Great Leadership: Getting Out of Our Own Way

When you consider the obstacles and challenges that stand in the way of you moving from being a good leader to being a great leader, you may be surprised at just how simple, and obvious, the answer is. It is common to assume that those great leaders whom we admire have risen to their lofty heights through superior intelligence, exquisite interpersonal skills, effective networking, benefit of cronyism, being subject matter experts, tenure in the company, and even luck. It is true that these assets play a role in creating great leaders; however, none of these is the root characteristic of great leaders. You may be surprised to learn that individuals who ascend to leadership positions in organizations have one thing in common—they have overcome their own inertia! With the wealth of available advice about leadership, it can be confusing to know what is really helpful. However, learning to overcome your own inertia is foundational to becoming more than just a good leader. In other words, the path to great leadership requires overcoming internal, not external, obstacles and challenges.

It is not enough simply to do the things that we know are necessary for good leadership. Even a delay in doing what we know is necessary can contribute significantly to leadership stagnation. This means that great leaders must exercise a level of discipline that goes beyond doing “more of the same.” Making that uncomfortable call, taking an opposing position, having that difficult conversation, or meeting with that tough client are all very important. The list is endless. For leaders, time is always the most important variable. Once we lose it, it cannot be recovered. How we use time impacts exponentially the options available to us in the future. Becoming intentional about taking action puts you in control of the direction of your leadership. We have amazing powers of rationalization when we are faced with tasks that we do not want to do but we know in our hearts we need to do. This procrastination ties up energy and brain space. So, why do we procrastinate and what can we do to overcome it?

Lacking the confidence and discipline to confront difficult decisions is, by far, the strongest underlying reason for not taking action. This lack of confidence can take several forms, including:

• Lacking Courage: When we are fearful because we are faced with strong opposition, we can allow those internal voices of “not being good enough” to overwhelm the facts of our competence. For most of us, the personal apprehensions we feel about ourselves early in life have not caught up to the real capabilities we have developed. In times of stress, those inner voices can drown out our genuine competencies and capabilities. We allow our unreasonable fear of failure to control and dictate our behavior. Furthermore, any negative consequences of our actions would rarely be as dire or calamitous as our inner fears would lead us to believe. In contrast, the results of our being decisive and taking action typically bring a sense of inner satisfaction and usually “move the ball down the field” for our organization. As Winston Churchill once said, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts.”

• Wanting to Be Liked: The Achilles heal in leadership is the irrational belief that being liked trumps getting results. Unfortunately, many of us wrongly put a premium on being liked and getting along, rather than keeping our focus on getting results. Taking difficult positions, having hard conversations and tough negotiating do not negate being kind and respectful. However, yielding when your position is substantiated by data in order to preserve being liked, risks not getting results and not being respected. We are trained to be competitive, to win and get ahead, but not at the expense of exploiting others. When we frame our ambitions so dichotomously, we put ourselves in no-win situations. Either we win at the expense of others or we lose but everyone likes us. In reality, trying to please everyone runs the risk of pleasing no one. It is important to take your leadership behavior out of this frame of thinking and focus your attention on accomplishing your goals. Disagreements, hurt feelings, and difficult conversations do not necessarily mean broken relationships. In fact, great leaders are able to establish a loyal following, while also being able to hold others accountable. It is not a mutually exclusive choice. As management-guru Peter Drucker said, “Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked, leadership is defined by results, not attributes.”

• Perfectionism: Believing that a solution can be perfect will not only delay decision-making but is misguided thinking. The search for the perfect answer is almost always a fruitless exercise. Perfectionism is rooted in low self-esteem, in which people believe that they will be perceived as incompetent unless they present flawless work. Perfectionists usually spend excessive time in gathering data, reviewing their work, double-checking for errors, working extra hours and doing the work themselves, rather than delegating. Some studies suggest that even successful general managers are correct only about 65% of the time. In his work with his patients, psychologist David Burns (author of Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy) has determined that perfectionism undermines both productivity and happiness. As a result, perfectionists end up watching the world pass them by as they pursue their perfect answers when excellent answers will do just fine. Very rarely are problems as complex as brain surgery or rocket science. Most decisions are routine. Even if solutions to problems can be transformational, the ability to identify themes from a subset of data is almost always sufficient. As Voltaire is quoted as saying, “The perfect is the enemy of the good.”

In summary, the first and most elemental principle of becoming a great leader is meeting head on the issues, problems, and people that present the greatest challenge to you. By committing to dealing with the least desirable issues you face first, you are able to get them out of the way and free up time and energy to focus on other important issues. Once you muster the courage to conquer your inertia, stop worrying about what other people think, and calibrate your efforts to be commensurate with your tasks, you will be well on your way to becoming a great leader. Getting out of your own way is remarkably effective!