Making Leadership Choices

Written by: Ralph Twombly

Published: May 2013

"What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing. It also depends on what sort of person you are."
-C.S. Lewis The Magician's Nephew

Many of you know by now that I particularly like to write about things that occur in my daily interaction with clients. We learn much more from our clients than they do from us... oops many of you are clients, so there you have it. Because of the "new economy" we are seeing people who have felt underutilized, underappreciated, underpaid and undervalued leave for new jobs. While most people could see this coming a while ago and we started to see life in the economy, I couldn't have predicted how quickly so many people would flee their current jobs for something much better (even if the pay is less).

Why? Because we think people are attracted to their value sets when working in an organization and most are repelled working in organizations that are miles apart from their own value sets. It only stands to reason that some organizations lose their best and brightest because their only interest may be different than what their leaders want.

Lessons We Learn - Some leaders are bold risk takers and some take a more conservative approach to their business. Some clients are big and some are small but all have one common denominator; their unique need for certain types of leadership. Some great lessons are learned from those troubled leaders who metaphorically fall on their hands and knees through their own doing and there are even lessons we learn from young brash leaders who think, and sometimes are, way ahead of their time. But we also learn from the old dogs that have been watching the gate for many years and have seen so much happen in such a short period of time, we forget just how fast everything has evolved. Lately, it is apparent to me, and maybe to all of you, that it is our time to lead. 

Leaderships Role - Every generation is defined by its value-based leaders. We read in history about the founding fathers and their unique fingerprint on what we all call "Our America." Who hasn't heard of J.P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, J.D. Rockefeller and that group of wealthy barons of business? Shining examples of good leadership or not, they are remembered for their impact on all of us. We live each day with the life's work of Susan B. Anthony, Abraham Lincoln and today we have Bill and Melinda Gates, who have dedicated the rest of their lives and fortune to eradicate disease from the planet.

So what has this got to do with lessons learned? Each one of these people lived and led by their values. While all were effective leaders, from what you have heard, who would you want to work for?

More and more in the new and growing economy we hear stories of people leaving one organization and moving to another (again, sometimes for less money) because of the impact of their leadership. When leaders adopt a strategy of fear and, people don"t have to stay, they will leave. Leaders who don"t know how to empower their people will get inferior work and quality from them. We see people leave organizations because they are too family/people oriented and their discomfort enables them to seek environments less warm. Leaders who think that they are only dedicated to the bottom line attract people who think like they do. While all of the people who share the bottom line value will work well together, and don"t expect a warm massage at lunchtime.

Making Choices - I have a good friend, who roughly quotes C.S Lewis, tell me all the time, "What you see depends on where you stand" and he is exactly right. Here is what we know. Leaders of influence make value choices. And whether or not they know it, they executed their values through their leadership style. For instance, if you are a hedge fund manager and "from where you stand you see" that the people element in your business is most important to you, it may be more difficult to fit into your chosen profession. If you are a doctor and "from where you stand you see" making money as all important, patient care may not be what you reflect to your people.

From the personal perspective of someone who works for a leader that doesn't reflect the values they think are important, it can and usually does, get pretty awkward. The bad news is that our bosses change and we have to adapt (or not) to a new set of values almost every time. In my mind this explains why it is so common to see a person so critically important and successful in one place who dismally fail in another.

Ideas...I think you know that you will not get away without something to think about.

For Leaders - Make choices. Explore, define and share what you value as a way to lead. Then live to those values every single day of your leadership life. If those values don't match what your leader wants or needs, find a new place to be and lead. Why? Because these values will always be your bedrocks of leadership and, while you can adapt somewhat, you will find that if you get too far away from what you believe, you will start to get uncomfortable. Over time this uncomfortable feeling will make you less effective and that ineffectiveness will lead to mediocre performance. Leave before they come and get you with security. What is it that is at the heart of your values?

• Advancement
• Changing things
• Customer satisfaction
• Enhancing people
• External relationships
• Fixing broken things
• Intrinsic gain
• Making bigger profit
• More rewards
• Quality
• Reputation
• Social contribution

You don't have to choose one, but you will find that you will have one that is highest on your list and, no matter how hard you try, you won't be able to change.  It is who you are.

For Employees - Make choices. Know what your values are (see the list above) and what they will do to you if you don't have at least some of those values as part of your work life. You have seen the effect of people who don't fit get complacent and become disengaged...it isn't pretty. It is no mystery that people leave one place to go to another if the new manager you will be working for is a match for your values and, if possible, you will follow that manager almost anywhere.

Seems a little abstract this month? More of an epiphany. While it seems that I have been pretty aware of this for a long time, all of the things I have seen in the last couple of months have cemented in my mind the fact that the best leaders have very strong values, and discuss and live those values all the time.

Come on back next month and please let me know what you think. Have a great spring.

Warmest regards,

Ralph Twombly

In the 20 years since starting Priority Learning, Ralph has facilitated countless learning experiences and has conducted training for thousands of managers and leaders. With over 30 years of leadership development and organizational development background and work, Ralph continues to build relationships with client companies all over the U.S.