“Becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself. It is precisely that simple and it is also that difficult.”
Effective, morally sensitive, and resilient leadership is not something that can be taught and learned in a semester, prescribed in a clean step-by-step manual, nor permeated from one to another through passive osmosis. It must be learned first-hand, developed from having personally molded ‘irons in the fire’, adapted to the circumstance and cultural environment, and iteratively improved from incremental but clear lessons learned and accepted failures.
My leadership style has evolved slowly and organically over the past seven years – and continues to evolve – as I have grown from a junior, individual technical contributor to a senior, lead technical engineer on one project and project manager on another. As a member of a highly technical Research and Development (R&D) organization, whose workforce consists largely of scientists and engineers with Master’s degrees or PhD degrees, my ability to influence and lead others stems principally from my technical knowledge and expertise. As Michael Jordan says, “Earn your leadership every day” [Ref. 1]; in my organization, leadership is largely earned through a select few execution skills of team leaders that Richard Hackman defines in “Leading Teams: Setting the Stage for Great Performances” [Ref. 4]: implementation skill, decision-making skill, and teaching skill. Although technical know-how is highly valued in my organization, to grow into top leadership roles increasingly requires both ‘interpersonal skills’ and ‘envisioning skills’. Put another way, the emphasis becomes less on what you know and more on how you relate to others, who you know, how you communicate, and your ability to articulate strategy and vision.
In my estimation, the decisive key to a strong leader (versus manager) – who does not fall prey to distractions (e.g., the seductive lure of riches) and the whims of scattered opinion – is his or her ability to integrate personal values into the workplace, notice and sense ethical dilemmas, and respond to moral quandaries in a manner consistent with their upheld, foundational values. Knowing who you are and what you stand for is of the utmost importance. As the saying goes, “if you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything” [Ref. 3].
The most important values to me today that shape my worldview and day-to-day decisions and interactions are authenticity (say what you mean and mean what you say), honesty (don’t cheat or steal), integrity (let principles, vice emotion, guide your actions), adventure (be bold and explore), and self-discipline (keep control over your mind and body). These personal values help inform my leadership style, as I learn new lessons and overcome challenges – technical, managerial, and ethical.
Outside of work, I am an avid endurance runner and enjoy yoga. These two activities help my sense of self-discipline, self-regulatory capacity, and the fluctuating ability to take notice and modulate my thoughts, moods, or emotions. An analogy that I have taken a liking to is the idea of having a “strong and flexible spine.” This spine, however, also needs to be coupled with the stamina to endure and persevere through moral challenges, to build moral resilience. This moral resilience is what creates a strong, effective business leader.
As Cynthia Rushton has written, having a strong spine (through knowing resolutely what one stands for) helps one avoid moral complacency (not caring enough to take ethical action or make improvements) and dampened moral sensitivity (reduced ability to notice ethical dilemmas) [Ref. 7].
My leadership challenges over the past few years (as lead technical engineer on one project and project manager on another) have largely revolved around grappling how to best motivate a team of highly capable engineers (many of whom are more experienced than I); how to balance coordination of team efforts, articulating envisioned end-states, coaching individuals, while not micro-managing tasks nor overly prescribing process; how to connect with individuals on a deeper, more personal level; and how to balance ‘serious’ work matters with lighter, more jovial approaches to task execution and meetings.
To address these challenges above, I have identified three leadership aspects to improve.
The first leadership area I will improve upon is in networking – both personal and strategic, as outlined by Ibarra and Hunter [Ref. 5]. The first step to take in this area is upon graduation in May 2021 from my MBA program, get regularly involved in my neighborhood association (just closed on a townhouse in a new neighborhood in November 2020) and the Project Management Institute (PMI). This step has been chosen because I have already joined PMI and am also on the email list for my neighborhood association; furthermore, I have a strong desire to get more connected with my community (volunteer work and advocacy), as well as to strengthen my skillset and rolodex of contacts in the project management realm. The second step here is simply to connect more one-on-one with individuals – through concerted efforts to engage in small talk and discuss matters on the phone (vice sending an email). This step has been chosen because it is a personally-apparent choice in many of my engagements with others and meetings – the active decision whether or not to start business “abruptly”, take the route of least resistance (e.g., send a quick email), or to instead connect with individuals more thoughtfully and personally.
