During a recent dinner with friends, the conversation turned to the difficulty of working in an organization that lacks strong leadership.  One of my friends was particularly engaged and exasperated by the conversation.  He remarked that only one individual had been honest with him about the critical lack of senior leadership in his current organization while he was hiring into the firm.  This got me thinking about the definitive signs of weak leadership and how one might spot them during an interview.  So, here it is, the Archos Advisors 5 warning signs of critically weak leadership.

1) Lack of a clear organizational mission, vision or strategy

During the interview process, can all of your interviewers speak about the mission and vision of the organization?  If they pull a card out of their wallet, it is not necessarily a bad sign.  Just make sure that they can then tell you how the organization lives up to that mission, and more importantly how they see themselves and your position living up to it as well.

2) Micromanagement or Tyrannical Management

While different types of leaders exhibit different leadership styles, extreme micromanagement or even worse, tyrannical management styles are warning signs of leadership that is having difficulty defining and then executing against the big picture.  Unfortunately, this type of management can become contagious within organizations as the lack of a clearly defined strategy or mission impacts more than just the C-level.  When interviewing, ask individuals to describe their supervisors leadership style.   If their leader is truly corrosive, you might not get a straight answer.  That is a sign, in and of itself.

3) Poor communication

The inability to communicate is often cited as one of the biggest impediments to organizational success.  Successfully sharing ideas, information and inspiration within an organization is increasingly a mark of even middle of the pack leadership.   Leaders must not only be effective communicators in their own right, but they must also create an environment that values frictionless communication.   Ask your interviewers to describe communication in the organization.  Is information shared freely from the top down?  Do people say that they often know what they need to know, in a timely fashion?  Do they both understand and trust the messages they are getting from leadership?  If the answer is no, then perhaps there is a problem.

4)Lack of conflict or corrosive conflict.

Understanding how an organization deals with conflict will give you a clear sense of the organization’s leadership.  And unless you are working in the military under a command and control structure, conflict should be an innate and integral part of any successful team.  Leaders that fear conflict, tend to create organizations that lack diverse thinking, or worse they create passive aggressive behaviors on the part of their frustrated employees.   Ask how the organization deals with differences in opinion.  What is their model for collaboration and consensus?  You want to hear that different voices and opinions are welcome, even though they may create conflict. Even better, if they can report that better outcomes are reached as a result of recognizing different voices you likely have strong leadership in place.

5) Lack of organizational resilience

How does the organization respond to setbacks?  Solid leadership recognizes that change and challenge are unavoidable parts of running an organization.  Resilient leaders find ways of turning those events into learning opportunities, and  eventually competitive advantage.   This requires leadership to do more than react to setbacks.  Leaders should create a culture that uses even small challenges as opportunities to grow and thrive. Simply inquire about how the organization and its leadership handled its most recent setback.

A couple of additional thoughts.

First, I didn’t bother to include issues such as unethical behavior on the part of the leadership because we were just describing weak leadership, as opposed to illegal or immoral leadership.  Second, while this might seem like a lot to ask during the interview process, remember that the presence of adequate leadership in an organization is a good predictor of long-term job satisfaction.

Are there any other signs of weak leadership that I should have included?  Feel free to leave comments and let me know.

This is not a political blog, nor is it a political post. We won’t touch on policy or ideology. And we know that many business leader have expressed concern that Obama’s tax policies are too left-leaning for comfort. But watching Barack Obama throughout the campaign made it clear that he is a living example of leadership mastery, independent of his policy agenda. He shows the Markers, he’s made the Five Shifts of Mastery, he’s led from his Dynamic Essence, he confounded the merely excellent and won, and he’ll reap the Five Rewards of Mastery. Whether you voted for Obama or McCain, this must be recognized. Time will tell if Obama maintains his mastery, but he clearly demonstrates it at this time. Consider first the Five Shifts of Mastery:

Shift 1. Effort to Energy. Of course, Obama gets fatigued like any other human being, but in his constant public appearances, he always appeared lively, alert, present, focused, and tireless throughout the long slog of the campaign. Few people can manage a schedule like that (and McCain is to be commended for taking on the challenge at age 72), but Obama clearly appeared to be tapping into an endless reserve of energy. He displayed even more as time went on, and his energy became self-sustaining. Effort can’t win against this kind of effortless and sustainable energy.

