The Big Don’t Be for All Legacy Leaders

Jay Newman, PhD, Founding Partner, Culture By Choice

I’ve taken the time to point out what Legacy Leaders need to be, so I thought I’d point out what Legacy Leaders should never be. To me, this is so obvious that I didn’t consider writing about it until a conversation with a client proved me wrong. There are many people who have this trait and don’t recognize that they are this way. What is this big don’t be? Legacy Leaders should never be arrogant.

According to Dictionary.com, arrogance is an “offensive display of superiority or self-importance; overbearing pride.” Alaina Love of the Bloomberg Business Week identifies 12 signs that arrogance is running a company. These are:

1) You hire and develop great people but refuse to listen if their input represents non-conformist thinking.

2) Rather than learn from your mistakes, your company rationalises them.

3) Your company focuses almost exclusively on financial success with little attention directed towards legacy and social impact.

4) Your company objects to sound regulations because they may increase complexity to the way you operate.

5) Your leaders congratulate themselves when the company achieves financial success, even though that success is as a result of market forces rather than performance.

6) Your leaders refuse to believe that the company could fail.

7) The company’s leaders dictate more than they listen.

8) The company underestimates the competition and downplays the success achieved by competitors.

9) The company restricts access to top leadership through layers of bureaucracy.

10) There is a focus on amassing the trappings of success (well-appointed offices, chauffeured cars, etc).

11) Your company takes over in a merger rather than becoming a partner, losing the value of the culture and knowledge of the other organisation.

12) Your company suffers from “not invented here” syndrome, thinking that any innovations coming from the outside are of little value.

If you desire to be a Legacy Leader you must guard against arrogance. Sometimes in our attempt to project confidence we make the mistake of thinking that being humble is a weakness. Nothing could be further from the truth. An arrogant leader commands and demands. A Legacy Leader humbly inquires and in so doing guides followers towards ends that are consistent with the organization’s values and principles. Some have said this just takes too much time. The pace of business is to fast to use that approach. The arrogance of leading without gathering input and carefully considering information from knowledgeable people often causes such distress in an organization that had the leader just taken the time to listen and weigh the possibilities, time, money, and the goodwill of staff could have been saved.

All the reasons given for behaving in an arrogant way are hollow when compared to the wealth of data that tells us that humility is more productive. But, too many don’t believe the research. In one business school class after another, when students are asked why they want to become a boss, their answer is almost always; “so I can tell people what to do rather than be told what to do.” Somehow we have to get the message across that commanding and demanding is an ineffective management style.

If we can build an ever growing cadre of Legacy Leaders we can begin to change the landscape. We’ve suffered through too many arrogant leaders. They’ve made a shambles of too many companies, communities, and government entities. We can and must do better. Join our growing group of Legacy Leaders. Send me an email if you’d like to learn more. (jaynewman@culturebychoice.com)