What traits come to mind when you think of superheroes? (strong, selfless, honest, caring, moral…?) What do superheroes actually do with these traits? What’s their purpose?
Don’t be a hero. Be a leader!
Of course, heroes save the day. They ride into town (wearing a white hat), shoot the bad guy (the one with the black hat), and ride out of town. From yesterday’s cowboys to today’s superheroes, rescuing the damsel in distress is the mythic image of our heroes. The growing list of superhero box-office hits points to our culture’s infatuation with heroes.
But what happens when leaders try to be heroes? Is there a downside to confusing the role of leader and hero? I think the answer is, definitely! Leaders who put on the white hat too often send the message, usually subtly and unintentionally, that people are victims. The heroes say “I’ll handle the villain, the challenge, the threat… because you can’t.” This creates a dangerous, dysfunctional dependency. When leaders slip into the role of heroes, they often micromanage, step in to resolve issues too soon, or dictate instead of delegate. These well-intentioned, wannabe heroes think their intervention helps, but it usually hurts.
I invite you to kill your hero (metaphorically, of course) and be a leader throughout the day. Instead of jumping in to save people, ask one powerful leadership question as you decide how to handle issues:
How can I unleash the energy of others toward a worthy goal in this situation?
What is Leadership?
If you reflect on the question above, you see that it helps us define the very essence of leadership – the process of unleashing the energy of others toward worthy goals. While hero worship is about waiting for someone else to act, leadership is all about…
- Using a process, a methodology, a system.
- Tapping into the internal motivation of others, NOT just those who report to you.
- Acting like a leader, regardless of your title or position.
- Providing a credible direction.
As a leader, your role is to use a process that inspires people to achieve valuable goals. That’s very different from the “save-the-day” role of heroes, isn’t it? If this definition of leadership works for you the next question is, what’s your process?
The Expansive Leadership Model as a Process to Decide
A vice president I coach reported that he was very pleased with the work that his direct reports were now bringing to him. The VP had coached them to apply the Expansive Leadership Model (XLM), represented in the figure below, as a process to improve their decision making and problem solving, as I had coached him. His managers no longer brought him difficult or complex problems; instead, they delivered well-thought-out options and recommendations. He killed his hero approach by replacing it with the XLM process. You can too.
Most leaders don’t have a process or methodology that helps them consistently unleash the energy of others toward worthy goals. The XLM fills this void. It integrates thousands of research studies with the practical lessons I’ve learned as an educator (teaching/coaching more than 10,000 leaders during the last two decades) and an executive (former chief administrative officer of an institute at UCLA). It is a simple yet powerful process that will help you avoid jumping in like a hero during difficult times.
The Four Styles and Competencies of the
Expansive Leadership Model
The Four Steps to Mastering Decision Making and Problem Solving
The XLM identifies the four fundamental styles of leadership (Rational, Visionary, Commanding, and Empowering), each of which has four core competencies. A leadership style is a general and philosophical way of thinking. How you think is crucial because the quality of your thinking dictates the effectiveness of your decisions, which determines actions, thereby delivering results. This concept is illustrated as a simple, but not simplistic, pyramid:
Simply said, better leadership results require better thinking.
The XLM doesn’t tell you what to think, but it does help you how to think. It frames your thinking. It’s a process, a tool, to help you and your teams make better and more consistent decisions, especially under pressure.
We have previously discussed how to use the XLM when you have relatively simple decisions to make or problems to solve ( http://davejensenonleadership.com/2013/07/too-much-of-a-good-thing/ ). But how about those thorny challenges that require deeper thinking? Leaders who unleash the energy of their teams toward worthy goals ask probing questions when confronted by complex issues (instead of acting like heroes). Outlined below are questions, categorized by leadership style, that will improve your decision making and problem solving when you encounter tough times.
I. Rational questions
In deciding how to address a complex challenge, the rational style invites you to answer:
- What are the relevant facts?
- Have I defined the problem and the root cause well?
- What assumptions might I be making?
- How will I monitor the implementation of this decision?
II. Visionary questions
While rational thinking is related to gathering the facts, visionary thinking considers those facts in a broader context by answering questions such as:
- What is my ideal or desired outcome?
- How does this challenge relate to my (our) overall direction?
- Have I considered the downstream negative consequences?
- Imagine that I am looking back on this decision from the future and it turned out poorly, what went wrong?
III. Empowering questions
The empowering perspective requires that you engage others by considering such questions as:
- Who should be involved in brainstorming options?
- How might we involve power players/influencers in exploring alternatives?
- Have we considered the opinions of those with whom I disagree?
- Do we have options that express our core values?
IV. Commanding questions
Eventually you must choose what to do and what not to do. Here are a few final questions to help think critically as you access your free will responsibly:
- How risky are my alternatives?
- Is there a way to test the alternatives on a small scale before I decide?
- If everyone in this organization had to do what I am contemplating doing, what type of organization would we have?
- What is the best thing to do for the greatest number of people without violating individual rights?
Peter Drucker reminded us that leadership used to be about having answers; now, it’s about asking questions. Instead of acting like a hero, I encourage you to be a leader, like the VP discussed earlier. The VP understands that leadership is the process of unleashing the energy of others toward worthy goals. I invite you to use the XLM as a tool to improve the quality and consistency of your decision making and problem solving.
What questions do you ask when confronted by difficult challenges? Do you have other approaches to making difficult decisions? What works for you?
Dave Jensen helps leaders manage ambiguity, gain buy-in to any change, improve decision-making, and achieve difficult goals in today’s complex, competitive, and conflicting environment. For a FREE Chapter of his forthcoming book, The Executive’s Paradox – How to Stretch When You’re Pulled by Opposing Demands, visit http://davejensenonleadership.com/
