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Character Still Counts
Character.
Honesty. Integrity. Trust. Accountability.
Those were the answers I received most often during a survey of Silicon Valley executives on the subject of corporate leadership.
I asked several questions and I'll share the answers with you in the coming months because I think they're indicative of what is happening universally in business.
The question that elicited the four qualities listed above was: What are the most important attributes/skills/competencies of a leader?
At a time when headlines blare one story after another of corporate malfeasance, denial of responsibility, and an unwillingness to be accountable - and when cartoons depict million dollar corporate leaders practicing the "perp walk" - the executives I surveyed unanimously identified "character" as a leader's most important attribute. These men and women have led their organizations to provide stellar customer service and timely products while increasing investor/community confidence. They know the upside and the challenges of leading in this time of change. They also know that nothing is more important than their own integrity.
One pharmaceutical executive said, "We have to start with who we are. If there is a question there, it sets the stage for cascading problems."
The respondents identified three key components of character that distinguish the effective leader:
1. The ability to focus on what's right, instead of who's right. This directly addresses issues of corporate and community politics versus self-interest. A good leader values input from all constituent groups, while maintaining a perspective of stewardship for the organization.
Too many corporate leaders are so intent on providing high returns to the investors that short-term results take precedence over long-term growth and company integrity. Shady accounting practices coupled with inaccurate sales and delivery forecasts, affect monthly/quarterly numbers. Too often, this causes product quality to slip to secondary importance behind meeting inaccurate sales and delivery forecasts. When market believability in the numbers is compromised, investor believability in the company is adversely affected. As one respondent said, "A good company is more than just a good stock price."
Doing what's right doesn't depend solely on the leader's decision to move forward. It also hinges on a leader's ability to evaluate what has been done in terms of achieving the anticipated results. It means asking the hard questions: Did the results fit the mission statement? Did we do the right thing for the company, the employees, and the shareholders? Was the common good as important to my decisions as were the executive perks that result from a job well done?
One executive commented, "We need to be brutally honest with ourselves. We need to look for critical issues and have robust conversations about what we have been doing. We can't do that if we aren't able to hear input from everyone involved . . . from the designers and technical contributors to the customers and stockholders."
2. The ability to be accountable to standards was identified as the second character component of a great leader. This means not only having standards, but clearly defining those standards so they are understood by everyone involved. The standards may be unique to an individual company. They are the corporate paradigm -or Meta Model. They clearly state "how we do it here."
It isn't enough to be honest. A great leader's honesty must be readily apparent to everyone who works for or with the company. His/her standards are immediately visible. As one respondent put it, "Our constituents need to see clearly what we do on a daily/weekly basis."
Another executive commented, "We must hold ourselves accountable to standards and responsibility even when we didn't succeed. What did we learn from what we did? How will this help us in the future?"
3. The ability to be a model for the culture was the third attribute that the respondents mentioned as crucial to good management. No longer can we apply the motto - drilled into my head by my high school Latin teacher - Quod licet jovi non licket bovi (What's permitted the gods isn't permitted the cows) That may have had validity once upon a time, but today the modern equivalent - "different strokes for different folks" - is an inappropriate approach to leadership. We expect our leaders to be accountable to the same standards and willing to handle the same tasks as their people.
As a corporate officer told me, "A real leader pitches in. You can't ask others to do what you're not willing to do yourself . . . and that's true at every level of behavior."
It's hard to pick up a magazine or newspaper and not see something about David Neeleman, the founder and CEO of JetBlue Airways. He started a new and highly successful airline company in 2000, when other companies were going out of business. He doesn't worry about a large office or executive protocol. He often works on the line with his employees, hauling luggage, handling customer complaints, riding in his own planes and talking to his passengers. His employees see him in action, up close and personal, every day. They know he considers their jobs as important as his. And he is admired and respected by people inside and outside the company. That's how a real leader operates today.
If there's an unstated expectation for contributions above and beyond the stated expectations, it's up to the leader to model what must be done, not just talk about what others should do.
Employees will follow deeds before they follow words. In this culture where words are cheap, and liars are even cheaper, people look for the truth behind the rhetoric. The truth is demonstrable by action and if a leader's actions don't match his/her words, that leader will soon be standing alone without a company behind him. It's not that we hold our leaders to a higher standard. We hold them to the standard we ourselves would wish to attain. And if the leader can't meet that standard, we find another leader. That's just human nature.
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Since 1986, Patricia Wiklund, Ph.D. has helped some of America's largest, and smallest, organizations resolve expensive and troublesome people problems and conflicts by leveraging the strategic power of soft skills®. A former mental health professional, she is as comfortable on the front line, as on the shop floor, or in the corporate executive suite, and also works effectively in government and educational settings. Call her today at 415 641-5997, or email her at pat@patwiklund.com to discuss how she can help you put your people and organizations back on track.
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