INsight/ Boss or Leader
/
Photo by Raphael Silva on Pixabay.
Manila, 14 December 2023 — What (not) to learn from The Economist’s Boss Class.
Story
It happened in October 2023. The Economist, an international newspaper that I read and listen to with interest, launched a podcast series called Boss Class, led by the author of their Bartleby column. Now, I don’t agree with everything written in The Economist, and it is this column that I most often find myself disagreeing with. In my view, many of its prescriptions are out of sync with modern leadership research. Hence, I decided with great interest to listen to the seven episodes of Boss Class, and then to the bonus episodes that feature extended interviews with executives that went into the show. In sum, I found the show interesting and I do recommend that you have a listen.
Let me start by acknowledging the team at The Economist for creating this podcast to a cutting-edge standard. I found its form and delivery to be modern, attractive, and packed with insights to learn from. As the title suggests, the intended audience of the show is made up of (aspiring) bosses. With that, I believe they mean managers rather than leaders. There is an important distinction between managing and leading, and we will get to that. There are, however, important behaviors that both managers and leaders can demonstrate, and that is especially important in today’s workplaces. Strikingly, I found that the extended interviews in the bonus episodes are full of examples where executives shared more apt interpretations of what bosses do than the ones offered by the interviewer.
First off, let me share a few golden nuggets taken from the experiences shared by the international executive leaders. Bosses today, they argued, should excel in showing a genuine curiosity about what their colleagues think. Active listening is key to that. Excellent bosses will focus on developing people, they said, and they need to make it abundantly clear that they want their colleagues to succeed. As one CEO put it, “It’s all about motivating people to do more than they thought possible.” That resonated with me. The same boss also underlined the “extreme importance“ of clarifying and communicating Why things should be done or changed. Another nugget for me was that modern bosses could volunteer to offer a short guide to their colleagues on how to best work with them, titled Working with ___ [insert your name]. What a novel approach, I thought, and well worth considering.
Challenge
Overall, I felt inspired by the insights and examples shared by the executives of global as well as local firms who were interviewed for the series. In many cases, the worldviews demonstrated by these top bosses were more expansive and inclusive than the worldview expressed by the interviewer in asking the questions. For example, the interviewer’s notion that bosses can become leaders after succeeding as managers was quickly dispatched by the CEO to whom this question was addressed. Why, I wondered, is there still so much ignorance and confusion about what bosses and leaders should do?
The distinctions offered by researchers over the past few decades are increasingly clear. Summing up my understanding, managing is about optimizing the use of available resources to get the best possible result. Leading, on the other hand, is about influencing positive changes. The modern definition that I enjoy working with—because I think it fits the complex challenges we face in our 21st-century workplaces and projects—is that leadership is a process of influence with three outcomes: Direction, Alignment, and Commitment. This understanding, often referred to as the DAC model for leadership, comes from the research undertaken at the Center for Creative Leadership. I have observed how helpful this definition tends to be to the leaders I work with in coaching and training.
In my experience, communicating clearly what leaders and managers do differently, and what leadership and management are about, can help everyone perform better together in the workplace. To solve our problems, from straightforward issues to complex challenges, we need both people who excel in managing results and people who excel in leading change. From what I have seen, these qualities do not always come together in the same person. Good managers aren’t always good leaders, and vice versa. I would say, generally, that we have a relative abundance of managers and an acute shortage of leaders. That is why I have shifted my career toward growing more leaders.
Question
Boss Class by The Economist helps us see both sides, the managing and the leading. While the Bartleby columnist is focused on how managers can get better at their job—with an explicit appreciation for hierarchy, processes, and structure—several of the bosses interviewed showed how leadership and management are both needed and how leadership qualities can be demonstrated by anyone who finds themselves in a position of authority.
I sincerely hope that the team at The Economist will update and expand their understanding of what leadership is about, and why it is so important to use a modern definition today. Unlike in the past century, leadership is no longer a position—it is so much more than that. As a process of influence, aiming to generate direction, alignment, and commitment to a desired change by all who are involved, leadership is not a solitary undertaking either, but rather a collective challenge. That said we do recognize, of course, that leadership always involves self-leadership, including self-awareness, self-reflection, and self-regulation.
An important message that Boss Class overlooks almost entirely is that exercising leadership in our workplaces today is a collective task more than an individual one. Thankfully, however, most of the executives interviewed had figured this out and were ready to share about it. Leading changes together, and then accelerating and scaling these changes, depends to a large extent on outstanding teamwork. Helping teams stand out and excel is a focus of our coaching at TransformationFirst.Asia. We are excited to support teams of leaders who take on tough challenges and commit to practicing hands-on, learning lessons together out loud as they advance. How does that apply to you?
Resources:
Book a free strategy call for paid leadership and team coaching