity
to hone our personal leadership skills and gives organizations optimism that
they can develop the skills of a pool of future leaders. Recent research (Avolio,
2005) indicates that though 30 percent of leadership talent may well be a
result of the physical and cognitive skills we bring with us into this
world, the other 70 percent is likely a result of what we do to hone,
develop, and apply our capabilities.
While future research may yield different proportions, this approximation
of the 80/20 rule "feels" right. After all, each of us has encountered
people who seem to have the talent to lead but who, for an array of reasons,
choose not to step into the role or choose to opt out early. Similarly, we
have all watched leaders emerge from a crisis, much like William Wallace in
Braveheart.
So, if 70 percent, or at least some majority of the pool for talent
(either the generic pool or our individual font of talent), is amenable to
development, we should focus on the most valuable strategies to enhance our
personal skill set or to develop individuals whose professional growth we
are responsible for within an organization.
While the list of development strategies may be long, and the ranking of
the relative importance of each debatable, this column will focus on a few
of the more universally appealing tools that are both readily accessible and
applicable to a broad array of settings. They include the selection of
talent, the role of feedback and mentoring, and apprenticing strategies.
Conclusion
Some of you may wonder what qualifies me to write this column. A 30-year
career in the industry gave me the opportunity to work with leaders who will
forever remain ideal role models, as well as others who taught me just as
many lessons in what not to do. It is my current role as a professor of
Leadership, Policy & Organizations at Vanderbilt University, however, which
has provided both the validated research and an objective frame of reference
from which to view those first- and second-hand lessons of leadership. It is
with the perspective of this combination of leadership theory and practice
that I will offer my perspective on talent and leadership.
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