Leadership Foot in Mouth
In the late 80s and into the 90s, the British retail press was dominated by two quite flamboyant names. At that time, George Davies was heading up Next and delivering exponential growth through increased footprint. While sales and profits followed one trajectory, it seemed that his reputation was growing at a faster pace. The other contender for the airwaves was Gerald Ratner.
Gerald took over his father’s business and became CEO of Ratner’s. A publicly listed company, he grew the business very quickly by disrupting the pedestrian jewellery industry, through discounting and offering low priced merchandise. Then he went down in history for causing one of the biggest corporate collapses in the UK, after describing merchandise in his own stores as ‘total crap’. He seemed to enjoy his success a little too much as he became quite arrogant and over-confident in his speech to the IOD in 1991. After the share value dropped by £500m, he was fired and the company changed its name to Signet.
Around that time, we also had Jack Welch, the CEO of General Electric who proudly promoted senior executives based mainly on their ability to maximize shareholder value. That drove a ‘growth at all costs’ culture with CEOs of subsidiary companies competing with each other for Jack’s gold stars. While Jack was lauded around the world for his great leadership qualities, I’m curious about the welfare of other stakeholders, such as the staff, customers and suppliers. Did that culture cause short term focus linked to quarterly results?
Ratner is certainly not the last senior executive to cause a fuss with ill-chosen and poorly-timed utterances. KPMG recently lost its chairman Bill Michael after he allegedly told his staff on a virtual town hall meeting to ‘stop playing the victim card’ and to ‘stop moaning’ about life during lockdown. He is also alleged to have used the ‘crap’ word when offering his view about unconscious bias in the company.
What leadership style do you admire?
There was a time when the masses took their lead from so-called pillars of society. Regardless of whether they exhibited good or poor behaviours, teachers, clergy and other public figures set the agenda. Life lessons were more often caught than taught as children would mimic their parents’ behaviour.
That extended to the workplace where autocratic bosses often ruled the roost. Some team members would admire that behaviour and form the belief that that is how you get things done in that company. And they would adopt that style and perpetuate that culture. Today while there are still bad bosses behaving in the same way, it just doesn’t cut it anymore. Employees today are more questioning.
Can you imagine the culture in organisations in our modern world that are led by bosses with this kind of attitude? Many team members will feel totally disconnected from that style. Therein lies the dilemma as discomfort, disharmony and poor morale sets in. And that all leads to low productivity, under-performance and high staff turnover.
This pandemic challenges us all to think differently. It’s at times like this however, that leadership qualities and culture are tested. We do of course need strong leaders to navigate us through these uncharted waters. But what is meant by strong? What style of leadership is appropriate?
For me the best definition of a strong leader ‘is one who through their actions and words, generates sufficient and willing followership’. In other words, leaders earn respect. They are not entitled to it just because of their position.
The Leaders’ 6-pack
As an alternative to Ratner and Michael’s style, I’d like to offer the characteristics of what I believe makes a great leader. For me, it starts with emotional intelligence rather than great strategic, functional or technical skills. It’s less about the individual leader and more about the team. This is my leaders’ 6-pack for developing great leadership strength, and consequently great followership.
1. Humility
Think of yourself less. Recognise that power comes from building trust and role-modelling, rather than talking yourself up. Find opportunities to recognise others. Be authentic, as it is so much more engaging.
2. Empathy
Role-model with empathy and passion to build rapport and earn respect. A positive culture of inclusion, supporting and challenging as appropriate – will permeate and inspire your team. Develop your team and remove obstacles that prevent them doing their job. In a word, listen.
3. Objectivity
We are all part of something bigger. From societies and economies to supply-chains and business eco-systems. Leaders research what’s going on at a macro level and keep up to date. They look for implications for their own business and influence change, shape purpose and ambition.
4. Core skills
There is a core set of management and leadership skills that are essential to analysing and making good decisions. This also includes having the critical knowledge for the industry you’re in.
5. Communications
Consider how our government heads are communicating key messages right now, such as when hospitality will reopen. From external to internal stakeholders, great leaders know when, how often, in what way and to whom they should keep in the loop. Being visible and providing clarity and certainty is essential. Be the rock of consistency.
6. Accountability
You should consult, delegate, empower, build and nurture, but you yourself must show up and take ownership. The buck stops with you as a leader.
Summary
EQ (emotional quotient) is not just a new management fad. It’s very real and while we all need some, we don’t all have it. Some people are lucky that it is their dna and others have learned it. Empathy for example, is an acquirable skill.
I was struck by a piece of research that was conducted by New York based SJR Group since the start of Covid. By scanning six million entries across several digital platforms, they identified the top leaders from the top Fortune 100 leaders. Six women were rated ahead of Warren Buffet, Tim Cook and Jeff Bezos.
