As I write this, we are going through a midterm election cycle that may impact who leads us at the city, county, state, and, to a large extent, federal levels of government.
Regardless of our political views, I’m sure we can all agree as Americans that our government should be of the people and for the people. Whatever the final outcome of the election, we can have confidence that the people have spoken.
Now, think about your workplaces, past or present: Did you ever vote for your leaders? Did you ever go to the polls to elect your supervisor? If you were dissatisfied with how your department was being managed, did you vote for a change?
I found it fascinating to discover that in the United States, far less than 1% of all workplaces democratically elect their leadership. Yes, academic departments in universities frequently elect department chairs or deans for fixed terms. Yes, certain nonprofits operate with flat, democratic governance where staff members elect executive directors. And of course, even in conventional workplaces, employees elect union leaders. But overall, this still amounts to far less than 1%.
But if we turned the conventional model on its head — what would you vote for in a workplace leader? What are the competencies and character attributes you’d look for that would give you confidence a leader is worth listening to and, most importantly, worth following at work?
A few years back, we wanted to create a leadership development program, and in doing so, we essentially polled the people. We interviewed about 50 people from tremendously varied backgrounds. Some who shared their opinions had primarily corporate experience, while others were educators through and through. Some had worked only in nonprofit or charitable organizations. We interviewed people from diverse cultural backgrounds — male and female, young and old. Heck, I think we even got the perspectives of a few left-handed people. You get my point.
As we started to organize their feedback, we noticed some interesting themes emerging:
- Character counts: Great leaders are good people.
- Competency matters: Great leaders have good experience.
Isn’t it the same when we go to the political polls? We all want to elect people we can trust — leaders of high moral character and high levels of competence.
As we started to tally up the voices of the people we polled, we found two main categories that mattered most in who people admired as leaders. These were the ability to manage yourself and the ability to positively influence others.
Voters in our poll said they want leaders who demonstrate self-control, are focused and solution-minded, and maintain a healthy work-life balance. These are all characteristics that fall within the realm of self-governance.
It seemed that great leadership stemmed from believing in others, being kind to others, and celebrating the successes of others — all built upon a foundation of serving others.
Just when we thought all the votes were in and we had elected our eight attributes, we discovered an extra vote that couldn’t be ignored. The people had spoken, and what they most wanted from a leader was humility — the opposite, of course, being ego.
As we look to the leaders elected to self-manage and positively influence these United States, I hope they demonstrate fine character, proven experience, self-control, focus, kindness, humility and a genuine spirit of service. Above all, I hope they put people before ego.
As we put away the voting booths and filed our feedback, it dawned on me that these nine roots of effective leadership were really just common sense, organized. We hadn’t discovered anything new; we’d simply uncovered truths that had been there all along.
Perhaps that’s because the leaders we want, both in our workplaces and our country, exhibit, in their own imperfect ways, some or all of the nine Fruits of the Spirit: faithfulness, gentleness, goodness, joy, kindness, love, patience, peace, and self-control. Yep, there’s nothing new under the sun.
Paul Butler is a Santa Clarita resident and a client partner with Newleaf Training and Development of Valencia (newleaftd.com). For questions or comments, email Butler at [email protected].
