The Leader’s Way Every Day

An exhilarating path of self-transcendence, appreciation, and grit

In these mind-boggling times of pandemics, global transitions, expanded awareness, unpredictability and insecurity, leadership has taken on a whole new meaning. The way we guide teams from one stage to another requires a completely different set of skills and an entirely different paradigm than the twentieth century. Not only have the structures and populations of many workplaces become richer, and therefore more complex, but the tasks at hand and the execution of these tasks have also transformed in ways we could not even imagine a few decades ago!
 

I once attended a presentation from a retired Dean at a large Los Angeles-based college, and he made a memorable statement. He said: “If you think leading in a business workforce is challenging, try being a University Dean!” Now, having done that exact job for the last six years, I have come to a solid understanding of what he meant. Granted: all types of workforces bring their own set of demands, with people from different backgrounds holding wide ranges of education and preparedness, and different – sometimes conflicting characters. On top of that, however, academic leaders also face the problem of immense egos. As an academic leader, you are expected to give directions to people who have equally high levels of education as you, in a wide array of fields. Therefore, they are oftentimes not receptive to leadership in a conventional way.

I have found that leading people in such settings – and increasingly, this goes for all settings – entails listening, encouraging, appreciating, drive, evaluating, and resilience. I’d like to explain these elements in a self-reflective way:

Listening is the first and most prominent prerequisite when you’re dealing with a highly educated workforce. We’re living in a highly assertive society (the US), where people often speak more than they listen. With huge egos in place, everybody wants to hear their own voice, so I have learned to practice listening wherever I can. This doesn’t mean that I don’t find myself talking more than I should in my efforts to explain new directions, but I consistently try to minimize that. In addition, I have found that people appreciate it if you listen attentively to them, and they become more willing to listen and consider your advice in return.
 
Encouraging is something every leader should do if they aim to have a motivated team. I have found that encouraging your team is not merely displayed through cheerful statements. It’s expressed by going the extra mile to make them look good in the eyes of external stakeholders, and defend their position, even if they sometimes stand a little weak. Encouragement, in this context, feels somewhat like altruism, because there’s not always any stake for you, as the leader, in making your team members look good. But ultimately, there is more gratification in giving than in taking, and practicing encouragement toward others is simply the right and humane thing to do.

Appreciation is another quality that today’s complex world of work has taught us. We have recently weathered a global pandemic and had to redefine the way we implement our daily routine. We are regularly surprised by shifts we did not expect. I recently lost part of my team (this is still the “great resignation” era, right?), and while each of their reasons for moving on made practical and professional sense, it also meant investing in a time-consuming search for new team members who may or may not turn out to be a good fit in our tight-knit culture. Yet, as a leader, the fundamental thought to cultivate here is appreciation: for whomever you deal with – because they’re all teachers in this life, and for whatever emerges because it will invariably turn out to be useful. Making it a habit in the evening, just before going to sleep, to ask what you can be appreciative of, will help enormously to feel better about your day.

Drive. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter whether your steering wheel is in the front, in the middle, or at the back of the bus: point is, as a leader you are responsible for how the organization fares, and that can be a terrifying experience, especially in these volatile times. But let’s be honest: most of us like the sense of responsibility, even if we sometimes question our sanity for doing so. I have found that being the driver of a vehicle can be a lonely place because no one really knows how you feel when you see that bump in the road that suddenly popped up and that you cannot avoid. Accusations of weakness, inconsideration, negligence, and insufficiency may be thrown at your head, and all your efforts may be forgotten. Yet, it’s part of the reality of leading.

Evaluating has a dual interpretation when it comes to leading in these unpredictable times. You have to regularly evaluate the position of your workplace, and the strategies needed to move to the next stage of existing. That’s the professional evaluation. But there’s an even more critical one: self-evaluation! This is where you will find that humility goes a long way and that there will always be room for improvement, no matter how hard you tried in the past years. People change, teams change, demands change and … you – the leader - change! It’s important to keep a finger on the pulse to make sure you are still doing the right thing at the right place. Times can be stressful, but when stress becomes lasting anxiety, something needs to change.  

Resilience. So this is the one nobody can help you with. It’s the grit that elevated you through life and prompted you to take the position you currently hold. It’s that inner voice that keeps motivating you when all others are about to give up. Resilience transcends jobs, positions, and all status symbols we stand for at one time or another. It’s what will get you to stand up more times than you fall. It’s the way you defy all the naysayers that told you that you wouldn’t be able to succeed. It’s the proud quality that drives you to flourish in the face of adversity and injustice. It’s what makes you!

So, now that I’ve poured my heart into this article, I can only hope that it will compel others to listen to the call, encourage others, appreciate every opportunity, drive the vehicle of their life, evaluate lessons learned, but even more personal senses, and remain resilient, as that’s the ultimate quality of succeeding as a leader.
 

Author Bio

Joan Marques is an author, educational and social entrepreneur, who currently serves as Dean and Professor of Management at Woodbury University’s School of Business. She teaches, presents and writes on topics related to moral responsibility and ethical leadership. Her research and practice-based insights have been widely published in scholarly as well as popular journals and magazines. She has authored/co-authored and edited more than 35 books. Her most recent single-authored book is, Leading with Awareness (Routledge, 2021). Connect Joan Marques