Shift 2. Proficiency to Expression. Obama’s native intelligence affords him a comprehensive grasp of policy, and he’s a quick study. But more importantly, he is superb at expression, both in his oratory skill and also in his ability to articulate a vision and rally people to it. Obama simply spoke his deeply-held truth; he put it out there. He displayed the inhibition that has the power to drive change.

Shift 3. Expertise to Perspective.  Here’s what we wrote in our e-book and other materials about perspective: “Perspective provides an authoritative interpretation of the here and now, as well as what is to come. It sees deeply into the nature of people and circumstances with honesty, integrity, insight, and fearlessness. It knows the score, the real story. Perspective makes us truly visionary.” Obama did this. 

Shift 4. Commitment to Intention. A political campaign is nothing if not a place for incredible commitment. However, in the cacophony of committed voices, on all sides, Obama kept his cool and led from Intention. We write this about Intention: “Intention has the power to make vision real. It is what happens when we get free from distraction and decide to come from our core. Intention says ‘yes,’ with confidence and purity of purpose. True intention is different from will. Will is about ego and power, and it’s prevalent in the Excellence Trap. Not so with Intention. True intention is rare, so it both inspires people and attracts the necessary resources to make vision real.” Intention defines Obama’s approach to leadership. This intention resonated to the rank and file, across the aisle, even to would-be adversaries.

Shift 5. Knowledge to Wisdom. It is impossible to know everything necessary to never misspeak in a presidential campaign. And Obama is no exception, particularly given his relative inexperience. But rather than try to overcome knowledge gaps with deep ideology, spin, or distractions, Obama demonstrated Wisdom. He consistently confounded, surprised, challenged, or inspired legions both in the way in which he handled a number of attacks and crises, and in the manner in which he sustained a vision of post-partisanship, new ideas, and new coalitions for a new era. He had a sense of rightness in what he chose to do and say that served him well. Detractors called this rhetoric or flash, but Obama won, and in large part buy “flipping” red states and creating a broader coalition that included former detractors, including white working class males, Hilary loyalists, moderate republicans, and African-American leadership figures (the proof of the latter is evident the tears of joy Jesse Jackson shed in Grant Park).

Leadership mastery confounds mere excellence by achieving the extra 5% that defines greatness. McCain’s campaign threw everything they had at Obama, and still he triumphed without apparently breaking a sweat. McCain had smart people who displayed all the virtues of excellence: effort, proficiency, commitment, expertise and knowledge. But it wasn’t enough. Obama won by showing masterful leadership in his campaign, and by suggesting that he would do the same in his presidency. Conversely, McCain appeared increasingly angry, tired, and cut off from his own core beliefs. His strategy was more visible, calling into question the integrity and even the existence of his core beliefs (until he shared them in his concession speech, considered by many to be his finest moment), and causing former supporters from 2000 or 2004 to abandon him.

Obama also displayed the Five  Markers of Mastery: fearlessness (by getting into the race against the odds and taking his vision everywhere he went), gracefulness (by staying cool under great pressure, never taking the bait), generativeness (by championing new ideas and new visions), effortlessness (see above), and intuitiveness (intuiting that America was ready for him, and intuiting the best ways to respond to attacks and crises, from Rev. Wright, to  alleged links to terrorists, to charges of Marxism).

Now Obama will reap the Five Rewards of Mastery: sustainability (by building upon a deep and powerful foundation of aligned mastery), integrity (by entering office with a clear agenda, largely unsullied by dirty campaign tricks and marriages of convenience), attraction (by attracting goodwill and talent, at all levels of society), attunement (aligning a broad cross-section of global supporters and partners), and capacity (the big payoff for everything else). Ultimately, if he delivers on his campaign “promise,” Obama will enjoy unprecendented levels of effectiveness, alignment, and sustainability, and leave a lasting legacy. This is what masters do.

