What makes a good leader truly excellent?

By Zoe Schulz and Adrien Gaubert

Leadership comes in many different forms, from an older sibling showing empathy and kindness to their youngers, to political powerhouses holding the fate of a country in their palm. But what makes a good leader truly excellent? Is this question subjective in itself? 2020 has so far been a year that we won’t forget, although perhaps not quite for the reasons. Through this crisis, we’ve seen many unlikely leaders pop up; with key workers shining bright and brave activists speaking up for Black Lives Matter. In the past leadership was often reserved only for a certain type of person, yet this is changing and there’s a lot of evidence to suggest this shift will be the future of leadership.

In 2015, The New York Times reported that there were more CEO’s named John, than female leaders in America. Fast forward to just last year here in Britain and the FTSE 100 had a meagre 6 female CEO’s and BAME leaders had decreased from the following year to just 7.4%. This sends a message that an effective leader can only be one type of person, and unless you fit into that, perhaps leadership just isn’t for you. Many social researchers hypothesise that from a very young age we are all socialised into seeing leaders as people who are bold, assertive and confident. We see these inspiring decision-makers as seamlessly charismatic and unafraid to make hard decisions. This is not only learnt from our environment, but represented in the movies, films and books we digest. Yet, when these traits are given to women, non-binary people and those from other marginalised groups, they transform into detrimental characteristics. Women who act in this way are perceived as bossy, pushy and blunt. This creates a catch-22 where women who show personality traits that are stereotypical of their gender are thought of as not fit for leadership, yet when they show the opposite, they become unlikeable. This is even more intensified for Women of Colour who face all of this, plus are often stereotyped as ‘angry’ at the presence of the slightest emotion. The stereotypes that People of Colour are ambushed within the workplace mean that they often have to work twice as hard, just to be taken seriously. Kelechi, a Black gay musician, recently opened up about his experience of this on Instagram, “I’ve been called threatening in meetings at previous places of work for just trying to get my point across. Meanwhile the Brads and the Karens of the world get to roll their eyes and raise their voice and are they’re just ‘passionate.’” We have all, often unknowingly, been absorbing unconscious biases and stereotypes for the most part of our life and it takes active work to unlearn them. This means, if your scouting for leadership prodigies it’s important to take into consideration your own biases and actively combat them.

We’ve also consistently seen that these stereotypical characteristics are not an accurate depiction of successful leaders. The former Mayor of New York Rudolph Giuliani once said, “it is in times of crisis that good leaders emerge”, if so 2020 should the breeding ground of such leaders. Coronavirus has impacted almost every corner of the globe, yet we’ve seen drastically different results in different jurisdictions, largely due to the different leadership of each country. When it comes to a pandemic, successful leadership is not a bonus, but life-saving, and many are suggesting that it is the countries led by women that have come out on top. Angela Merkel has made a mockery of the UK and surrounding European countries, with the ease at which she has minimised causalities in Germany. Whilst the UK has been caught in between choosing to save lives or the survival of the economy, she’s managed to protect both and made it look easy. Over in Finland, where 34-year old Sanna Marin leads with a coalition of all female-led parties, they have seen 10% less deaths than their neighbours in Sweden. Then in Taiwan, their President Tsai Ing-wen has had one of the most effective efforts across the globe in containing the spread of the virus. She has done what most other countries failed to do, by acting early with vigorous testing and contact tracing, she has managed to avoid the need for a full lockdown. A list of effective female leaders wouldn’t be complete without Jacinda Arden, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, who has now announced her country as virus-free. Throughout the crisis she has shown honesty and empathy to her country, often appearing live on Facebook to her country from her own living room in casual comfy clothing, sharing that she had just put her young toddler to bed. Leaders are often put up on pedestals or seen as untouchable, but by doing the exact opposite Arden has made herself relatable and thereby earned the country’s trust. It was this approach that she used in dealing with the terrorist shooting at a synagogue in Christchurch in 2019. She mourned with the victims’ families, while simultaneously changing the laws overnight to ensure the weapons used would never be legally obtained again, showing that kindness and strength are two sides of the same coin. We have been told for too long that a leader should not be emotional, however, Arden is evidence of the exact opposite.

