Four Leadership Qualities Few Leaders Possess
/Tony Schwartz has an interesting post over at Harvard Business Review titled The Four Capacities Every Great Leader Needs (And Very Few Have).Here's a summary of the four points:
- Great leaders recognize strengths in us that we don't always yet fully see in ourselves.
- Rather than simply trying to get more out of us, great leaders seek to understand and meet our needs, above all a compelling mission beyond our immediate self-interest, or theirs.
- Great leaders take the time to clearly define what success looks like, and then empower and trust us to figure out the best way to achieve it.
- The best of all leaders — a tiny fraction — have the capacity to embrace their own opposites, most notably vulnerability alongside strength, and confidence balanced by humility.
If you're a leader in your Finance organization, how do you score on these four points? In my experience, most leaders are weakest on point 4. For all the talk of diversity, I've met relatively few leaders that really seek out alternate opinions and encourge debate. Far more likely is the leader who surrounds himself or herself with people who create an echo chamber, simply agreeing with the boss. Of course, many people do this because it's the sane thing to do. They live in a culture where debate isn't encouraged and could even be punished.
So, as a leader in your organization, what are you doing to encourage debate? How do you let people know that it's safe to discuss ideas? And how do you nurture and cultivate ideas that are generated through this process?
