The Three Horsemen of the Leadership Apocalypse

 

I have a theory about the three indispensable attributes of successful managerial leadership; but, because they tend to be somewhat subjective, the only way I can reasonably establish their relative value is to evaluate what happens when any of the three are absent in a so-called leader who has gained the position through means other than verifiable merit. What happens? Usually, disaster.

The first of these indispensable attributes is technical competency, if not out-and-out excellence. If a leader in a management position does not know the most effective, economical way of pursuing the organization’s goals and objectives, the project team will quickly come to realize it, and lose all enthusiasm for participating in attaining said scope. It’s been said that Ulysses S. Grant – a natural leader if ever there was one – was reluctant to step up to lead the Union forces during the American Civil War until he perceived how badly McClellan was flailing about. Then and only then did Grant more aggressively pursue both his battlefield objectives and his personal ambitions, with the results known to history. Few things are more frustrating for the members of a project team than to come to know that the technical agenda they are expected to execute is the wrong one, and that all their efforts will most likely fail to ever come to fruition, and frustrated project teams equal failure.

The next key attribute has to do with the managerial leaders’ relationship with the project team. While it’s natural for managers to hope for, expect, or even demand performance from their teams, the teams must never be led to the conclusion that their manager/leader does not care for them personally. I’m not implying that managers have to get involved in their employees’ dating lives or children’s scholastic challenges. What I am saying is that each team member has to have at least an inkling that their leader has what’s best for them at heart, even if it’s only to evaluate which members of the organization are the best candidates for promotion. When managerial leaders do not care for their charges, the members of the team come to know it, and fast. Should the team learn that their leader doesn’t care for them personally, you know what happens? They tend to not care for the leader nor the agenda, and this lack of caring quickly manifests in the project team’s cost and schedule performance.

This is something that really can’t be faked. The leader either (a) cares for his people and successfully conveys it, (b) cares for the team but has a tough time communicating it, or (c) does not care about the team. The first scenario is no problem, and the second can be addressed. The third can not, to the point that persons appointed to leadership positions who cannot bring themselves to care about their people should resign, and resist ever again being placed in a leadership position.

The third crucial aspect of the managerial leader is a single-minded intent to attain the project team’s goals, even under those circumstances where the rest of the team is tempted to give up. This high-energy commitment to the technical agenda conveys both a willingness to commit herself to attaining those goals, but also a confidence that the technical approach selected is the right one. The example I like to use for this aspect is that of another General, George S. Patton. Based on the things he said and did upon being assigned to the European Theater during World War II, I have no doubt that Patton would have single-mindedly attacked the Nazis, even had he been deprived of the U.S. Third Army and needed to parachute into occupied France solo in order to do so. His men knew it, too, and largely shared in his personality-consuming drive to overcome the enemies of the United States. Of course, few of us have projects whose execution has such world-changing consequences, or requires such an overwhelming commitment. But you see my point – the project team recognizes and appreciates true passion, and is keenly aware leadership that is bereft of it.

So, there you have it, the Three Ps of managerial leadership: Proficiency, People, and Passion.  Without them, you get the Three Horsemen of the Leadership Apocalypse, Ineptitude, Independence, and Indifference (coincidentally all beginning with “I”).  Once Human Resource departments can successfully test for these attributes, we’ll all be free from lame managerial leaders forever, right?

Right?