 Throughout the campaign, many people on both sides of the political divide spoke about how Obama is not just a set of polices, but is rather a “very special person” and a “once in a lifetime leader.” If you are an Obama supporter, you can rest assured that you have a masterful leader working for you. To the extent that business leaders are fearful of Obama’s more liberal-leaning statements regarding tax policy, you have two choices. You can work with him, trusting upon the perspective, wisdom, and pragmatism that comes with mastery. Or you can seek to undermine him from the outset. But note that if you oppose Obama and look forward to a shift in direction in the next election, you will not defeat him with mere excellence, or with only a bundle of alternative policies. A master can only be met with more mastery, so you’ll need to find a master. A real one.

Thsi weekend, I devoured Walter Isaacson’s bestselling biography of Albert Einstein. This excellent book does a great job of helping us to understand both the science and the man. While Einstein was imperfect and a bit eccentric (he hated socks), his mastery is unquestionable. There were many excellent scientists in his circle who got close relativity, but Einstein had the decisive breakthrough primarily because he had escaped from excellence. He led with energy more than with effort (although his effort was herculean), and with intention rather than mere commitment. He also went beyond proficiency and expertise to attain true expression and perspective. And, even though his strategic moves are legendary, acumen was child’s play to him; he always sought wisdom in his science and denigrated science that lacked this wisdom.

But late last night, while in the last chapters, the elements of a new equation that explains so much of Einstein’s mastery leapt off the page at me. Here it is: C+A=W>M. To have fun wth symbols, let C be curiosity, let A be awe, and let W be wonder, with M as, you guessed it, mastery.

Einstein had a boundless curiosity, but it was always accompanied by an almost religious sense of awe. He was no mere puzzler, but needed to see to the heart of things. This curiosity and awe added up to a sense of wonder, a humble and almost child-like sense of that ’something more’ that transcends the mundane. And this wonder, even more than his technical genius, his brain, or his independance, is the driving force of his mastery. He had a sense of the beauty, of the possibility, of the sublime in nature, and he saw it as both his mission and his gift to understand nature, from atom to cosmos, and be devoted to it. He saw this as an act of artistic creation. This was his Dynamic Essence. He couldn’t not follow it. He built his life around it, and achieved mastery. The results were exponentially greater than what had come before. He also enjoyed, in his reknown, legacy, and “profit,” an exponentially greater reward. And with his unfailing good humor, he demonstrated that the costs of excellence were left far behind.

What a guy.

We’ve heard many definitions of the role of a leader, from maximize shareholder value to groom a successor. We have a definition of Leadership Mastery that we believe will prove revolutionary…

The single most important job of a leader is this: “Discover, release, express, and sustain the Dynamic Essence of your business. This includes yourself, your teams, associates, partners, brands, and markets.” This is the role of the CEO. This is leadership defined, at every level. And you read it first right here.

I could tell countless stories about successful, capable, excellent business leaders who go through their day subtly, quietly, and subconsciously driven by these popular killers of Dynamic Essence:

- Fear: what if things turn out badly?

- Ego: how can I look good?

- The Five Failed Strategies of Excellence: Denial, Toughness, Resignation, Escapism and Balance

- Reliance upon the Virtues of Excellence after having crossed the Falling Point

No successful person wants to admit that fear, ego, etc. play a role in their lives. Isn’t that only for jerks? NO! Fear, ego, the five failed strategies, and over-reliance upon what made us excellent in the first place define the human condition for everybody who has not shifted from excellence to mastery. It is all of us.

The only escape is to discover, release, express, and sustain your Dynamic Essence, and that of your teams, business, partners, brands, and markets. Period.

I’ll say it again. The single most important job of a leader is this: ”Discover, release, express, and sustain the Dynamic Essence of your business. This includes you, your teams, associates, partners, brands, and markets.”