HR Perspective

It can truly be said that over the past 36 months that each of us, individually and collectively, has undergone a dramatic and radical shift in the way we look at things. This is because, in part, the very foundations that we look to for stability and balance in our lives have shifted in a profound way, and what we took as the standard operating procedure or ‘normal’ is now far from that. All of us who can read this article lived through a global pandemic, but if you are like me, you know people either directly or indirectly who were not as fortunate.

We continue to see the atrocities that man inflicts man whether in this country, as evidenced by the senseless acts of violence that result in mass shootings being a weekly, if not daily, occurrence. We also see these same issues taking place across the globe with attacks on sovereign nations and their innocent civilians. There have been issues of social justice that have pitted generation against generation, political upheaval, financial instability, and literally a crisis moment on just about every front imaginable.

Still, the crisis that we face that has the greatest implications for our society is a crisis where leaders are abdicating their responsibility in ways that are unprecedented. The leadership qualities that are needed desperately are not being displayed with the consistency to reassure us or provide us with the hope we require in the myriad roles we play to let us know we are moving forward.

Let’s stop and unpack a couple of terms: leadership and leader. Many people use these two terms synonymously, but there is a significant difference between them as I view them. When I hear people talk about leadership, they talk about traits such as honesty, integrity, and respect. We should expect every team member to display leadership and act when action is required to make things better for themselves and the people around them. Leadership is about what we do and anybody can do anything once.

Being a leader is about who you are most consistently; understanding and communicating the “why” behind how you execute your role. This must be understood by others if they are to truly follow you as a leader. Being a leader is not about positional or legitimate power. It’s also not solely about personal attributes. Rather, the best leaders understand that it is the mix of how they utilize positional or legitimate power with their personal charisma and integrity that contributes to their overall ability to be seen as a leader. Being a leader is about understanding how issues are embedded into the things we face such that we get beneath the surface to identify bedrock material that stands the test of time.

One difference that is often seen between individuals who display leadership traits and those who truly behave as leaders is a lack of humility. Three essential characteristics of a person who acts with humility include:

• Recognizing one’s own shortcomings and limitations.
• Appreciating others’ strengths and giving them a platform to use them.
• Demonstrating an ability to learn from others regardless of their standing.

People will always buy into the person before they buy into the mission. A leader, whether you classify their leadership as a servant, inclusive, transformational, participative, or something else, will always understand that power always rests in the collective people and not within an individual person. Given all that we have undergone in the past 36 months, we need to return to acting in ways that show people that we care for them, not just in terms of what they do in our organization but as whole people who have a life outside of the role they execute in our organizations. As leaders, we must live by the notion that we should not look out for our own interests but for the interests of others. We can best do this through acts of humility that encourage them to do the same. When we create reciprocal paradigms that look out for the best interests of all in their total lives versus a subset of it, we all win. ◆