Managing Leadership^®

We’ve all seen images, whether in the press or film, of decisive leaders issuing strong directives, which are then carried out with zealous efficiency by staff who are in willful thrall to the leader. It’s a powerful, seductive impression, instilling in us the desire to create such an impact ourselves, to be so forceful and commanding that we attract such devotion. There is, however, a core problem with this construct: It’s bunk.

The problem is that the only place such scenes actually occur is in the fevered delusions of those who imagine themselves to be such leaders. Unfortunately, there are all-too-many of this type of manager around, as unrealistic as their self-image may be, and there is all-too-much encouragement for them to aspire to such silliness in the literature promoting the ideal of the singular business “leader.”

There is another way such a phenomenon may actually come about in an organization, and as a result of the attitude and/or actions of the boss: groupthink. This has been defined as an excessive coherence in the intellectual or ideological make-up of a group, accompanied by isolation from competing opinion, leading to a sense of inevitability about the rightness of their cause or approach, leading in turn to the taking of action that later can be seen as recklessly heedless of reality, often resulting in disaster.

That’s true as far as it goes, but it leaves out, or understates, one particularly poisonous element that typically radiates from the person at the top: intimidation. Groupthink theorists argue that members of such a group are intolerant of and impatient with conflicting ideas, and fence out those who present them, reducing or removing their diluting influence. The dynamic arising from such behavior is pretty clear: join us or you’ll be clued out, your career sidetracked. This is certainly an intimidating environment.

This depiction describes intimidation as one of the side-effects of groupthink. However, groupthink itself can arise as a consequence of intimidation from the top, and often does. A boss with a special agenda, dedication to a particular solution, or just as often one with the sort of delusory self-image referred to above, who uses intimidation to coerce collaboration, can set off a group harmonic that reverberates vindictively throughout an organization. In such a situation, people unknowingly create and wrap themselves in a groupthink mentality in an effort to protect themselves and their careers.

And it can all come from the boss. Moreover, it can all come from a misapprehension of what is being taught about leadership – as something presumably separate from and superior to management – today. And, it’s all bunk. Don’t fall into the trap. You will have a difficult time even realizing you’re in it, and then an even harder time clambering out. In the meanwhile, you will do untold damage to your organization and to the development of managers junior to you.

Don’t try to be a ‘leader.” Attempting this makes your work about you, which leads to self-delusion and error. Be what you are: a manager. This makes your efforts about the work, in conformance with Mary Parker Follett‘s “law of the situation.” Ultimately, it may also help you abandon the notion of leadership as an individual characteristic, freeing you to see it as the organizational characteristic it really is, one that you can manage like any other asset available to the organization.

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