We Expect Too Much of One Leader

Near the end of our Belonging and Retention season, I asked Danna Greenberg and Scott Taylor, who teach organizational behavior at Babson College, to name the leadership crisis in one sentence.

Scott's answer was immediate: we expect far too much of the individual.

"We are trying to do too much as individuals, and we have extraordinary expectations on the individual."

The hero leader myth

Danna traced the hero leader myth back to the 1980s, when business schools taught the image of the larger-than-life executive who carries the organization alone. That model can work for a while. The moment an organization hits real turbulence, it breaks down. The challenges leaders face now, healthcare among them, will not be solved by any one group, not physicians, not politicians, not management scholars. They require people who trust one another enough to work through problems together.

Scott told a story that captures the cost of holding on to the old model. At a large company, the top patent innovator, whose work had generated enormous value, refused to manage a team. Scott was asked to change his mind. Instead he listened. The innovator wanted to develop people, just not do the administrative work of managing them. When Scott explained this to the head of HR, she said the org chart had no box for that. Scott told her she was missing the point. She could lose him, or she could create a box.

What relational leadership looks like

Scott offered a practical example. When someone experienced joins your organization, sit down with them every two or three weeks and ask what they have noticed that makes them wonder why things are done a certain way. That newcomer knowledge is valuable, and asking for it tells people their thinking matters from day one.

Danna added that the biggest mistake leaders make is taking responsibility away from people when they make mistakes. Coach them instead. Scott pointed out that many leaders already lead this way with their teenagers or in volunteer work. They just assume it isn't allowed at work.

Scott is even rethinking accountability. Married almost 30 years, he said he doesn't go home and hold his wife accountable, yet they keep growing and contributing together. He calls the alternative relational accountability, where people hold each other to a standard because they are invested in one another's goals. And Danna's advice for leaders was simple: don't be afraid of change.

Purpose before success

Rob Craven offered a different way to think about leadership. When Rob was six, his father learned he might have only a couple of years to live and set out to teach his son everything he knew, down to how to shave, years before Rob had a hair on his face. His three lessons, make a difference, be bold and do what's right, became Rob's anchor.

Today Rob tells his clients something unusual for a business advisor: "I stand for your personal fulfillment, not for your business success. The business success is a result of your personal fulfillment, of honoring purpose."

He calls this Capitalism 3.0. In his retreats, he writes each executive's personal purpose above the company's purpose and asks whether they see themselves in it. Most do. When someone doesn't, he tells them, "I love you too much to let you stay here."

A generation that already understands

The next generation seems to grasp this instinctively. I recorded a conversation with Deevena Annavarjula, Lesly Leon, Natalie Stopfer and Keshaav Krishnaa just after they finished Cornell's Sloan master's program in health administration. A study had found that three in four young Americans prefer hospital careers to big tech, and I asked them why.

Keshaav left dentistry in India because there was more to fix than teeth. Natalie, once a behavioral health nurse, had asked Santa for bandaids as a child so she could stock her school desk. She lives by a simple rule: "there's no growth in the comfort zone and there's no comfort in the growth zone." Deevena said stability no longer means staying in one lane for 30 years, but finding your place at every phase of your career. And Keshaav described a meaningful career this way: "For me, a meaningful career is at the intersection of empathy and impact, because you're able to see the impact that you're making within the community that you serve."

Questions for leaders

• What are you carrying alone that others could share?
• Who in your organization contributes in a way your org chart has no box for?
• Do you lead from what you stand for, or from what you think a leader should look like?
• What would the newest person on your team say you are doing that no longer makes sense?

You can watch Reimagining Leadership with Danna and Scott, Scaling Purpose with Rob and The Next Generation of Healthcare Leaders in the Belonging and Retention season.

The age of the hero leader is ending. As Scott reminded me, the incremental often leads to the exponential. Start with one conversation, and trust every person to lead from who they are.

Want to explore these ideas further? Learn more about my work on leadership, identity and conviction at www.theglennllopis.com.