Leadership Paradoxes - Being Close and Distant!
Leadership is a fascinating subject for many reasons. It is also one of the most enigmatic themes of our times! The stream of research and publications on this subject is never-ending. Leadership thought leaders like John Maxell, Warren Bennis, John Kotter, Noel Tichy, just to mention a few, have substantially enhanced our understanding of this through their classic writings. While many have taken a viewpoint that leadership is both an art and science, I belong to the school that it is a performing art! At the end of the day, great leaders deliver results.
Three Results All Leaders Must Produce
Peter Drucker outlined the three distinct results leaders must deliver way back in 1967 when he published his book, “the effective executive.” These results include:
- Direct results which we recognize as revenues, profits and customer satisfaction, etc.
- Building values and their reaffirmation
- Developing people for tomorrow
In many firms, we notice that when leaders speak of results, they speak of just direct results; not surprisingly ignoring the two other equally and perhaps even more important results of affirming values and developing future leaders has led to the downfall of their organizations.
In order for leaders to deliver results and do so consistently, leaders also need to recognize the complex nature of leadership. The mounting literature on leadership makes a case for why a leader must possess all the positive virtues of integrity, chemistry with followers, clarity of goals, authentic relationship, courage and conviction and other endlessly growing list of virtues. One of the least emphasized aspects of leadership is what I would like to call as “managing the paradoxes of leadership.” Great leaders have not only recognized, but have enthusiastically embraced the paradoxes contained in their leadership roles and responsibilities.
The Opposable Minds that Great Leaders Possess to Characterize Leadership
I started to learn more on this when I was invited to the launch function of the best-selling book, “the Opposable Mind” by Dr Roger Martin, Dean at the Rotman School of Management, Canada. The whole theme of this book is summarized by Dr Martin as “winning through integrative thinking.” Writes Dr Martin: “leaders have the predisposition and the capacity to hold diametrically opposing ideas in their heads.” This is what he calls as “the opposable minds.” In holding such ideas in their mind, these leaders are able to produce a synthesis that is superior to either of these ideas according to Dr Martin.
Paradoxes of Leadership
My interest grew even further as I read even more of the work on leadership by other thought leaders like Linda Hill of Harvard Business School and Prof Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones, both from London Business School. The former’s book “Being the Boss – The 3 imperatives for becoming a leader” and the book jointly authored by Professors Rob and Gareth “Why should anyone be led by you?” throw light on the leadership paradoxes besides many other messages for leaders they have packed their books with.
Being Close and Distant as the Same Time
Of many paradoxes that leaders have to live with and leverage for being effective, one that fascinated me during my 30 years of leadership roles was to do with “being close and yet distant.” Leaders often wonder if they need to be close with their teams all the time as pundits and gurus have emphasized and if they do so, how can they be objective in dealing with performance and challenges that come as a package! This can be a classic dilemma for leaders in all walks of life. Understanding this as an inevitable paradox of a leader’s life and coming to terms with it has helped leaders become effective.
Parents as Leaders have done a Great Job in Handling this Paradox
The conflict seemingly contained in this paradox is nothing new for leaders. As parents, we have always had this dilemma in grooming our children into responsible adults capable of leading their lives. And we have done a great job of managing this. We are very warm all the time with our children, and we know when to take a stance and be strict with what is right and what is not. So, this paradox should neither be difficult nor frustrating for leaders in business either. Being close is crucial for leaders to provide the emotional security that our teams need all the time, to understand their abilities, aspirations and engagement levels. Yet, it is also crucial to remain distant in seeing what is not working for the team, what are some of the irrational beliefs and self-limiting assumptions that members of our teams suffer from and therefore need to be addressed for their own performance and success.
Leadership is a Performing Art!
Well, that is what I started this blog off with. And coming to terms with several such paradoxes is an inevitable part of delivering results. And this is also the defining moment for leaders’ effectiveness… to be or not to be!