Leadership Magic
An encouraging lesson from this week's combined set of readings was discovering how objective the issue of leading effective teams truly is. Daniel Goleman's "What Makes a Leader" smartly pointed out the realities of how frequently average people and reputable businesses alike attribute true leadership talent to fixed personalities or vague charisma. It is encouraging to find that while this notion is popular, it is altogether mistaken about what leadership truly is and does.
Leadership traits are qualities we can all identify and increase in ourselves in our professional efforts. According to Goleman, the key skill to work on for anyone to become more like a true leader is to become more emotionally intelligent. This means working on becoming more self-aware, disciplined, driven, empathetic, and social. To be sure, these are all traits that people have varying levels of skill in, Even so, these practices can all certainly be taught, learned, and strengthen in all of us.
Furthermore, the duties of a good leader are just as objective as the qualifications being one. It is by no means a mystical occupation. Leaders are responsible for determining the direction a company goes in and delegating the practical, time-bound plans that must be made in support of that direction.
If this sounds arbitrary, it is important to note that this work is not something the leader contrives in their own mind, isolated and unquestionable. As John Potter points out, the leader's set of responsibilities is more than merely having the vision and selling everyone on it. They champion the voice of every individual in the company and provide a united path forward for all to build toward. They assess the environmental changes threatening their business and give everyone a challenge to accept and own the strategies within their respective departments. The case of the Norwegian Company, KPMG, showed that this egalitarian effort does not come without adversity and conflict, but it is the healthiest way to push beyond and profit as a company, especially in uncertain times.
…champion the voice of every individual in the company and provide a united path forward for all to build toward.
At this point, it likely goes without saying that leadership roles are highly collaborative and people-based in nature, and rarely specialized or technical. This is true even in UX and in the Tech industry as a whole. Brandon Gregory in his article "The Foundation of Technical Leadership," reflects on his past experiences as a front-end architect and shares that it is quite possible for you to be a leading technician but not be a technical leader. The shift happens once your investments become more about the people rather than the product or your personal pressures. Lawrence Suda's research demonstrably shows that leaders need their followers just as much as followers need their leaders. Therefore, it is important that this synergistic relationship be upheld in order for leaders to thrive amongst their peers.
Bad things are sure to happen to the best of us, as the well-known story of Sully and his aviator crew has shown. That as it may be, in order to minimize the damage and repeat mistakes, it is important to understand that not even the greatest and most skilled of leaders can face the biggest business challenges alone. Leaders and followers must work together to attain the competencies needed to overcome that which an individual could never do on their own. Leaders are more than problem-solvers, they are course correctors, and they work to raise up an army to achieve more than any man ever could alone. It may sound full of grandeur, but it is by no means a mystical, unknowable task to be a good leader. And the best part is, any one of us could become a truly good one.
