Who will lead us to a better future?
I’ve been thinking a lot about leadership after last weeks events here in the UK. The Queen passed away last Thursday after meeting our new Prime Minister, Liz Truss, on the Tuesday. I know it’s inappropriate to say this, but I can’t help but wonder if those two events were related. After 70 years of reign and having out lasted the previous fourteen Prime Ministers, perhaps the 96 year old Queen had finally had enough of them.
Amid the prescribed national mourning and scripted corporate condolences, the elephant in the room of course is that while the Queen may have had a number of admirable qualities, her priority as a leader was always the preservation of the institution of the monarchy. It is the political leaders, not the monarchy, who are supposed to prioritise the wellbeing of the citizens, even if they don’t. Now with Charles as King and Liz Truss as Prime Minister, I’m going to stick my neck out and say that there is a distinct vacuum of credible leadership at the top.
Over 2000 years ago, the Greek philosopher Plato warned us of a flaw in electoral democracies. He highlighted that they create a vulnerability in society that can be exploited by unsavoury characters. These demagogues, as he called them, charm the people with empty promises and rhetoric in order to gain votes and in turn, power for themselves. While Liz Truss has not actually been voted in by the British public, she is the latest in a long line of modern political leaders including Tony Blair, James Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson, who have little regard for the truth or for the public that they are supposed to serve.
This begs the question, that if both the monarchy and democracy have failed to deliver the leadership we need to create a fair, healthy and sustainable society in the 21st Century, where should we look?
Despite business often been cited as the source of many ills in society, I do believe that businesses have a huge role to play in shaping the world that we live in, for better or for worse. Especially in the absence of credible political leadership, it’s more important than ever that we have leaders in the world of business who are committed to helping create a positive long term future. But where can we find the right type of leaders within the business world?
Well, Plato argued that people who seek power should rarely be trusted. Instead, the best leaders are often those who do not want to rule.
This is probably as true in the world of business as it is in politics. Many of the best leaders that I know are what I would call “reluctant leaders”. They are people who do not crave power. In fact, they often feel self-conscious about being in a leadership position, but are there because their drive to make a difference is greater than their reluctance to lead. They earn the respect of those around them through merit, not through manipulation. As the world faces a perfect storm of environmental, social and economic challenges, we need the right type of leaders to take us forward toward solutions.
Now, at this point I could go on to write a post about great leaders in ethical business such as Yvon Chouinard (founder of Patagonia), Safia Minney (founder of People Tree) or Guy Singh-Watson (founder of Riverford Organic). In fact, Yvon Chouinard has often described himself as a reluctant businessman and this week announced that he has donated the entire company to a charitable trust to help fight climate change.
But I’m not going to talk about them. Instead, I’m going to talk about where we can find more of these people.
Yes, I’m looking at you!
If you’re reading this, then you probably care about how businesses can contribute to positive social and environmental outcomes and you probably also have some ideas on how that could be achieved. If you’re sitting their quietly thinking “Yes I do“, then you are exactly the sort of person that the world needs to lead us right now, especially if you are reluctant or nervous to do so.
So today I’m encouraging you all to look at whether you could step forward as one of the leaders that we need, and for those of you like me who are already in leadership positions, to reflect on some of the qualities that we can work on to become better leaders.
I’ve identified ten key leadership qualities that I think are helpful in the pursuit of more sustainable business. The first one might not surprise you.
#1. Integrity
Integrity has been emerging as a common theme here in Oxymoron, and we went into some detail on it in my earlier post “Do businesses lack integrity?” and in Nick Whitnell’s article “Is integrity the essence of everything successful?“. I therefore won’t repeat it all here, but will simply say that I increasingly believe that integrity is the foundation of good leadership. Unlike all of the qualities that follow in this list, integrity is the one thing that we cannot do without. Of course, nobody has perfect integrity all of the time, but we need leaders with a deep conviction to try their best to do the right thing, even when no one is watching and even when it isn’t easy.
#2. Courage
Courage is in many ways the best friend of integrity. Integrity without courage is a blunt sword, but courage without integrity can be a dangerous thing.
It can be hard to say and do what you think is right. We need leaders who can make unpopular decisions, who can make hard choices, who can hold their ground in the face of conflict and who are prepared to take on daunting challenges. This all requires courage.
Those of us like me who tend to live on the more timid end of the spectrum need to practice exercising courage so that we gain confidence in ourselves and can have the strength to do the right thing even when it’s hard. Progress requires action, and action takes courage.
#3. Emotional intelligence
If courage is the best friend of integrity, then emotional intelligence is the quality that helps us to use our courage wisely. Emotional intelligence helps us to read the room to understand how other people feel, while also enabling us to look inside ourselves to see what is really driving our behaviour. Only when we understand ourselves and those around us can we make wise decisions as leaders, and maintain composure to act in a way that best serves the situation rather than blindly acting out our emotions.
Emotional intelligence also helps us to manage the potentially harmful voices in our heads such as ego and fear, and increases our ability to ask for help, admit when we are wrong or don’t know the answer, making us more effective leaders in the process.
#4. Understanding complexity
Perhaps one of the most important leadership qualities in times of uncertainty is the ability to navigate complexity.
