A couple of years ago KG Charles-Harris, a talented leader/CEO I work with, sent me an article from HBS Working Knowledge, a free online publication from Harvard Business School geared to the interests of business leaders and I strongly recommend subscribing to it.My favorite contributor is James Heskett, the Baker Foundation Professor, who fosters superb discussions in a forum framework that usually generates in excess of 100 intelligent, well thought-out comments, then analyzes and sums up the public input.

I received the summation of How Much of Leadership Is About Control, Delegation, or Theater?, yesterday and I thought it would provide food for thought to my readers.

Dr Heskett opens the forum this way, “The flood of writing about leadership continues. It reflects our fascination with what many believe to be the most important influence on organizational performance. In a thought-provoking book published last year, Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton suggest that the overriding impact of leadership on performance is a myth, or at least only a half-truth. 30 years ago, in reviewing research on leadership, Pfeffer concluded at that time that actions of leaders most often explain no more than 10 percent of performance. Such things as a company’s operating environment, the economy in general, or its long-run success or failure account for more of its current performance.

Findings published since then have done nothing to change Pfeffer’s mind. But he also concludes that it may be quite important for leaders to perpetuate the myth of having significant control over performance. As employees, we expect it of our leaders. In our behavior, we defer to leaders. And that reinforces their tendency to act like what we expect of leaders. According to this line of thinking, it may require that a leader act out the role, concealing real feelings in the process. In short, it suggests that some part of leadership is theater that perpetuates the half-truth that leaders are indeed in control. … It may be important for us to believe that our leaders have control over performance, whether or not it is true, particularly in times of turmoil or concern about the future. So to what degree should leaders become thespians, creating an impression that fits expectations? How does one do this and still maintain some sense of modesty and perspective that Jim Collins, in his research, has identified with the most effective leaders? Is some part of leadership about creating the myth of being in control while subtly transferring it to others in the organization? Or, as Pfeffer and Sutton ask, “Should leaders be in more complete control of their organizations?” What do your personal experiences lead you to believe about these issues? What do you think?”

I loved Andy Grove’s description of leadership, “Well, part of it is self-discipline and part of it is deception-deception in the sense that you pump yourself up and put a better face on things than you start off feeling. But after a while, if you act confident, you become more confident. So the deception becomes less of a deception,” especially since I’ve always believed that so much of who we are and what we do is a function of how we think.

I realize it’s asking a lot, but for those of you really interested in a world-view of leadership it’s worth reading all 127 comments, not just the summation, although it’s excellent.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 21st, 2007 at 1:07 pm and is filed under About Leadership, Leadership Choice, Leadership Quotes, Leadership Skills, management, Reviews & Recommendations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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