Two Kinds of Leaders

So if you have been reading my blogs – firstly I thank you, and secondly you will know that I come from the platform that there are two kinds of leaders – those who lead with ego and those who lead with spirit.   I consider ego driven leaders to be a serious business liability and spirited leaders to be a huge asset.  My concept of Spirited Economics™  measures leadership and employee spirit as a quantifiable financial asset and competitive edge.

Here is just one of many reasons why ego-driven leaders are a business liability.  They are incapable of delivering Spirited Economics™ because they do not demonstrate leadership character.    

It works like this. Character is not a fancy coat we put on for show; it’s who we really are.   The ego self is not who we really are.  The Spirited self is.   The spirited self represents all that we truly are and all that we stand for – our dreams, our values, our ethics and our self-esteem.   And when we respond to the world from the spirited self it is always with great character. 

So look at it this way.  When our egos are ‘in the driver’s seat’, we are out of character; we are not in harmony with who we really are.   This is why leaders who lead with ego create all kinds of strategic, operational and interpersonal chaos for the organization.  And they have a tendency to succumb to temptation and pressure and bend their ethics.  They believe that, “It’s hard enough getting the job done and making the numbers, now they also want us to be ethically minded”.  What those with ego don’t understand is that it doesn’t take longer to do the right thing.  It takes courage. It takes courage to show character.  The ego does not have courage.   It is a coward.

Because they lack the courage to be who they are, ego-driven leaders use defense mechanisms such as rationalization,  denial and self-delusion as a way of avoiding uncomfortable realities.  The Wall Street's bankers and financiers are a perfect example.  They rationalized to themselves that because housing prices had not fallen nationwide since the Great Depression, nobody could have anticipated the current meltdown in the housing and mortgage markets. They conveniently did not address the all the discussions back in 2005 about whether there was a housing bubble.   They were in denial about the implications of the fact that something unusual might be in the works when housing prices nationally were rising two and three times the rate of inflation, year after year, which was also without recent precedent?

At the congressional hearings on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, we heard that everyone understood that housing prices and mortgage lending were out of control.  But because they were lacking in leadership character they were caught in a double bind.  If they had the courage to pull back on lending and sell of mortgage-backed securities they would have most probably lost market share and profitability and have fallen behind the competition. Analysts and investors would probably call for a management shake-up.  So they took the line of least discomfort and convinced themselves that they should keep doing what they were doing. Where was their leadership character?  Leaders with character do what is right they do not succumb to pressure or temptation.

Leaders with character do not take ethical short cuts.  Their connection with their spirited self would not let them feel good about doing this because they are in harmony with their own core values.

Leaders with character do not make self-serving, short-sighted, greedy decisions.  They make decisions that serve the organization, the employees, the larger community, the economy, the nation and the world.  They come from a stance that is not about me -it is about the company and its long-term interests, of which I am just a part. And they will often sacrifice their own gain for the gain of the company.

Leaders with character operate from the principal that, “If you can’t look yourself in the mirror for something you’re about to do, don’t do it.”  (using the words of Peter Drucker)

So if you want to build leadership character in your organization what do you do?

It’s easy really because you see we are all born with character.  So we all have it in us.  We simply need the right environment to liberate this natural character inside of us.

I recommend that you:

1.     Recruit and promote only people whose behaviors scream ‘character.’ 

2.     Find out how they have displayed character in their past. 

3.     Create a corporate culture that supports leadership courage and character;  a culture of open, authentic and honest dialogue and debate. 

When the leaders shows unyielding character, the rest of the organization will do the same.

It is leadership character that will get us out of this recession.

For more information please contact me.