Good leadership is boring
I'm a quiet, non-sentimental, undramatic person. I do good work and I care deeply, but I struggle with how it doesn't naturally come with the flashiness or volume that catches attention. I often wonder if I'm doing it wrong.
If you identify with this challenge, I can't wait to share with you this TEDx talk by business author Martin Gutmann. I found it so affirming and helpful.
He talks about how good leadership is boring. There is no drama. There are no crises. Most things happen smoothly underneath the surface.
The issue is we're often drawn to leadership that's dramatic, where leaders are actively making waves and furiously solving problems. What's interesting is that we often don’t pause to consider how many of these problems were self-inflicted. If we looked closer, we'd find that these leaders actually created many of the problems due to their ineffectiveness, and at the same time, they are seen for solving them in a dramatic fashion. We remember them solving the problem, not necessarily the fact they created the problem in the first place.
Gutmann cautions that, “We see leadership potential in people who speak more (regardless of what they say), who appear confident (regardless of competence), and who are perpetually busy (regardless of what they're doing).” These are the overt qualities we tend to celebrate.
In reality, good leaders avoid crises. They’ve meticulously planned ahead, and they make it look easy. There are naturally fewer problems to solve. And if there are problems, they'd occur at a less-critical level that would not require dramatic intervention. So the experience under their leadership is relatively uneventful and boring.
Gutmann says, “Nobody ever gets credit for fixing problems that never happened.”
With this understanding, he urges us to give these leaders credit, and he shares two ways to do this:
Ignore the captains of crises
Celebrate those who mitigate drama
Who are the captains of crises in your workplace? Who are the boring leaders?
Which one are you?
If you’re someone who mitigates drama and creates calm seas for your people, start giving yourself credit for that, because good leadership is boring.
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Prefer to watch/listen instead?
Here's the blog in video format!
