USNews' America's Best Leaders

USNews has published their annual review of America's Best Leaders. They do this report in conjunction with Harvard's Kennedy School of Government Center for Public Leadership.

Bill George begins the first article with this statement.

"If ever there was a time when America needs leaders, it's now. ... What's nowhere to be found, however -almost nowhere - is the leadership needed to fix things.  The problem isn't the lack of potential leaders, however, but a wrongheaded notion of what exactly a leader is.  The misguided notion of leadership often results in the wrong people attaining critical leadership roles.  Search committees and voters alike fall into the trap of choosing leaders for their style rather than their substance, for their image instead of their integrity.  Given this way of doing business, why should we be surprised when our leaders come up short?"

He then says, "The only valid test of a leader is his or her ability to bring people together to achieve sustainable results over time."

This report, like so many of USNews' ranking reports, is based a nominations process. The Selection Committee defined a leader as a person who "motivates people to work collaboratively to accomplish great things."

I'm not sure Bill George or the selection committee goes far enough in their definition of leadership.  I don't disagree with what they say, only that it is incomplete or a limited view.  From my perspective there are two problems with the conventional understanding of leadership.

First, we focus too heavily on the role of leader. In this sense, leadership is a function of the organization's structure. If so, the the failure of leadership is the failure of the organization at a structural level.  Yet, unless something like an Enron happens, we are blind to the reality that how we organize determines the role of leader. 

Second, we fail to understand fully that leadership is as much if not more a function of individual personal character, than it is role. Leading is more that doing the tasks of collaboration, communication and decision-making.  It is a set of attitudes and behaviors that endow an individual with the personal authority, not just charisma, to call people to join him or her in great endeavors.

Here's the Selection Committee's criteria:

          Sets Direction (25%)

By building a shared sense of purpose

By setting out to make a positive social impact

By implementing innovative strategies

          Achieves Results (50%)

Of significant breadth or depth

That have a positive social impact

That are sustainable

That exceed expectations

          Cultivates a Culture of Growth (25%)

By communicating and embodying positive core values

By inspiring others to lead

This is a good list.  Check your own leadership by this list. 

The key to fulfilling this set of expectations resides in the character of the leader. This is more than ethics.  It goes the issue of commitment, initiative, personal investment and in particular how they management stress, conflict and disruptive change.  The ultimate measure of leadership is whether the people who are organizationally responsible to the leader develop these same characteristics of leadership character.

As one who is transitioning out of the senior leadership role of a volunteer organization, it is absolutely thrillling to see those who are following after me not passively waiting for me to go, but are taking  personal initiative to implement new ideas to accommodate the growth we are experiencing.  I step into a new "role" with the confidence that the organization will take a step up as a result, not a step back. 

Leadership should function in every position within your organization.  Leadership is a function of personal character exhibited in the attitudes and behaviors that we expect of leaders.  The difference in roles is just that a difference in the organizational role that each person is to play.  However, if each person exhibits the character of leadership then their role will bring great benefit to the organization.   It is, therefore, one of the responsibilities of the organizational role of leader not only to "inspire others to lead" but structure the organization so that this what happens.

So, I think that there is more to leadership than how this USNews report characterizes it.  It is worth reading and reading it critically in order to really understand what we each must do to lead within the contexts where live, work and play.

Comments

[Bill Kinnon]

Great post. Linked to it at a.e