July 14th, 2003
Effective leaders keep it real
Just who are you anyway? Have you ever felt pressured by the world around you to become someone you never intended to be? Organizations often pressure workers into putting on a “persona” to fit the dominant culture of the organization. All of us feel the pull of conformity at one time or another. How you respond to those outside pressures will determine how influential you can be wherever you find yourself.
To better understand how influence works, think about how you respond to information. For example, imagine walking into a room of tidy, well-dressed business men in grey pinstripe suits; sheep in Brooks Brothers clothing, if you will. You can feel the dullness oozing from every starched and pressed pore of those around you. But then something catches your attention. You notice a strikingly beautiful woman in a classic red dress cutting a dashing figure against that dull grey background. Now tell me, where does your attention go? Why does it go there?
The answer is contrast. You notice, are drawn towards, are influenced by, that which is distinctively different, not what blends into the scenery.
Think about the word “influence”. If you “influence” an object in motion you change its speed or direction. If you didn’t change anything, you didn’t influence anything. And if objects in motion tend to remain in motion unless acted upon by an outside force, organizations in motion tend to remain in motion unless acted upon by an outside force that influences them to move in another direction.
Call yourself a leader? Ask yourself how “influential” you are. Leadership only exists in the presence of change. A caretaker who preserves or embalms the status quo on a cold marble shelf in a well-kempt mortuary of organizational memory does not exercise leadership any more than the curator of an art museum can claim to paint or sculpt.
If you want to lead, you must exercise influence through your realness, your distinctiveness, your authenticity. At the core of every leader worth his or her salt resides a ramrod-straight alignment of authentic self and public persona. And in this age of charismatic phonies the authentic leader lets fresh air into an organizational psyche grown dull, listless, and stale.
You see, you do not have to do anything to be authentic. By simply choosing to be yourself in public and in private you instantly and dramatically set yourself apart from the masses following one another in lock step.
But being yourself is not easy. When we expose who we really are to the scrutiny of the outside world we often face criticism, ridicule, and rejection. And it is precisely in those moments when we decide if we are a leader or not. We decide if the call to leadership outweighs our need to fit in to feel right. We decide if we derive our sense of self from our integrity, our values, our mission, and our calling, or if we will be tossed about by every rush of endorphins through our bodies.
But what, you might ask, should you do with the pain that comes with being real? That is THE question facing the leader. Often in life taking the right path, the best path, or the excellent path involves some very real pain. If you do not believe that statement, just ask anyone who has climbed a mountain, raised a child, or built a business. The things worth having in life are the things worth experiencing some pain to get. It is all a matter of your perspective.
It takes a lot of courage to choose the best course in spite of the pain involved. That one distinctive act, to be one’s self and to act with integrity regardless of the consequences, makes us leaders. We take that first courageous step and brace for the consequences, but are instead pleasantly surprised to find that being ourselves is not so bad after all. And by our courage, we encourage others to follow.
Syndicated columnist Gene C. Mage is author of the book Managing for High Performance. Send Gene your questions at www.makingitwork.com.