October 2nd, 2009
Mary Schaefer and I have been tossing some questions back and forth, and this is a question we both decided to take a shot at:
We both focus largely on the intangible assets in an organization or community…the things that cannot be easily counted or weighed…things like difference, trust, relationships, culture, etc. What can we do so that more business leaders come to value these incredibly powerful (but often overlooked) assets as highly as they value the tangible kind?
Mary got us started and you can read her wonderful answer here. She has set the bar pretty high, but I am going to try and add my perspective here…
Joe: I think that we have the wrong heroes Mary.
Heroes might be the wrong word, but I think that part of what is at the root of this disconnect is that we have an understanding of leadership that is not relevant for todays world. The way that we define leadership, understand leadership, develop leadership, reward leadership and our expectations of leadership are all wrong for our time.
I think that the need for leadership as we currently understand it is dead. But nobody has told our leaders this.
Part of what opened this line of thinking for me was what you said in your comments on this question:
I used to think it was as simple as speaking to the toughest customers in their own language, i.e. if they just saw the evidence, that would be enough. But it doesn’t happen that way. For the biggest critics, there will never be enough evidence.
For many the evidence, no matter how recent, no matter how scientific, now matter how strong, will never be enough. Part of what makes it easy for our leaders to overlook evidence of how valuable diversity, engagement, trust, empathy and other intangibles are is their ideology of leadership. This is what needs to change.
I really like what you said about understanding and dealing with resistance appropriately, and I think that is the kind of thing we need to be focusing on in our day to day work. I think it is also important for us to be looking further down the road and considering how we must change leadership to meet the reality of today.
Our organizations are changing. Our workforce is changing. The business terrain is changing. How we create value and organize work is changing. Leadership must also change.
I think we must come to see leadership in a different light:
- Leadership must be a shared behavior and not an individual title. We all must take greater responsibility for the culture of our organizations and communities.
- Leadership must be about stewardship of that which really matters, that which is timeless. Undue focus on short-term financial goals is fundamentally flawed and dysfunctional. Leaders must take care of the real source of value…people and culture.
- Leadership must be fueled by shared inquiry rather than individual advocacy. In today’s world curiosity eats certainty for breakfast, wondering beats knowing, and stories beat analysis.
- Leadership must be informed by love. You cannot do the stuff I listed above (the stuff we really need now) if you do not have love for yourself, love for your craft and love for the people you practice your craft with.
Just a few thoughts on what I think Leadership 2.0 needs to be about. The way we do leadership today is painfully irrelevant and is quickly becoming the defining problem of our time.
Be good to each other.