Module 1 What is Great Leadership?

View "What is Great Leadership?" by Dr. Richard Boyatzis. Dr. Boyatzis explains the impact most effective leaders can have on you. Stop the video when he asks you to complete his exercise. Complete the exercise, and then watch the rest of the video. Finally, write up your exercise results as a reflection blog.

What is Great Leadership?


Exercise:
1) Think of a leader for whom or with whom you worked - one that brought out the best in you, one that you would gladly work with or for again

2) Think of a leader for whom or with you worked - one that you try to avoid, left you wishing for more, would help your organization more by working for a competitor

*When You were Around Them, What Did they Say or Do? How Did They Make You and Others Feel?

    For this exercise, I can specifically think of two people - one who I'd go to war in the trenches with, and another who I'd be reluctant to follow. What I find most interesting about this exercise is that when determining who these individuals were, I didn't necessarily consider how intelligent they were, how successful their careers were, or anything very objective at all. 

    While there are some objective factors that matter, I leaned toward how I remembered how they made me feel. When I think about it now, it seemed like I actually had a better and deeper relationship with the better leader compared to a more distant one with the worse leader.

The Good

    The great leader (I'll keep names out of the post) is one who always checked in on me and was consistently positive. This person was just a light to a be around and not overly critical of mistakes. They accepted that sometimes failure is a part of life and never let mishaps consume them or those around them. They let stuff roll of their back, even if they got chewed out from people up the chain of command. But they always served as a shield for those of us working for them - always taking the blame during negative situations and giving us the credit for successes. 

    This person also let us shine in front of top leadership, often giving up their 'facetime' with senior leaders so we could get a shot to impress them...or at least get some reps for us to get better at professional skills. They also made all of us on the team feel valued, even quieter ones like myself. 

    Every day I was actually excited to go to work and go the extra mile for this person because I knew they would do the same for me. This leader took the time to get to know everyone on a personal basis - who our families were, our hobbies/interests, and our opinions. Moreover, they actually encouraged that we put ourselves out there and take risks, because innovation is often born out of initiative. 

    This particular leader also had a great handle on their own life in terms of work-life balance. They were a role model while at the same time being a teambuilder. They did not lead from the top like a boss, but with us. 

    Overall, they were just a joy to be around - and although they were tough and challenging, they were fair and were that way so that the members of the team would be pushed to develop. Boyatzis et al. (2005) write that mindfulness, hope, and compassion are three essential elements for resonant leadership, and I feel this leader had all of those on display.

The Bad

    The not-so-great leader was one who really could not care for anyone. They had an old-school boss mentality where the office was his domain, and he rarely ventured out of it. This person took no real concerted effort to get to know people in the workplace beyond what they do for the organization - they did not care to get to know who the people were in the positions. 

    This leader was easily frustrated and bitter (although very proficient at their job and thoroughly experienced). When times got tough, this person blamed everyone but themselves. Any successes, however, this person took all the credit. Moreover, this person gave people little freedom to operate and micromanaged every little thing. We had to ability to take risk or become better professionals, but instead were glorified task monkeys. 

    I started to dislike getting to work every day. I would often drive and park early, but just sit in my car because it took some time to muster up the emotional strength to get through the day. I felt used by this self-centered leader. We were definitely operating on different wavelengths because there was no resonance happening. 

What is Great Leadership?

    So, what is great leadership anyway? Well, I think that is a pretty loaded question, but from this exercise I can certainly see that leadership is more than giving direction to others. I've always heard that people often don't remember what specific projects and tasks they worked over the years (unless of great significance), but they WILL remember how people made them feel whether they were a leader or not. I look back at former jobs I've held and I can attest to this sentiment. 

    I believe good leadership requires looking at the role as a servant one because, leaders can't be leaders without followers. Developing relationships with other human beings is essential to being a leader which requires resonance. In the video, Boyatzis et al. (2005) state that the military does not lead with "command and control" in a traditional sense, but actually with an "ask and inspire" sense because that is what works.

    It is also important to understand that leadership is a skill, and that an "individual's experience is not linearly correlated to the quality of their leadership...instead, adaptability and the ability to learn is more valuable than a vast amount of experience" (Hennessy, 2022). This rings true for this exercise because the bad leader was one with an immense amount of professional experience, while the other leader openly admitted that he did not know everything and emphasized the importance of the team aspect with regard to this. 

    Ultimately, leaders should be positive, selfless to a degree, open, excited, hopeful, compassionate, invested, encouraging, protect others, challenge others, embrace failure, and, more than anything, inspire. "Resonant leaders inspire others by displaying consistent, positive emotions and relationships" (Faeq, 2022). Leaders should strive to be sparks in organizations who ignite others through strong relationships, model behavior, and a can-do attitude.

-Chad R.

References:

Boyatzis, R. & Mckee, A. (2005). Resonant Leadership. Harvard Business School Press.

Faeq, D. K. (2022). Impact of resonant leadership in reducing workplace bullying: a case from Sulaymaniyah chamber of commerce & industry. International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science, 11(6), 264–276. https://doi.org/10.20525/ijrbs.v11i6.1943

Hennessy, H. (2022). Great Leadership is Timeless. The Journal of Intelligence, Conflict, and Warfare, 4(3). https://doi.org/10.21810/jicw.v4i3.4163

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