Photo by Aarón Blanco Tejedor on Unsplash
On values and leadership. I was asked for my thoughts on leadership based on fear and pressure vs. passion and love. And, it raised a deeper consideration.
‘Pressure leading to fear’ and ‘passion leading to love’ contrast how leaders exercise power. Leaders hold it over people or share it with people, or both.
Power is the most fundamental lever held by leaders.
Yet many fail to discuss power explicitly. It’s ironic. We talk about empowering our people without speaking about power.
Failing to be explicit leaves people scrutinising our behaviour and inferring cues on how power is exercised ‘around here’.
If leaders value what can be counted, they signal ‘top dog’ behaviour. Excellent with numbers, power becomes absolute. A former banking CEO used to say, “if your numbers are good and you’ve got a problem, no problem. If your numbers are bad and you’ve got a problem, big bloody problem.” People then hide problems.
When power is shared, there’s a different conversation that values contribution, exploring and coaching for better decisions. These leaders amplify the characteristics of Collins’ level-5 leader.
Collins though doesn’t explicitly call out power. He talks around it. And, it’s time to raise it from under the covers of good leadership to be explicit.
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