How do leaders behave?
Hi Leaders
One person suggested that you needed to be politically wise to truly manoeuvre your way through a newsroom (gossip parties); that if you weren't, you would essentially be eaten alive.
I understand the politics of a office chit chat all too well. But I also know that, as a leader, you can discourage it or encourage it. You can operate with what has become known as creative tension or you can let it be known that playing politics will get you absolutely nowhere. I did my best to practice the latter, and those working with me know I have no tolerance for politics and the gossip that accompanies it.
Another point of contention came when a mid-level manager questioned whether you had to work longer and harder than everyone else to get ahead. And, he added, do people who work for you feel they have to work as long and hard as you do to keep from falling out of favour?
He works long hours and many of the people around him stay because he does.
So, I told him, I may be the wrong person to talk about this dilemma. As I have confessed I failed the course on work/life balance, putting in too many hours at the office. And I know that put pressure on those who reported to me to do the same.
After all these years, I do know that in the daily business there always will be more tasks, always a chance to do it better the next day, always an opportunity to correct mistakes.But there isn't always the chance for a do-over for those precious moments of family life.
You have to decide what mix of work and play is best for you. But as a leader you should judge the results of what people do and not how many hours they stay at the office.
So that's one list of leadership behaviour patterns. You can add and subtract, but if you are a leader, or aspire to be one, you should make your own list...And do your best to follow it and be faithful to it.
There’s usually a pecking order in the animal kingdom. There are queen bees, alpha gorillas, and male-female wolf pairs that dominate the pack. Humans are no different.
This may come as a shock, but organisational constructs like tribes, societies, and companies are not the result of high-level intelligence but of primitive survival impulses reinforced by neurotransmitters in the brain’s ancient limbic system.
To say that leadership and organisational behaviour has been successful in the animal kingdom is a gross understatement. The planet is fully populated by millions of animal species that all exhibit the same sort of behaviour.
The point is, leadership is not so much a thought process as it is instinctive behaviour. It’s evolutionary. It’s to a great extent responsible for our survival on earth. And that’s why we do it. As survival imperatives go, it’s right up there with eating and breeding. Seriously.
So when you hear, “Leaders lead. Followers follow. You can’t do both,” it is not just a catchy rhyme. It’s biology. Granted, you can behave any way you like by overriding your survival instincts, but neither you nor I get to change how the species behaves. Evolution’s got that covered.
It’s important to understand that leadership is not really about traits or habits. It’s primarily a behavioural phenomenon.
Defining the behaviours of a leader will greatly be influenced by what kind of leader you want to be and your people want to follow. In the next post I will discuss the sort of behaviour we consistently value in our most cherished leaders.
"Let me ask you a question: If you were crafting a list of behaviour patterns that you think good leaders need to be successful, what would
be included?"
One person suggested that you needed to be politically wise to truly manoeuvre your way through a newsroom (gossip parties); that if you weren't, you would essentially be eaten alive.
I understand the politics of a office chit chat all too well. But I also know that, as a leader, you can discourage it or encourage it. You can operate with what has become known as creative tension or you can let it be known that playing politics will get you absolutely nowhere. I did my best to practice the latter, and those working with me know I have no tolerance for politics and the gossip that accompanies it.
Another point of contention came when a mid-level manager questioned whether you had to work longer and harder than everyone else to get ahead. And, he added, do people who work for you feel they have to work as long and hard as you do to keep from falling out of favour?
He works long hours and many of the people around him stay because he does.
So, I told him, I may be the wrong person to talk about this dilemma. As I have confessed I failed the course on work/life balance, putting in too many hours at the office. And I know that put pressure on those who reported to me to do the same.
After all these years, I do know that in the daily business there always will be more tasks, always a chance to do it better the next day, always an opportunity to correct mistakes.But there isn't always the chance for a do-over for those precious moments of family life.
You have to decide what mix of work and play is best for you. But as a leader you should judge the results of what people do and not how many hours they stay at the office.
So that's one list of leadership behaviour patterns. You can add and subtract, but if you are a leader, or aspire to be one, you should make your own list...And do your best to follow it and be faithful to it.
There’s usually a pecking order in the animal kingdom. There are queen bees, alpha gorillas, and male-female wolf pairs that dominate the pack. Humans are no different.
This may come as a shock, but organisational constructs like tribes, societies, and companies are not the result of high-level intelligence but of primitive survival impulses reinforced by neurotransmitters in the brain’s ancient limbic system.
To say that leadership and organisational behaviour has been successful in the animal kingdom is a gross understatement. The planet is fully populated by millions of animal species that all exhibit the same sort of behaviour.
The point is, leadership is not so much a thought process as it is instinctive behaviour. It’s evolutionary. It’s to a great extent responsible for our survival on earth. And that’s why we do it. As survival imperatives go, it’s right up there with eating and breeding. Seriously.
So when you hear, “Leaders lead. Followers follow. You can’t do both,” it is not just a catchy rhyme. It’s biology. Granted, you can behave any way you like by overriding your survival instincts, but neither you nor I get to change how the species behaves. Evolution’s got that covered.
It’s important to understand that leadership is not really about traits or habits. It’s primarily a behavioural phenomenon.
Defining the behaviours of a leader will greatly be influenced by what kind of leader you want to be and your people want to follow. In the next post I will discuss the sort of behaviour we consistently value in our most cherished leaders.
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