The second leadership area I would like to improve on is in a soft skill area: the ability to use humor to diffuse situations and connect with individuals. At work, I have noticed select leaders who have garnered immense respect both from their technical prowess and their astute ability to interject humor into meetings, even with high-level staff. Although humor at work does not come naturally to me, one step I seek to do to actively improve in this area is to enroll back into Baltimore Improv Group (BIG) classes, once I graduate from school and improv classes return to in-person (e.g., Improv 102 in Summer 2021). This step has been chosen because I have already done Improv 101 with BIG in the past (pre-COVID shutdown), deeply enjoyed it (also brought me far outside my comfort zone!), and want to continue this for personal growth and to enhance my creativity.
The third and final leadership area in which to improve is in recognizing team members’ contributions and outstanding achievements more publicly and frequently. I have a colleague who intermittently sends out emails to staff member’s line managers, giving sincere compliments to those who may have done an excellent job facilitating an important discussion, or briefing a critical technical analysis to stakeholders. These are always well-received. As Robert Cialdini noted [Ref. 2], locating genuine similarities and giving sincere compliments helps double one’s persuasive power, when coupled with clear expertise. The steps to take for this item are simply to give a sincere compliment (verbal or email) to a coworker at least once a month – and give a handwritten note at least once a year (I have received these personalized notes just two times over seven years, and they have been tremendously impactful on my morale and desire to reciprocate to the sender).
There are several ways to ascertain and track progress on my outlined steps that strengthen my ability and potential to lead others effectively. These involve the following feedback mechanisms:
Quarterly “coaching sessions” with my section supervisor (immediate line manager)
One-on-one conversations, informal and formal, with my direct reports
Annual performance assessment with my group supervisor (two line managers up)
Number of LinkedIn contacts and voluntary social engagements (cumulative and marginal, on monthly basis)
Although I already have a diverse and numerous set of contacts, if I am not out proactively meeting new people (proxied by number of LinkedIn contacts), I am surely stagnating – not practicing and improving my networking skill, and not actively building a fabric of personal contacts who can critically “provide support, feedback, insight, resources, and information” [Ref. 5]
If these steps are not working, then I will enlist the support and guidance of current and past mentors, with whom I have built a rapport through mentorship programs and general ‘time in the trenches’ together. No one person can do it all alone; it is critical to lean on coaches and those who have forged through the fire and can purvey their experience and wisdom, in the hopes of preventing others (like me) from having to repeat the same mistakes over again.
In conclusion, becoming myself and becoming a leader is exceptionally difficult, but it is a process that I am confident I can continue, given my unique background (technical and business), diverse experiences (living abroad, travel, ultramarathons), and desire for continual learning and personal growth.
As a current and future leader, it is my full intention – through moral diligence, discernment, and applying feedback from lessons learned – to consistently encourage and develop virtuous and principled actions (deeds) from others and myself and to have the moral resilience through training to remain calm and ethically grounded in the midst of challenging circumstances.
May my spine of the future be stronger and more flexible than today.
References:
1) 72 Amazing Leadership Quotes That Will Inspire You To Be Great. (2020, March 18). Retrieved December 13, 2020, from https://www.workzone.com/blog/leadership-quotes/
2) Cialdini, Robert. Harnessing the Science of Persuasion. Harvard Business Review. October 2001.
3) Garson. (n.d.). If You Don't Stand for Something, You'll Fall for Anything. Retrieved April 12, 2019, from https://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/02/18/stand-fall/
4) Hackman, J. Richard. Leading Teams: Setting the Stage for Great Performances, Chapter 7, Imperatives for Leaders.
5) Ibarra, Herminia, and Mark Hunter. How Leaders Create and Use Networks (EBSCO).
6) Kruse, K. (2018, July 18). 100 Best Quotes On Leadership. Retrieved December 13, 2020, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinkruse/2012/10/16/quotes-on-leadership/?sh=529dc3912feb
7) Rushton, C.H. Moral Resilience: A Capacity for Navigating Moral Distress in Critical Care, AACN Advanced Critical Care, Vol. 27, Number 1, pp. 111-119, 2016.