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We are talking about leadership at gantthead this month, and our treatment would not be complete unless we cover an alternate line of thinking. Jeffrey Pfeffer started studying leadership 30 years ago and concluded then that the importance of leadership was vastly overstated. What does he think today? The same!
Pfeffer believes that human leaders are expected to act out a role. Great leaders are those who excel at acting out that role. Witness today’s presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, who rose to national fame on images associated with his response to the 9/11 terrorist attack.
Former Intel CEO Andy Grove once said about leadership: “Well, part of it is self-discipline and part is deception – deception in the sense that you pump yourself up and put a better face on things than you start off feeling. But after a while, if you act confident, you become more confident. So the deception becomes less of a deception.”
I don’t think leadership is as low a priority as Pfeffer, but there is something to learn from him. My bottom line for you is to avoid underestimating the power of “theater.” That includes your appearance, images of yourself that are distributed, the way you make announcements, how you respond to difficult situations and so on. Improve your use of theater to improve your leadership.
You can read more about Pfeffer’s views here.
Posted on: August 20, 2007 01:09 PM |
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