CEO's Blog: Nine leadership qualities for a happier world

Leadership is one of my great passions. It's a big part of what animates me and it’s what defines and shapes the job I do. The older I get, the more I realise that it also influences the books I read, the films I love, my favourite play (“O for a muse of fire”), my interest in politics, the periods of history I keep cycling back to, and so on, and so on. In short, it brings a certain unity to my life and interests.

What follows is consequently grounded in a lot of thought and reflection. That’s supplemented by a bit of personal experience, having been the founding CEO of a business. Mostly though, it’s informed by having been privileged to see many other (much more capable) leaders operate at close quarters. This is something I’ve achieved both through sitting on a number of Boards, and through two decades of interviewing, assessing, and advising leaders across a range of sectors.

Before I dive in, I should offer a few important clarifications.

What do I mean by ‘leadership’? My definition is more than the mere exercise of power. I think true leadership only exists if people follow when they have the freedom not to. So I define it as something like “inspiring others to serve/attain/pursue a higher purpose”. If that’s not your definition, then what follows may feel incomplete, or fail to resonate. 

Is leadership completely transferable? No. I think it’s more transferable than people often imagine. But I’m not saying that someone who masters the following nine qualities would then excel in any leadership position. Precious few individuals are exceptional enough to exhibit an abundance of all nine. But even if they could, the leadership challenges out there often have additional context-specific demands. You may need a level of domain expertise or technical knowledge. Sometimes you need to excel at negotiation. In certain environments, the ability to sparkle on a public platform will be essential, whereas in others it won’t be. There are also differences in terms of scale. The CEO of a large established company faces different demands than the CEO of a start-up. 

Finally, does recognising these qualities mean that I personally possess them? Absolutely not! I have mastered only a tiny fraction of a percent of some of these. There are far better leaders than me out there, and one of the deep joys of my job is that I often get to meet and interact with them. 

Right, with those disclaimers now disclaimed, here are the nine qualities I have in mind:

1. Storytelling

Leadership is perhaps first and foremost about providing a narrative. A leader helps to define who we are, what we need to do, and (most importantly) why we need to do it. Simon Sinek gained global popularity by reminding leaders to ‘Start With Why’. But simply asserting your purpose isn’t enough. The best communicators illustrate it and bring it to life too. In ‘Team of Rivals’, Doris Kearns Goodwin relates Abraham Lincoln’s incredible gift for memorizing and retelling stories. As a young man, he’d apparently attend long lyceum or circuit meetings and listen intently to the tales of any traveller who passed through Springfield. He then translated the stories into words and ideas; reformulating them until they were clear and vivid illustrations that he could use to captivate and persuade his listeners. This was a habit that “eventually constitute[d] his stock‑in‑trade throughout both his legal and political careers.” Today, such effective storytelling is in short supply. A frequent and justified critique of the current Starmer Government in the UK is that it lacks any kind of narrative. But storytelling is sorely needed in the modern world, not least since the circumstances that surround us are otherwise so baffling…

2. Adaptability/Resilience

The US Army War College introduced the concept of VUCA in the late 1980s to describe the world they expected to arise as the Cold War drew to a close. It stands for “Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity”. Looking around us today, you have to applaud their predictive powers. Modern leaders may be required to jettison their best-laid plans within a week, simply because the ground has shifted under their feet. They must be able to flex to altered circumstances, to rise to the demands of any given occasion, and to change how they operate depending on the evolving context around them. At the same time though, a leader mustn’t be blown off course by every passing breeze. Persistence remains a requirement. Longevity, likewise, can be a real virtue. If you want to have an impact on a complex system, then it is likely to take time. Just don’t outstay your usefulness. Then you will quickly do more harm than good. Reconciling these conflicting demands requires a third quality…

3. Wisdom

Wisdom is different from intellect, since the truly wise leader knows that they often won’t be the smartest or best-informed person in the room. Instead, it’s about judgement, mindfulness, and awareness. The wise leader listens and absorbs. They recognise the value and expertise of others (or the lack of it). They seek to look around corners, to maintain peripheral vision, and to scan the horizon all at the same time. Most importantly, they think about the inherent connectedness of things, and about how to navigate and influence the complex systems arising from those inter-relations. Such appreciation can all too easily become paralysing though, and a leader can’t just sit under the Bodhi tree all day. They need to get things done. That demands…

 4. Decisiveness

This isn’t about “instinct”, “shooting from the hip”, or merely “trusting your gut”. These are all very gendered male architypes anyway. But there is an unavoidable extent to which it is the leader’s job to make choices. Very often, those choices will essentially be calculated gambles. Henry Kissinger talked of the need for leaders to make marginal decisions with imperfect information, before others are comfortable doing so. It’s helpful to understand that there are different types of decisions. Some are about ‘above the waterline’ issues. Some are about ‘below the waterline’ issues. Jeff Bezos has a concept of ‘two-way door’ decisions, that can be quickly reversed if they don’t pan out. And not all decisions involve actually doing something. Often the most far-reaching and important decisions will be about closing doors, saying no, and deciding what you aren’t going to focus on. The key thing is to choose rather than to prevaricate. But it’s obviously helpful if that choice is grounded in a thorough assessment of the likely impact of your decision…

