The Leadership Coaching Blog

Following on from my blog post last week discussing the article by Rob Goffe (Professor of Organisational Behaviour @ London Business school) and Gareth Jones (visiting professor @ INSEAD) I wanted to explore where they think they’re at odds with much of today’s leadership thinking.

They say that the majority think that effective leadership rests on full  self knowledge, but that their observations of leaders suggest that few develop full self knowledge.  That effective leaders have an overarching sense of purpose and sufficient self knowlwdge of their potential leadership assets.  ‘They don’t know it all, but they know enough!’

That being the case they believe that leaders need to recognise some fundamental truths in order to become more effective.  These are:

• That leadership is situational - what is required of leaders will always be influenced by their  situation. However, they do acknowledge that the situation the leader inherits is simply a starting point - that the actions of leaders help to alter their situation and that effective leaders go further, by using their personal leadership assets to reframe situations to the benefit of those they lead.
• That leadership is non hierarchical - just because you have reached the top of your organisation, or have an organisational ‘title’, this doesn’t automatuically make you a leader.  Great organisations have leaders at all levels.

That you cannot be a leader without followers - leadership is a relationship built actively by both parties.  ’Good leaders manage relationships by knowing when to be close to people and when to be distant - to keep people focused on goals and address poor performance.  Crucially, they are able to create this distance without pulling rank.’

According to Goffe and Jones, this management of social distance means that leaders are not easily stereotyped, because they both show emotions and withhold them; get close and stay apart; are like us but different.  This means that they’re often seen as enigmatic or ‘authentic chameleons.’

These leaders need to be skilled communicators who pay careful attention to how they are seen and heard, who build compelling stories about themselves and their contexts, and identify communication channels that work for them - whether that be platform presentations or intimate face to face meetings.

So, there are some fundamental principles of leadership that do apply across the board e.g leaders need to motivate followers to feel that their work is significant and part of something bigger.  But above all followers look for leaders who are authentic, and this authenticity froms the foundation of the relationship; without it there can’t be much trust on either side.