A641.1.3.RB_BorutyAlan_What is Great Leadership

What is Great Leadership?

In his video “What is Great Leadership”, Dr. Boyatzis asks the viewers to come up with the names of two leaders from our past, the best or most effective and the worst or least effective.  Boyatzis had us put the names in separate columns and list words that describe what it was like to be around these leaders.  When Boyatzis described the words that typically are in the good column and the bad column, many of mine matched and all of them applied.  I suspect everyone who has ever completed this exercise achieved the same results as I did.  The exercise was not important.  As Boyatzis stated, no one struggles to come up with the name of someone who inspired them.  Personally, I had no problem coming up with either name.

There were a few points that Boyatzis made that caught my attention.  First he stated that, “outstanding leaders know that the music of leadership is emotions and that people who are really good at leadership are able to help inspire and help us manage our emotions in the process” (Boyatzis, n.d.).  While I understand the importance of emotional intelligence in leaders, I had never heard it put quite that way.  I suppose it makes sense as many of the issues that leaders face are emotionally charged.  This is also why he teaches us that leadership is not a person or an action, it is a relationship.  Specifically, great leaders build and nurture relationships with the people around them. 

Another point that Boyatzis made is that once you understand that leadership is a relationship, the quality of the interaction between the leader and the people he interacts with becomes the real discriminator, not the person.  Does the leader’s interactions have a similar impact on most of the people?  Do the interactions inspire, motivate, respect, value, encourage, engage, and/or empower the people?  If so, the leader is resonant or in tune/in sync with the people around him (Boyatzis, n.d.).  By similar observation, it is not difficult to determine leaders who have not built relationships with the people around them.  They often intimidate, direct, threaten, and/or demean those with whom they interact.  Common sense will tell us which leader would be most effective.

So, what is great leadership?  It is the relationship between the leader and the people with whom he interacts.  More specifically the quality of those interactions and the effect they have not only on the individuals but the entire team.  Great leadership is resonant relationships that allow the leader to be in sync and attuned to their environment.  Great leadership inspires, engages, values, respects, and motivates each person at the individual level in a way that makes the team greater than the sum of its people.

Earlier I said the exercise Boyatzis had us do was not important.  While it was not important in the sense of coming up with a right or wrong answer, it did serve a purpose.  It showed that everyone knows what great leadership looks like.  Through experience and over time we have built an internal model based on our experiences with leaders who brought out the best in us.  Those leaders that that always seemed to be on the same wavelength with us.  Those leaders who took the time to get to know us and treated us with compassion.  Those leaders who made work a place you wanted to go to and a thing you enjoyed doing.  It sounds simple enough…just don’t be mean to your people.  But it is not that simple nor is it common.  I only encountered two leaders that met this criteria throughout my career.  While I considered myself a successful leader, I cannot say that I met this criteria.

~Pete

Reference:

Boyatzis, R. (n.d.). What is great leadership (Video). Retrieved from: https://erau.instructure.com/courses/73366/assignments/1211343. Accessed: 2018 January 13.