5. Inclusivity

Here is where things start to pivot. Up till this point, all the qualities I’ve listed are essentially value-neutral. After all, Victor Orban is pretty good at storytelling and conveying a (twisted and unpleasant) narrative. And Bashar al Assad is (appallingly) adaptable and resilient. But how can these qualities be channelled towards the most positive goal of a happier world? It begins with inclusivity. The best leaders have empathy and are motivated at least in part by a concern for others. My friend John wrote movingly a few months ago about how much people have to deal with in their lives – a largely hidden iceberg of challenges, responsibilities, stresses, and bereavements. The best leaders are alert to this. They have a capacity to connect and develop relationships with those who may be very different from themselves. My model for this is probably the former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who seemed to carry an almost tangible sense of shared humanity into her interactions with people. But it’s not all about the personality of the leader. One of the biggest ways in which this quality is practically expressed is the climate leaders create for others to flourish…

6. Providing Confidence

Every single one of us has had to fail many times before we’ve achieved anything meaningful. To do so, we’ve required leaders to give us space and patience; leaders who stretch but also support us; who build and bolster our self-belief, even whilst we’re stumbling. We can return here to Simon Sinek, who promotes the concept of a ‘Circle of Safety’. The best leaders build this circle around their teams. They cultivate an environment in which people can be vulnerable, information can flow freely, mistakes can be admitted, and help can be both offered and accepted. Although more Darwinian ‘dog-eat-dog’ environments can work for certain personality types (and probably only for a certain period of time), they have an inherent brittleness to them. They also waste talent and potential by expecting it to arise without cultivation. The best leaders are more like gardeners. Does the ‘Circle of Safety’ entail predictability? I’ve become less sure of that over time. Maybe there’s merit to leaders retaining the capacity to surprise. Sometimes it’s helpful to keep people guessing for a bit. But there is no space in great leadership for capriciousness and unreliability – both defining characteristics of the current incumbent of the Oval Office. An unreliable leader will never get the best out of their people or partners…

7. Helping People Understand Themselves

I’ve become a real fan of the Johari Window. It’s usually presented as a square, split into four quadrants: Open (information known to both yourself and others), Blind Spots (what others know about you, but you don’t), Hidden (what you know about yourself, but keep private), and Unknown (aspects of yourself that both you and others are currently ignorant of). A combination of feedback and self-disclosure can expand the size of the Open area, and the best leaders understand that assisting in that process is part of their role. They don’t necessarily pursue this with the teams purely in scheduled performance review meetings either. Instead, the very dynamic of working with them has an element of exploration about it. When people talk about having ‘grown’ during a period spent working with a specific boss, they invariably mean less that they acquired specific new skills, but more that they had a series of revelations or ‘Ah-Ha Moments’ that gave them deeper understanding of themselves. That is most likely to happen when the boss in question is someone you trust, someone with emotional intelligence, and someone who genuinely cares about those around them. People perform best when they feel they themselves are being looked after…

8. Humility and Compassion

The best leaders never lose sight of the fact that leadership is ultimately a privilege. It’s a sacred trust that you are lucky to exercise. It’s also unavoidably time-limited, if only by your own mortality. This vital perspective prevents them from becoming too status-oriented, allows them to appreciate their owns gaps and limitations, and reminds them of the continual need to earn the legitimacy. The best leaders cherish collaboration and are willing to learn from the people they’re leading. They are self-aware, and frequently listen more than they speak. As Jim Collins puts it in ‘Good to Great’ they “…look out the window to apportion credit to factors outside themselves when things go well (and if they cannot find a specific person or event to give credit to, they credit good luck). At the same time, they look in the mirror to apportion responsibility, never blaming bad luck when things go poorly.” This quote captures the essence of what Collins calls ‘Level 5 Leadership’ a blend of humility and fierce resolve. And it’s that fierce resolve piece that we turn to last…

 9. Intensity

You simply have to watch the final four minutes of Episode 7 of the Netflix documentary ‘The Last Dance’. The series deals with Michael Jordan and the 1990s Chicago Bulls. But it doesn’t matter if you’ve never seen a game of basketball in your life. The personality of Michael Jordan is utterly fascinating. Such obsession and single-minded commitment to winning. That unwavering resolve to win. Such incredible ambition and self-belief. He had all of this to almost superhuman levels, but every leader needs a dose of it. I leave this one till last, because it’s almost the secret ingredient that elevates the others. Without the other eight qualities, this instinct can lead to victory, but can also be deeply destructive. That is something Michael Jordan’s tears at the end of the clip would seem to nod towards. But without this quality, the other eight risk being impotent. There is extent to which leadership is exercise in will power. The natural direction of the universe is entropy, so to create or even maintain anything special requires a certain amount of relentlessness and drive. Some intensity is the price of achieving anything worthwhile.

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So that’s my list. Is it exhaustive? Almost certainly not. If there are specific things you feel I’ve overlooked, I would love to hear about it. I hope it provides some food for thought though. For my part, I am curious to revisit it from time-to-time to see if evolves. If I’m still doing this headhunting lark in another 20 years, then it will be an interesting exercise to assess if this still holds true.