Hey Priyanka, my immediate thought on reading this was - the leadership described here is so different from my own experience of leadership. And that led me to the idea that being a leader itself is not a one size fits all. I am curious as to where your explorations on leadership will take you. Looking forward to it.
The only thing I think that is common to all good leaders is - ultimately the buck stops with them and that can not only be lonely, but can also be very isolating. It can also be very difficult to reconcile big failures since their failures are not theirs alone to handle, but impact the lives of so many.
In that sense, my main crib these days is that leaders do not accept proper responsibility for their significant failures. I feel that there is almost zero risk for bad decisions and only upside for good decisions. That in essence means that the metaphorical lion these days rarely gets gored by the buffalo and perhaps at most suffers a scratch in the hunt:)
Isolating - yes, that's the right word. As for lack of accountability for failures, you anticipated my next post, Krish ;) There are no incentives for leaders to be accountable, and hence, lesser reason for them to build support systems that can challenge and guide them. Over time, we have created a downward spiral where poor decisions carry little risk and good ones reap all the benefits, and it's time to fix that imbalance.
“lesser reason for them to build support systems that can challenge and guide them”
Yes, this is a viewpoint I would love to see explored. What would motivate leaders to build support systems that would challenge them. in fact why would they even want that - is it nature or nurture? Do we need philosophers to guide them? Do we need an appropriate venue for criticism? Where does shame play a role in this or honor or integrity or principles? What time does a leader have to reflect? What is the role of ambivalence in this? I think I have a letter coming out about how in the last few weeks I have so wanted to be a dictator at work and how I felt during that time. What is the trend line from leadership → dictatorship?
Hey Priyanka, my immediate thought on reading this was - the leadership described here is so different from my own experience of leadership. And that led me to the idea that being a leader itself is not a one size fits all. I am curious as to where your explorations on leadership will take you. Looking forward to it.
The only thing I think that is common to all good leaders is - ultimately the buck stops with them and that can not only be lonely, but can also be very isolating. It can also be very difficult to reconcile big failures since their failures are not theirs alone to handle, but impact the lives of so many.
In that sense, my main crib these days is that leaders do not accept proper responsibility for their significant failures. I feel that there is almost zero risk for bad decisions and only upside for good decisions. That in essence means that the metaphorical lion these days rarely gets gored by the buffalo and perhaps at most suffers a scratch in the hunt:)
Isolating - yes, that's the right word. As for lack of accountability for failures, you anticipated my next post, Krish ;) There are no incentives for leaders to be accountable, and hence, lesser reason for them to build support systems that can challenge and guide them. Over time, we have created a downward spiral where poor decisions carry little risk and good ones reap all the benefits, and it's time to fix that imbalance.
“lesser reason for them to build support systems that can challenge and guide them”
Yes, this is a viewpoint I would love to see explored. What would motivate leaders to build support systems that would challenge them. in fact why would they even want that - is it nature or nurture? Do we need philosophers to guide them? Do we need an appropriate venue for criticism? Where does shame play a role in this or honor or integrity or principles? What time does a leader have to reflect? What is the role of ambivalence in this? I think I have a letter coming out about how in the last few weeks I have so wanted to be a dictator at work and how I felt during that time. What is the trend line from leadership → dictatorship?
Looking forward to this;)