Change and the Leader-Follower

This lecture presents a personal perspective of leadership and its applicability in organizations that are concerned about how turbulent change affects people and the business environment in which they must interact. I believe the ideas put forth are even more important to new students of management who may be questioning the concepts and theories because they seldom see examples of them in effective practice. To what can they aspire? My major premise is that the roles of leader and follower are similar and interchangeable. Both are equally critical in organizations that must continuously change and learn. Their most important responsibility is to be an example of the way we must live and work. Leaders and followers must be the change they want to see.

A Leadership Crisis?

My personal perspective on leadership is rooted in its inner, human aspects. What consumes most leaders today is too often environmental and a disproportionate amount of their attention is given to the personal growth of people and the impact they have on their behavior. My measures of leadership effectiveness still include the traditional metrics of efficacy. But the measure that I value most is how leaders help others be the best human beings they can be for two reasons. Being our best ensures continuous contribution and growth. Being our best also challenges us to flow with the challenges and opportunities of change.

“The task is to lead people. And the goal is to make productive the specific strengths and knowledge of each individual” (Drucker, 1999, p.22). At a time when we need more leaders, too many of the people in those positions are preoccupied with the short-term objectives of efficiency and quick returns rather than the long-term results of building knowledge, trust, and a sense of purpose. As a result, most organizations are “overmanaged and underled” and the potential of personal development and unique contributions remains untapped (Wren, 1995).

The crisis this creates may not be so much a leadership crisis as it is a followership crisis. The lack of leader success in identifying special performers and inspiring the joy they find in their work has turned potentially great leader-followers into free agents. Living near Silicon Valley, I regularly hear my associates talk about their reasons for leaving the employee ranks and going out on their own. The common reason is similar to a quote from an article in Fast Company about the growing free agent nation. “I grew tired of working incredibly hard for companies that lacked leadership and didn’t share my values” (Pink, 1998).

Leading from Within

As a leader-follower, my personal inclinations and approach to working with others are supported in part by Daniel Goleman’s theories and studies of emotional intelligence and leadership. Goleman (1998) introduced research demonstrating that emotional intelligence, not technical skills and IQ, had the most impact on leadership performance. Emotional intelligence can be learned. The process is not easy because it takes time, commitment to personal development, and practice. But if a person enjoys observing and interacting with people (a common characteristic of good leaders), over time he or she becomes socially aware, has the corresponding social skills, and practices self-awareness and self-management – the capabilities and competencies that Goleman believes makes a difference. Relationships develop quickly and easily, and they become the key elements of any goal a leader envisions. Trust, the result of respecting what everyone has to offer and delivering on commitments, is the glue that keeps it all together. Trust is the measure of every relationship. Mutually beneficial engagement is the product. I believe these ways of being are means by which followers switch to leaders and vice versa.

But, as leader-follower, how do you coach and practice the discipline of self- and social awareness amidst constant change? Again, I believe leaders and followers must “walk the talk”. They should have strong characters described in terms such as courage, authenticity, integrity, vision, passion, conviction, and persistence. To be anything less is insufficient for achieve effective leadership and begins to exemplify a lack of trust and respect for others. But such values as these and skills like Goleman’s emotional intelligence are developed over time. Far too often we see value-based leadership, which always prevails over the long run, compromised by pressures of the short term. Therefore, the difficulty that leaders face when rapid change and uncertainty distract them from the goal is how to demonstrate the value of these values in a fraction of the time it usually takes to embrace the values themselves.

There are no definitive answers to this dilemma, but some of the ideas about self-management and self-leadership are a potential approach. O’Toole (1996) speaks of leaders such as Max De Pree, the former president and CEO of Herman Miller, that heed the inner voice to be true to oneself. De Pree coupled his authenticity with respect for people to create a culture of unity and purpose while at the same time fostering the freedom to take action and initiative. De Pree’s respect for himself and others manifested as the “spirit of self-management” observable in every employee (O’Toole, 1996).

The “inner voice” is many things, therefore one must “listen” in many ways. Most often it is a thought or an epiphany, but it can also be the synchronicity of events, the opinion of a stranger, a bad mistake, a best practice of an unrelated group, the sudden unavailability of the “right” person, or that dream last night. It can be a personal, spiritual belief that the universe provides us with what we need when we need it. We raise our awareness of those opportunities by maintaining an awareness of self and how our thoughts and actions impact everything around us. Hence, what I coach is adherence to a personal mission; listening in the broadest sense; observation and appreciation of life; gratitude for it; and the courage to be true to oneself and to exercise our freedoms. Of the latter we have so many!

Richard Leider offers more affirmation of the behaviors of the leader/follower in the midst of change. He believes that change requires self-leadership and we must continually look within to decide what we want, what we value, and what we are willing to be courageous about. A clear sense of personal purpose reduces anxiety in change. All change is self-change, which is emotional, therefore leaders must make people feel heard, making listening essential. He also points out that self-change is choice – it is the assertion of freedoms which is not always easy or tidy (Hesselbein, 1996).

When I consider what occasionally overwhelms me as a leader/follower, the circumstances usually fall into two categories, 1) making the right decision, and 2) dealing with conflicting needs and demands. But when I stop to remember that, in every situation, no matter what environment, I can exert my freedom of choice, turn to others for the lead, or make a mistake if it teaches, and then let go of the stress. The true spirit of leadership is the spirit that is not sure it is always right (O’Toole, 1996). This also reminds me to listen for those “voices” and to remember that there is no single truth, no final and right answer, and leadership is a balancing act of the demands and needs of different missions and objectives.

Conclusion

I have taken care in describing the personal utility of these ideas because I think it is important to illustrate how they apply across all boundaries of my life; that it is a global approach in more ways than one. I agree with Reider when he says that we must first make the important life decisions because they are the raw materials of career decisions. We must live with clear intention and make consistent contact with a higher power greater than ourselves (Hesselbein, 1996). This is the essence of what we do as leaders and followers.

References

Drucker, P. (1999). Management challenges for the 21^st century. New York, NY: HarperCollins.

Goleman, D. (1998). Working with emotional intelligence. New York, NY: Bantam.

Hesselbein, F., et al, eds. (1996). The leader of the future. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

O’Toole, J. (1996). Leading change: The argument for values based leadership. New York: Ballantine.

Pink, D. (1999, December-January 1998). Free agent nation. Fast Company. 12, 131-147.

Wren, J.T. (1995). The leader’s companion: Insights on leadership through the ages. New York: The Free Press.