Leaders: Try Taking Both Leadership Uppers and Downers!

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What It’s About: Both individuals, and those responsible for leadership development in organizations, have asked me for my latest insights about leadership. There is so much content on leadership that it’s challenging to navigate through all the noise. So here is my latest advice: I’d like to make the list less than more. However, it is a matter of doing both less about 18, AND more about 11. It is a paradoxical combo.

So What?: Rate yourself on the Downer 18 and Upper 11 on leadership. Honestly, ask yourself how people working for, and/or around would rate you. You might even ask them?

Less of the Leadership Downer 18. A downward pushing leader acts this way:

Is inherently authoritarian through command and control.
Prefers positional authority to do to others, rather than for and with others; ie. having power over people.
Prefers top down and vertical systems of decision making.
Is most comfortable with certainty, and rules that determine actions; leverages compliance and control to “win.”
Is politically motivated.
Embraces loyalty by attracting those who are most agreeable to their point of view.
Prefers and endorses symbols of hierarchy.
Likes people to know who the boss is.
Uses fear to motivate folks; often through blame and shame.
Has a prime motivation to avoid looking bad, and likes to take full credit for that which is “good”; collects gold stars.
Not very self-aware in understanding what we do is more impactful than what we say.
Is mostly personally disconnected from the people they lead and work with.
Rewards exhaustion and/or time put in as a sign of success.
Wants to be right more than doing right; ego imbalanced.
Prefers scarcity over abundance, and is more a matcher or taker rather than a giver.
Avoids taking on the hard things that really matter most.
Is mostly a win-lose player.
Prefers perfection over progress.

More of the Leadership Upper 11. Leaders who inspire and motivate act this way:

Create an accelerating and intentional welcome for team members so they “join and contribute fast”; “start in a good way.”
Personally connect before engaging in content in every interaction with others.
Clarify team/individual contribution expectations and connection to purpose.
Create conditions for authentic and meaningful contributions from each team member.
Listen and talk about the right things at the right time.
Regularly and openly ask for feedback to improve.
Offer to help team members generously.
Humbly ask for help as needed.
Recognize and abundantly celebrate others.
Effectively manage the boundaries with key stakeholders.
Ensure a dignified goodbye so that team members “leave in a good way.”

Now What?: It is simple, and yet hard: Do less of the Leader Downer 18, and do more of the Upper 11! We are imperfect as leaders, and most of us are a messy combo of both Downers and Uppers. However, people around us, including ourselves, deserve much less of the 18, and much more if the 11! It is a matter of consciously and intentionally working at it, and the journey never ends! Easier said than done, yet we must!

Think Big, Start Small, Act Now.

Lorne

One Millennial View: Mostly when I thought of uppers and leadership, Wall Street in the 80’s came to mind. However, these 11 seem a lot healthier and more legal, which we can probably all agree is a positive improvement.

- Garrett

Edited and published by Garrett Rubis.

Leaders: Try Taking Both Leadership Uppers and Downers!

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