“Leadership isn’t a popularity contest.” That was the headline of a newsletter I received this week. The opening paragraph went a little further. It stated, “Leadership isn’t a popularity contest … it’s about doing the RIGHT thing rather than the popular thing.”
What do you think – would you agree?
As I reflected on it, I came to the conclusion that the writer’s argument was contradictory and flawed.
After all, who determines what is right? And how does the leader retain credibility – and hence authority – if no-one else thinks they are right? Any leader able to cling on to their role as leader in such situations does so through force or by virtue of their position or status, rather than their charisma or any other so-called leadership attribute.
The corollary is that, if not leader through force, position or status, the leader will inevitably require popular support for what they are doing. In other words, in such situations, leadership is dependent on the popularity of the leader’s stance, even if it is not, semantically, a popularity contest.
So there you have you it – the paradox of the traditional view of leadership. Leadership appears to be the reward of power, status or popular appeal. Whatever the source, retention of any authority associated with the role depends on either the (normally historic) measures for judging performance in the role or the ability to remain popular. Either way, principle (i.e. being right) does not figure in the equation.
Unfortunately, such articles perpetuate the myth of the leader as someone elite. It is time to challenge this old, entrenched thinking. Not least because it prolongs the paradox and leaves us either as subservient minions to the self-righteous or powerless puppets in the face of popular opinion. Either way, we become discontented, disturbed and disruptive.
Hence the global cry for better leadership. The old models are no longer working and the systems they bred are broken, yet nothing new is created to replace them because the old measures still prevail. We continue to judge against these old measures and, as our leaders continue to fall increasingly short, we lack ideas and/or the capability to devise new ones.
Ultimately change requires vision, and vision is the initial prerogative of few. It is the visionary who conjures a different future. Yet,without entrenched power, they must win “popular opinion” to realise it, because the majority only accept the need for change when the status quo becomes unbearable.
Do not, however, fall into the trap of thinking that this supports the argument of leaders needing to be “right!” It is not a question of being right or wrong. Rather it is a question of responding to what is wrong, looking for an alternative and finding a way to persuade others to explore it with you. But this is not a popularity contest. Rather it simply boils down to my favoured definition of leadership as “making others want what you want.”
Approaching challenges with this mind set:
- · Removes the residue of status leadership, or leadership by position.
- · Eliminates any perception of striving for popularity.
- · Channels energy and reduces the risk of conflict
Best of all it empowers everyone, not just you as a leader, and makes a successful outcome more likely, and perhaps even inevitable – even if it isn’t exactly what you envisaged. Hopefully it will be even better.
Bay is the founder and director of Zealise, a company created to help larger small to large business organisations to properly value their people and thereby inspire them to optimise their self-worth and so engage them that they transform organisational performance and bottom-line results. Bay is also the author of several books, including “Lean Organisations Need FAT People” and “The 7 Deadly Toxins of Employee Engagement.”