Leadership: What Matters Most

I doubt if there will ever be enough written (and certainly learned) about what makes a successful leader. In the category of leadership, we have all experienced the good, the bad and the ugly.

An inspiring article about the first woman president of Chile tells us that Michele Bachelet while mocked for her “overt emotion and talk of intuition,” ended her historic presidency with a 87% approval rating. Now, according to the article, “those who criticized her supposed sentimentalism are taking classes in emotional intelligence, while Chile's politicians must all pass the "Bachelet test" -- that is, having "heart" and being close to the people.”

A timely article to read after recently devouring Leadership and Self Deception. The book’s message: successful leaders treat people like people, not objects. Yes, in 2010 there’s plenty of “leaders” that still need to learn this lesson. The book also does a brilliant job of calling out the habits of self deception and self betrayal as the root of most conflict.

Truly great leaders, Ben Horowitz notes in his recent post on leadership, “create an environment where the employees feel that the CEO cares much more about the employees than she cares about herself.”

Horowitz also lays out three key traits a leader needs to have:

· The ability to articulate the vision

· The right kind of ambition

· The ability to achieve the vision

Horowitz understands that these are traits that every real leader needs to continually work on. Being committed to life-time learning, enhancing your emotional intelligence, and I would add, seeking out feedback from those you lead separates the true leaders from the wannabes.

Back in 2001, Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzi and Annie McKee wrote about “Primal Leadership” and the impact a leader’s “emotional maturity” has on the organization. Their research demonstrated that when leaders exhibit emotional intelligence, they ”create environments where information sharing, trust, healthy risk-taking, and learning flourish. “ They note in Primal Leadership, The Hidden Driver of Great Performance, that “tense or terrified employees can be very productive in the short term, their organizations may post good results, but they never last.”

There’s still far too many organizations filed with “tense or terrified employees.” Employees who are terrified to tell the truth about what they see, how they are treated and where leadership is failing. Far too many leaders continue to fly under the radar screen, lacking any measure of evaluation and feedback – from the people they lead. This lack of evaluation is now at epidemic levels – in financial markets, in Congress, in organizations and board rooms all over the country. To Horowitz’s list above I’d add a fourth trait of leadership: “The willingness to seek out and listen to feedback. “