Three Proven Qualities of
Great Leaders: #2 Stability
Leadership isn't a mystical state or a gift that
only some people have--it's a skill. As with any skill, there are do's and
don'ts, yet it's easy to be blinded to these, particularly if you aren't
getting direct feedback from the people you are leading. The Gallup
Organization, as we discussed in the first post of this series, has done
invaluable work by gathering data on the subject of leadership. They took the pragmatic
step of asking followers, workers, and team members what they value most in a
leader. This approach clears away the distortions that ego brings to the
situation--there are many personal reasons, after all, for why bad or
ineffective leaders believe they are successes when the reality is far
otherwise.
The first
quality in a good leader was trust,which we covered in the first post. The
second is stability. Immediately this term brings job stability to mind, and
that's been a major issue since the economic downturn of 2007. Everyone has
needs. The most basic need, the one upon which everything else is built, is
safety. Feeling safe and secure isn't guaranteed just because you have a job,
but the opposite--feeling threatened in your survival--strikes countless people
when they lose their jobs.
A leader who does all he can to keep his followers
feeling safe will go a long way in their eyes. Such leaders buck the trend of
history, because in the corporate setting, management has often been divided
from labor, and the very idea that a manager should look out for the welfare of
workers has been foreign. In other countries (e.g., Japan and Germany), this
divide is replaced by a culture of cooperation, where management and workers
accept joint responsibility for the success of the company.
You and I can't change America's corporate climate,
but as a leader, you can foster cooperation by adopting the belief that you are
the key to preserving stability. This quality extends beyond basic job
stability, which is basically controlled from the highest echelons. What you
can influence enormously is psychological stability. Here are typical behaviors
of a leader who fosters psychological stability.
-- They are predictable on a day-to-day basis.
-- They keep those around them informed.
-- They are inclusive about decision-making.
-- They don't freeze people out, giving no
explanation why.
-- They allow freedom of choice as much as
possible.
-- Their behavior isn't tyrannical.
-- They are open to reason.
-- They apply processes and procedures
consistently.
If you follow these behaviors, you will make the
situation around you more stable. The opposite behaviors, which increase
instability, are often nothing less than childish. Young children act on
impulse, go up and down according to their moods, and are untrained in process
and procedure--they want what they want, without understanding what it might
take to get there. Most adults are reluctant to admit when they are being
childish, and this self-blindness makes them the kind of leader who is
capricious, demanding, and a law unto himself. The people around them suffer
the ill effects of psychological instability--fear, resentment, suppressed
hostility, insecurity--that no one should have to put up with.
If you sit back and take a hard look at your
management style, let's hope you don't see a full-blown tyrant in your
behavior. What's more common, and sometimes harder to see, are the following
behaviors that create instability.
-- You hint at dissatisfaction without offering
reasons why.
-- You criticize others in public.
-- You complain about problems without linking them
to solutions.
-- You trust only a small circle of people.
-- You enforce rules inflexibly.
-- You arbitrarily move people in and out of
positions of responsibility.
-- Your system of reward and punishment is
unpredictable and inconsistent.
-- You dictate according to your mood.
-- You openly approve and disapprove of others; you
show favoritism.
Only when taken to an extreme do these behaviors
cost others their jobs, yet on a daily basis they can erode the atmosphere in
the workplace quite severely. All the qualities of a great leader consist of
thinking beyond your own narrow self-interest. It takes a secure person to help
others with their potential insecurity, but that's exactly what a good leader
does, and if you can reach even further, influencing the wellbeing of many
others, you are potentially a great leader.
