MANAGING LEADERSHIP ®

THE STRATEGIC ROLE OF THE SENIOR EXECUTIVE

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Great Man Theory

There are two elements of the modern leadership movement’s characterization of leadership that have problematic consequences for how
organizations are designed and how their executives behave.

One, often noted here, is that they argue that leadership is an individual characteristic provided to organizations from the top down. Never mind
the discussions of empowerment and the like; the main problem is that leadership is believed by this movement to be provided by people
possessed of special skills and/or qualities distinguishing them from other people who don’t have these.

The other problem, which we will return to briefly tomorrow, is that the movement has largely succeeded in promoting the contention that
leadership is an individual function that is separate from and superior to management.

The combined result has been ever-worsening confusion about the role and characteristics required of senior executives. The principle concern is
that far too much unchecked authority tends to be accorded to personages whose skills and qualities are identified as being distinctly and uniquely
essential to the organization, which is largely populated by lesser mortals in need of this leadership to give their functions meaning and to enliven
their actions. Some senior executives positively luxuriate in this sort of approach to themselves as individuals, and to their duties and powers.

Nevertheless, because it is fundamentally untrue, their results tend to be erratic. While, in retrospect, it is sometimes (though decidedly not
always) possible to ascribe with some degree of confidence, their specific performance to their results, whatever these turned out to be (good or
bad), it is not as reliably possible to relate these results to the “leadership style” they were presumed to possess. On those occasions where it
seems that it is, it is my arguement that the object of critique is actually their management, and not their leadership, style.

It should be noted, though, that many executives do not thrive in the personally and organizationally unhealthy atmosphere created by this
singular, lofty view of the senior executive as the Great Leader, the organization’s Champion. To meet the ordinary fiduciary duties of a senior
executive can be bracing enough.

To add to this the extraordinary expectations of the organization and its board, vendors, partners, and customers, as well as the hype centered on
these expectations by financial analysts and the press, can result in unbearable pressure. This strain can cause a number of problems for the
individual executive ranging from inability to establish sound perspectives and bases for analysis to distorted decision-making, and even to
detachment and paralyzed inaction.

To insist on doing this sort of thing in the face of the evidence that it is both largely, if not completely, inaccurate, and destructive to the person
who is its object as well as to the organization, is, on the face of it, baffling. But there it is: we do it anyway.

Tomorrow we’ll take a quick look at another of the main reasons why this movement has run out of control. See you then!

TODAY’S TIP: Speaking of persisting in perplexing behaviors in the face of the evidence that they aren’t warranted, please see this piece by Peter
Galuszka, from BNET, about the influence of lawsuits on CEO pay.

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