When leadership means stepping off the pedestal

Too many managers and senior managers see their titles and their positions of responsibility as setting them apart. I am not writing about the need for a manager or leader to step back and make decisions that are separate from interpersonal bias; that is both genuine and legitimate. I am writing here of the evident sense of privilege and entitlement that has been in the news so much recently, with the massively disproportionate compensation packages that keep coming to light and for senior executives of businesses that have not done well under their leadership tenure.

I have been writing about the financial industry a lot recently, mostly in the context of regulatory oversight and its failings (see for example my series: Considering a Cost-Benefits Analysis of Economic Regulatory Rules at Macroeconomics and Business, posting 64 and loosely following.) One of the primary reasons why these businesses and their failings strike such a chord in the public mind stems from the way that their leaders come across as being primarily concerned about their own compensation and benefits and their own personal prerogatives. And the result is that employees, customers, investors and the public in general find themselves wondering if anyone is actually leading those businesses at all – or only using them for their own personal benefit.

• First and foremost a leader of a business is an employee of that business, and even if they are the most senior employee there. You cannot lead from a pedestal; you have to be actively, genuinely engaged and in a way that is not possible from a point of separation of the type I write of here.

I offer this posting as a cautionary tale, and note that the excesses of the financial industry in the years leading up to the Great Recession and still ongoing, only tell part of this story. Those failures of leadership simply represent an extreme. So I offer this posting to any employee who gains a new title and position in their business, that they not take the title per se too seriously, or themselves either. A promotion and an impressive new title can be uplifting, but after the celebration, it is important to step back down from any pedestal ascended, and get back to work.

And I end this posting with a brief historical note, coming from the classical Roman Empire. When a general achieved a major victory they were celebrated for their successes and accomplishments with a public parade, among other acknowledgments. And they took a leading position in that parade, riding in a chariot right up in front where they were praised by the shouting, celebrating crowds. But immediately behind them, standing right behind their left shoulder, a very special councilor stood. And this councilor repeatedly whispered in their ear that this too would pass and that they would return to their duties as a general, but as a soldier and citizen, and as a Roman – and no more.

Celebrate your successes and your promotions, and your titles of position and authority. Then step down off the pedestal, or if you prefer the chariot and earn through ongoing participatory action what rewards and acknowledgments you have achieved. Hubris undoes any good that leadership might otherwise create and offer.

You can find this and related postings at Business Strategy and Operations – 2, and I add that I have also posted on the topic of leadership in several other directories in this blog (e.g. HR and Personnel and Business Strategy and Operations.)