5 Surprising Roles of a Great Leader
Ever feel like your team’s therapist? Or wearing hats you never expected to wear?
In my experience, the best leaders are multifaceted. They bring a rich set of capabilities and mindsets that they apply in an intuitive and organic way to building their enterprise -- excelling in five key roles:
Businessperson. Good leaders have deep industry and functional knowledge. They have the experience to recognize patterns, apply the right mix of judgement and analysis, and make good decisions. This is foundational and expected. But playing this one role is necessary but not sufficient in organizations facing major change.
Artist. Leading a complex organization requires an artist’s mind. Every organization is filled with conflicting data and narratives about what should be done, why and how. A great leader is like Michelangelo who described his sculpting process as “starting with a block of marble and chipping away everything that does not look like David!” Good leaders have the artist’s touch in absorbing a torrent of information and then pulling together the relevant data, viewpoints, and recommendations into a coherent – and compelling - whole.
Family therapist. Organizations have many similarities to large, messy families. Lots of beloved personalities with varying goals, styles, preferences, and hidden wounds. The great leader is sensitive to the “family” dynamics and knows how to assess and engage people – individually and collectively – to productively resolve conflicts, and increase alignment and commitment.
Actor. A great theatrical performance leaves the audience thinking differently, in ways big or small, about the world and their place in it. A great leader knows that they are always on stage – whether literally leading a town hall, or figuratively in every interaction from a hallway meeting to a conference room presentation. Leaders need to consciously make the most of all their interactions – signaling what is important, role modeling desired culture. Adding to the challenge, the" “time on stage” must be authentic and real, not faked.
Teacher. A leader’s success is limited by the capacity of those around them. Great leaders are natural teachers who have a passion and discipline for building the skills and capabilities of those they interact with. They do this by participating in the organization’s formal leadership development programs (where they personally lead discussions and debate ideas with participants) and through their informal day-to-day interactions (where they coach, debrief, role model and, at times, even instruct).
Leading an organization through an episode of profound change is both challenging and exhilarating. Consider and cultivate the different facets of your leadership role to increase your impact!