What kind of mark do we want to make in the leadership paths that we tread? How do we want to be remembered? How much do we care about the future verses the here and now? A lot of this can be acted on no matter how large or small our role is. This is because it is something that comes with practise and gets better the more we practise and the more we increase our consciousness of its importance. As we shall see, the effect our leadership largely comes down to successorship and our choices in who we empower and how we go about it.
Character & Competence
In Hong Kong, the high humidity levels commonly in the 80-90% band mean that a lot of maintenance is needed in the home just to keep things in basic order. I’ve heard many stories of people who go on vacation and return to find their ceilings and floors are covered with a green or black layer of mould, their clothes have holes in them from moulding, and there have been cases of contamination through leaving food outside. People therefore often ask others to check up and maintain the house whilst away. If you had valuables in the home, what would you consider when handing the keys to someone else for this task? They would need to be ‘trustworthy’ and dependable; and they would need to be ‘able’ to perform whatever maintenance is needed. There are many parallels to choosing worthy people to empower in the workplace as both i) character and ii) competence are important. One without the other will not be optimal and there is a greater ‘long-term risk’ in not making a good choice in regard to the persons character. The general trend will be that a person with character, but who is incompetent will not fare well in the short run as mistakes will not lead results and will be highlighted immediately. On the contrary, competence without good character may not be highlighted immediately as the results continue to flow, however such a person without good character will not attract others to make for a sustainable model, and therefore success will likely be short lived. The ideal combination therefore, is to empower those who are, or can be highly competent, and not only that, but have noble or virtuous character traits. There are a number of examples of such people choices in contemporary world, and ancient world, and we will study some of these to help us i) become better choices for our leaders, and ii) make better choices ourselves.
Back to the Future
One high-ranking executive of a Fortune 100 company, when briefing the new round of newly promoted leaders and owners said, “You should not think that you’ve made it and now you’re entering the elite circle of leaders. But you should think that you are borrowing time from the future leaders.” This statement, whilst short, has profound implications on the mentality leaders should have in nurturing others and not just being self-centered thinking about only the here and now, but how well things can continue once the next generation comes in. There are many speculations about how the great Roman Empire crumbled, but one of the reasons was that there were incredible leaders, who were bold, powerful, and even noble, but they lacked the ability to cultivate and over time hand over to a worthy successor. The Roman Empire had conquered most of the European world, and completely shaped the culture in many countries. The Romans were not easily displacable. It would take some imperfection in themselves as well as outside pressure to make a change. Within a few generations, the Empire was finished off as the external forces were strong, and demanded the best continued leadership from the Romans, which was fading. In a similar way, the corporate environment is sometimes ruthless and always changing, and places a demand on how well we manage succession and the empowerment of others. Research has found that the majority of leaders are not so conscious of succession; it is not in the top tier of priorities at least. Why is this so? It comes down to human nature, and if we are conscious of it, it can be managed in such a way that can increase the depth and breadth of our success.
Choose Wisely
There are many controversial parts in the ancient story of the Ramayana; one of them being Lord Rama’s going to the house of a person in the common working community, and killing this person with an arrow. The reasoning behind this was that this person was extremely determined in performing various rituals etc to become highly empowered, and he did not have the personal good qualities such as benevolence towards others that would make for a responsible person in a position of power, so it was better for the people and society that he was stopped. Lord Rama, as a righteous King who cared for his people, therefore stopped the problem before it manifested. In a separate story, Vrkasura, a demon who was worshipping Lord Shiva, asked Lord Shiva for a boon, or a wish. He wished that if he touched anyone’s head that person would die. Lord Shiva being extremely pure and innocent, thinking that the demon may have a benevolent motive, and being pleased with the demons worship, granted him the boon. The demon then came to kill Lord Shiva himself. Radhanath Swami speaks about the story of Frankenstein with Boris Karloff, where there is a scientist who wanted to created life from a dead person. It was the goal of his career. He eventually bought a dead person back to life, and he realised he had created a monster; violent person, who then came to kill his creator. Therefore, if we are not careful, and are taken off our feet by the razzle and dazzle of immediate results, and do not pay heed to the importance of character, we will encourage and empower people that will not be good for the team, not be good for us, and not be good for the future. This is a lesson that has been learnt through harsh consequences by many.
In conclusion, there are very few people with the determination, track-record and competence, as well as an exceptional set of character qualities that make for an outstanding hire or person to empower; given the dynamics of the environments we are in, it is exceptionally rare. Therefore, we should firstly aspire to provide such a combination of qualities ourselves, because if we do, we will be very attractive and valuable to our leaders. Secondly we should aim to increase our sensitivity to these factors when empowering others, and managing the two factors of ‘competence’ and ‘character’ through the right kinds of mindsets, dialogues, and techniques. We should be seeking opportunities to empower others in the right way all the time, with a broad mind; this will certainly increase our likelihood of having a very powerful and inspiring impact as a leader, which will also lead to growth that is exponentially quicker than we can ever imagine doing on our own.
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