Jacinda Arden with family members of victims of Christchurch attack 2019

The idea that our emotions hold us back, is not only outdated, but goes against the science behind effective leadership. Recent research from Harvard delved into what makes the world’s most successful leaders so brilliant and the answer wasn’t a hunger-for-power or lightning speed intellect, but emotional intelligence. Emotional Intelligence is “the level of your ability to understand other people, what motivates them and how to work cooperatively with them” explains Howard Gardner, Harvard theorist. This involves a level of self-awareness in being able to recognise your own emotions and those of others, making it crucial in decision making. For years, research has been piling up to show a strong connection between emotional intelligence and job performance, with many organisations now looking for this trait when recruiting candidates. In the workplace, high emotional intelligence equates to the ability to collaborate well with others, openly communicate and adapt to change, all of which are invaluable in an effective teammate and leader. For decades, women have been penalised for “talking too much about their feelings”, it was thought a leader should be able to separate their decisions from their emotions, a cold-as-ice approach preferred. However, in practice the opposite is true, being able to openly communicate your own emotions and picking up on the emotions of those around you makes you a better leader, not a worse one. If you’re wondering what happens when a leader lacks such quality, Trump is a shining example. Throughout his leadership, many have speculated that his emotional outbursts and quick ill-judged decisions show a stark absence of emotional intelligence, further evidence that this is a trait of successful leaders.

Trump is not the first, nor likely the last, in the line of ineffective leaders whom we can all learn lessons from. From Napolean, whose lack of patience and short temper led to his eventual demise, to Caeser who ignored his subordinates resulting in his assassination, there is a lot we can learn from history and the lessons others have learnt the hard way for us. Many of these lessons are still relevant as ever today, although the leader of a successful company is unlikely to be assassinated, ignoring employees can definitely result in them losing their position. Alexander the Great, ruled successfully over one of the largest empires, yet left no heir, so once he was gone as was his empire. A true leader should be looking to the future, building a legacy that will last, this means leaving structures and people in place to continue growing your vision when you no longer can. Failing to do so means all you have built can be gone in just a few years. In his Handbook of Leadership, Ralph Melvin Stogdill describes leaders ‘as an agent of change, a person whose acts affect other people more than other people acts’ affect them.’ True leaders do not impose their ideas with coercive manners, they instead inspire others to follow and drive together positive change. Oppressive leaders will eventually fall and be remembered as an example of dictatorship or ‘what not to do’ in the history books. It’s often said that history repeats itself, but it doesn’t have to. Knowing our history means we can be more successful in carving out our own future, and many of these lessons can be applied to our personal and business lives. Yet, we also have to be unafraid to do things differently and throw out the mould of what we’ve been told a leader is. History is still being written, and we can all have a say in how this is done.

For a long time, LGBTQ+ leaders were few and far between, yet we are seeing this change across the world as a push for more progressive and inclusive leadership. These leaders will act as role models to young queer people across the world and it’s important they use their platform to speak up for all LGBTQ+ people, with no one in the community left behind. If you are a white gay man and are invited to speak about racism within the LGBT+ community, why not suggest some who is BAME to share their experience? People can be more knowledgeable than you and that is ok to let them speak. You have to remember a great leader is selfless and is able to think about the greater good. If LGBTQ+ leaders have common traits with their straight/cis counterparts (positivity, integrity, empathy, resilience, vision, patience, humility, great communications skills and be ability to share knowledge), a great LGBTQ+ leader will also be able to empower and support all the letter of the LGBTQ+ community and be ready to be and give a voice to everyone.

Leaders and managers are frequently wrongly looked at as synonyms. Although often a leader has a management role, all managers cannot be leaders. In his book Leadership in Organizations: There is a Difference Between Leaders and Managers, David I. Bertocci says, ‘Leaders are able to generate highly energized behaviour by communicating to followers how they are part of the solution to a problem. Empowerment tends to make followers believe they truly are an important part of the work and their participation is crucial to the accomplishment of the mission. Managers, on the other hand, measure performance as compliance with the plan and evaluate deviations to that plan on an ongoing basis. Leaders are the yeast the bread needs to grow. The baking tray is not enough alone to make your recipe a success.'

When it comes to effective leadership, perhaps it is not what you know, but what you are willing to learn that matters. This year has been one that has tested and pushed even the greatest of leaders, and it’s also taught us that in a crisis empathy and kindness are invaluable in those leading the way through. When it comes to LGBTQ+ equality, we still have work to do to ensure everyone is free to be themselves. If we are to truly achieve this we will need LGBTQ+ leaders that are unafraid to speak out and able to inspire people across the world. Whether you are a leader within your organisation, community or family, you can look to the past to learn lessons on great leadership, but you can also throw the rulebook out the window and carve your own route.