Lead, follow, or get out of the way

by Paul Gruhn, PE, CFSE 

 Everyone has an intuitive understanding of who are good and bad leaders. Bad leaders range from despots, screamers, micro-managers, those who won’t listen, and more. The results of bad leadership range from poor morale, high turnover, and poor team performance. Unfortunately, the ‘team’ can be a 10,000 person company, so a lot of people can be affected by bad leadership. Good leaders are also easy to spot. A simple definition of leadership is the ability to influence others. In essence, are people willing to follow you — and not just because they’re paid to. Many people may think they’re good leaders. (Most people think they’re above average intelligence as well, but that’s another story.) If you think you’re a good leader, but there’s no one following you, then you’re simply taking a walk.

 Leading also means setting a course. If a ship’s captain can’t set the course, there’s little hope of the ship reaching any destination. You also won’t know how many supplies to take, how large of a crew you’ll need, or how large of a ship you’ll need. A good leader also needs to be able to convince others to come along for the ride. Think how difficult it must have been for Columbus to get everyone else to believe they weren’t about to sail off the edge of the earth. If a leader can’t get others to buy into their idea, the group will resist and they won’t be going anywhere.

 However, simply choosing the right path isn’t enough. Somebody famous (and I don’t recall who) once said, “Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just stand there.” Change is inevitable. Our ‘cheese’ keeps getting moved. (You have read “Who Moved My Cheese?”, right?) The world’s greatest plans need to be flexible enough to account for the inevitable changes that occur due to outside forces that cannot be foreseen in advance.

A lack of effective leadership means the organization will coast and potentially come to a grinding halt. It’s like being asleep at the wheel. It sometimes takes this lack of motion before some leaders even realize, “Hey, we’re not moving any more!” The problem is that once the organization’s forward movement stops (and it may take years to be noticed), it takes a lot of effort to get it moving again. It also takes time to get back up to speed. There will be plenty of lost opportunities during the interim.

Not everyone can be a leader. Every leader needs effective followers. Good followers are competent, capable and confident. They’re certainly not mindless slaves following the mandates of a dictator. They need to be fitted to the right task, given the right tools, and have obstacles removed from their path. Put good people in bad situations and bad feelings and outcomes may be the result.

Most followers are self-motivated. Different people are naturally motivated by different things, but most do want to succeed (although they may not knowhow). If management won’t set the direction, followers will either try to set their own direction, or they run the risk of getting mired down in unproductive negative thinking and may purposely not take any action at all. After all, why bother rowing when you believe the ship’s sinking? The problem with people setting their own direction is that everyone will set different directions. What happens when 20 people try and row the same boat in different directions? You get 20 tired and frustrated people, and the boat doesn’t go very far. Effective leadership needs to get everybody rowing in the same direction.

I used to think that leadership was an exclusive club for power hungry and ambitious people who were born with some special natural talent. I thought it involved sneaky “behind closed doors” meetings where secret deals and compromises were made. I’ve since learned differently. Leadership skills can be learned by anyone. Good leaders may not be interested in power at all. The leader of a group may not even be the boss. Certain activities do need to be done behind closed doors, but there’s nothing underhanded about that at all. Generating consensus among different people requires a variety of tactics.

So what’s your leadership quotient? What’s that of your superiors? Just knowing the morale of your underlings and your group should give you the answer. If it’s not as good as it could be, you can improve things — even if you’re not the boss. Get some training or at least read up on the subject.

 You’ll be pleased to know that ISA Executive, District and Department leaders will all be getting such training in late January at ISA headquarters. Division and Section leaders will be next. This is just one of many changes going on within ISA to help the society better serve our members. We think we’ve chosen the right track and we’re definitely not standing still.

 Disclaimer: The rantings expressed here do not represent the opinions of ISA, its local board, or any sane person – living or dead – that we know of.

Paul Gruhn, PE, CFSE