Marvin Zonis
Great leaders manifest many values and many virtues. Of course, no one leader is likely to manifest them all. But, looked upon as a group, these values and virtues can be seen. Nor are the leaders who manifest at least some of these values and virtues always able to operate within their parameters. But they nevertheless strive to do so. Here are some of my favourites (in no particular order).
On Career Success and Grandiosity
Daniel Kahneman is a psychologist who won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2002. His central contribution has been to challenge the assumption of rationality at the heart of conventional economics – to bring emotions into the discipline of economics. Kahneman did his most important work with his colleague Amos Tversky who died in 1996 and thus missed being a co-recipient of the Nobel.
One emotional trap, which threatens leaders, is a turn to grandiosity. To put it simply, an individual can be described as ‘grandiose’ to the extent they believe that the ordinary rules of life do not apply to them. Grandiosity is a trap to which many leaders succumb because in so many ways they lead ‘abnormal’ lives. Many leaders are coddled, celebrated, respected, rewarded, watched wherever they go, lionized in the press and by their subordinates. As a result, grandiosity is all too common.
The problem with grandiosity, of course, is that the rules of life do continue to apply. Grandiose leaders run into reality all too frequently to the detriment of their careers, their organisations and their followers.
Kahneman warned against falling into the trap of grandiosity in his ‘success’ formula. He suggested that success was made of two components:
Success = Some talent + luck
Great success = Some talent + a lot of luck
Don’t forget the luck part!
On Listening
Too many leaders fail because they do not listen. Their grandiosity helps them believe they have all the answers. Perhaps no recent leader embodies this trait more than Donald J. Trump although Matteo Renzi, the former Italian Prime Minister and leader of the Italian Democratic Party comes close.
Nelson Mandela, in my opinion, one of the greatest political leaders of all time, specialised in listening:
“As a leader. . . I have always endeavoured to listen to what each and every person in a discussion had to say before venturing my own opinion. Oftentimes, my own opinion will simply represent a consensus of what I heard in the discussion. I always remember the axiom, ‘a leader is like a shepherd.’ He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realising that all along they are being directed from behind.
As Ernest Hemingway put it: “When people talk, listen completely.”
The point is that listening is challenging and ‘complete’ listening means what psychoanalysts refer to as ‘listening with the third-ear’. That means paying attention to the meaning of the words. But it also means taking in the intonation, the tone of voice, the cadence, the facial expressions, the ‘body language’ – all the ways in which people communicate meaning.