We need to develop our understanding of the world around us in order to see that everything is nuanced. We need to understand the complexity of ourselves, the people around us and the interconnectedness of the human and natural systems that we exist within.
This is something that our team coach (and Treeka founder) Chris Hardy talks a lot about. He has helped me a lot over the past few years to explore the limits of my understanding and widen my perspectives.
Some of us think of ourselves as being “big picture“ people and some of us are more detail oriented, but we need to practice zooming in and out of situations to see into our blind spots and better understand how everything fits together. When we do this, we can avoid the common pitfall of either being too close to the problem or too far away from it, and hold multiple perspectives and factors in our minds to see a viable and effective path forward.
#5. Curiosity
One of the interesting things about great leadership is that it doesn’t come from people who think they know all the answers. It comes from people who have the humility to know that they don’t have all the answers and who have the curiosity to search for them. We need leaders who have the curiosity to want to listen, learn, ask questions and research information to deepen their own understanding. This includes curiosity to explore alternative and even conflicting perspectives.
Curiosity is essential for ongoing learning and personal growth, enabling us to develop greater emotional intelligence, be more creative and handle greater complexity. Perhaps most interestingly, it is curiosity that can lead to the development of new ideas and a constructive vision for the future.
#6. Vision
Leadership, cheesy as it may sound, is about taking people on a journey. To do that, it’s essential that the leader has a vision of where to go.
It’s often not possible to have a complete vision, and perhaps doing so would limit curiosity and creativity, but the leader must have a sense of the direction of travel. Almost by definition, a leaders vision will involve change and uncertainty, and so its important that the vision is married with the courage to pursue it.
I should also say that visions are not always positive. Many leaders have visions that are based on fear and scarcity, and when we are dealing with social and environmental issues it can be easy to fall into this trap. I think we need leaders who are aware of the threats that we face but who can present a vision that brings people hope. We need leaders with visions that don’t just take us away from problems, but take us toward solutions.
#7. Creativity
We cannot solve today's problems with yesterday's thinking. Creativity is therefore going to be an asset. In a rapidly changing world facing significant threats, we need leaders who can see alternative paths to create something better than business as usual.
I think the word creativity is often associated with the arts and too many people tell themselves that they are not creative but everyone has creative potential within them. We need to allow ourselves to set our minds free, harness our own creativity and explore new possibilities.
#8. Communication skills
The best ideas in the world can be useless if they can’t be communicated effectively. Good communication is not just about explaining the facts, but about motivating people to want to take action.
Crucially though, for us to head toward a positive future, we need leaders who can inspire people and earn trust through honest communication, not leaders whose communication is based on manipulation.
If like me, you’re a shy quiet person who struggles to express what they really think, then this is one to focus on alongside building courage. That’s actually part of the reason that I practice writing here on Oxymoron and elsewhere.
#9. Grit
When I asked climate activist Rupert Read what quality we are going to need most as we face the consequences of climate change, his reply was short and clear - “Grit!”
We are going to face some challenging times ahead and we need leaders that can persevere when things get tough. In a world of short attention spans and instant gratification, we more than ever need leaders who can both think and act long term.
We need people committed to achieving long term goals and seeing them through to their conclusion. Despite the challenges we face, most of us in the western world have grown up with levels of material comfort that would have been unimaginable for most of human history. While this is a good thing in many ways, it means that people with true grit are in short supply. We must work hard to develop our own resilience, determination and longevity so that we can lead projects that deliver real sustainable solutions.
#10. Care
I was going to include selflessness as a quality in this list, but on reflection I realised that there are very few humans who are truly selfless. In fact, perhaps true selflessness is not even necessary. We are all humans with needs and if we completely ignore our own needs then our efforts will not be sustainable. What I think we need more than selflessness is care.
We need leaders who care about more than just enriching themselves and have a deep sense of the importance of caring for the people around them, humans and living creatures more broadly, as well as the ecosystems that we depend on. It’s from this place of care that our future leaders will emerge and take us forward to a better place.
Lead the way
I’ve been running Wholegrain Digital for over 15 years and I still feel that I have a long way to go as leader. If anything, this post is a reminder to myself of the importance of taking on leadership even if it is still outside of my comfort zone. It’s also a note to myself on some of the things that I personally need to work on.
I hope that it’s also been interesting for you. Perhaps it’s helped you to see why you are so needed as a leader and perhaps given you some food for thought on how you can nurture your own leadership potential.
Whatever role you work in, you have value to offer as a leader. It’s important to remember that leadership is not a job title, but a behaviour. You can be in a leadership position with a fancy title but never lead, and you can be in a non-leadership position while showing true leadership to those around you. The power to lead is within you.
We are all different and there is no such thing as a perfect leader, so focus on your own strengths and see what you can contribute. We need more business leaders who care about creating a better world and who have real integrity. If you are hesitant to step forward, that could be an even stronger sign that you are the type of leader that we all need right now. So take a step forward, and lead the way…
P.S. If you’re interested in learning more about the future of leadership in our changing world, I also recommend checking out the Treeka substack newsletter to which I also contribute.
