When we picture leadership, we often visualize strength, courage and boldness. All worthy traits. Yet great leadership also has its roots in listening, understanding, perspective, good judgment, and balance. This moderation provides a solid base of support for bold leaps that prevent disasters.
Some leaders focus mostly on the elements of strength and boldness because they mistakenly believe that moderation means mediocrity, (It doesn’t!) As they seek excellence only through extremes, they destabilize the organization with wild swings and are surprised when the business slides.
Moderation doesn’t mean mediocrity. It’s a balanced approach that builds a strong base of support for bold leaps!”
Leadership: Do You Seek Excellence Only in Extremes?
As you assess your leadership style, take a deeper look at where you might be falling into these dangerous extremes.
1. The Myopia of Metrics. Are you leading from metrics? Are you measuring everything in the belief that if you can’t measure it, your organization will have mediocre performance? Metrics are valuable but an extreme view of metrics leads the organization down a dangerous road.
You will lose productivity measuring things that aren’t worth measuring. Your view will be skewed to the comfort of metrics. You will breed a status quo work culture that is afraid of change and innovation because the data isn’t there to prove it’s OK to step into the new.
Everything than can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted.”
~Albert Einstein
Lead from vision and use metrics as one indicator of success. Remember to tap diverse experience, engage employee talent, exercise critical thinking, and use committed action to make the vision come to life. Moderating all these elements is the good judgment of great leadership.
2. The bomb of boldness. Sometimes bold risks pay off. Boldness can also bomb out when it is actually self-absorbed tunnel vision. Leading without any feedback puts you all in a bubble that can suddenly burst. Acting purely through hunches is leadership folly. Silencing diverse views detours you from realistic optimism to dreamy-eyed denial.
Have a bold vision. Inspire all to work toward it. Ask and engage great questions, tap critical thoughts and experience. Address the change resistant pessimistic naysayers with clear communication. Yet never confuse great action-oriented questions with complaining. They are distinctly different. Moderating all these factors minimizes risk.
3. The burn of bluntness. When high level leaders interact with their direct reports who are also leaders, they often use the extreme form of honesty — bluntness — and it is accepted. The premise is that it cuts through obstacles to reach excellence more quickly.
When you use the same bluntness on team members at the staff level, it burns and inflicts emotional scars. It leaves employees cautious and less willing to engage and take risks. This is not a path to excellence.
Some leaders react to this response by labeling employees as too sensitive. They tell them to toughen up and not take things personally else the organization will wallow in feelings. How ironic it is that this view is, itself, a feeling not a fact.
The truth is that the more authority and direct responsibility you have for success, the easier it is to accept bluntness. You can see the bluntness as protective and helpful. You also feel empowered to make changes to prevent additional blunt barbs. The further you are from the responsibility and authority, the more the bluntness feels like criticism and disdain.
Leaders, moderate your approach to deal with this truth. With staff, speak honestly with care not blunt with emotion. Honesty is the key. An example: “Stop being so slow and lazy” is blunt with emotion. “I need you to move more quickly on this …” is honesty with care.
Moderation does not slow excellence. It doesn’t block success. It simply counterbalances risk. It builds a strong base of support out of awareness, information, broad understanding, and critical thinking. From there, the bold leaps that you make are far more likely to produce excellence and success.
What other extremes detour success & how do you moderate them? Please share your thoughts in the comments section.
About Kate Nasser
A beautiful written work. I like the great people skill you shared in this post. We must do things in moderation because even the holy book says “Do not be overly righteous.”
I learned to pursue excellence but not perfection.
Thank you coach Kate for coaching us on this.
Dear IFEANYIENOCHONUOHA,
I love your reference to “don’t be overly righteous.” As we pursue excellence — not perfection — we continue to give and grow. With your gentle reminder, you have given wings and spirit to leaders’ daily struggles.
Thank you, truly, for reminding us of the simple leadership tenet: Give and think of others first.
Warmest wishes,
Kate
Hi Kate.
As we read this, we all have the opportunity to open our eyes to the excess of extremes and today’s tendencies for leaders to move toward opposing poles. I offer adding Tolerance and Assertiveness to your list of extremes that detour success. At either end, each of these behaviors have negative impact. Low tolerance/high assertiveness – “bull in the china shop mentality”. A leader may get results with this behavior – ONCE. Sustainable results are non-existent, however. And on the opposite side of the scale, high tolerance/low assertiveness. “Just walk all over me – it’s ok.” No – it’s not ok. I like to compare moderation of assertive and tolerant behaviors to “win-win thinking.” Mutual benefit.
Thank you for sharing this great post.
All the best,
Susan
Great examples of extremes Susan that make the need for balance SO clear. I think everyone will remember your tolerance/assertiveness references the next time they are faced with “What do I do now?”
Truly grateful for your comment. You have underscored the message so well.
Best to you!
Kate
Great post Kate! I struggle at times with moderation because I can be very exuberant when new ideas surface…and can be taken off track, away from our team objectives. To combat this, I have made my team very aware of this characteristic and have asked them to support me by calling me out on it. This works.
I truly appreciate your reminder that “moderation does not slow excellence”…it is now a post-it on my computer screen!
Lora,
I am honored to make your post-it notes — truly. I use many visual cues in my office. They do change behaviors!
As we all remember that balance takes strength and delivers strength we don’t fall into the trap of thinking moderation means mediocrity.
Best to you and have a terrific day!
Kate
Terrific post, Kate, prompting leaders to use moderation in managing paradox. Great and effective leaders use both candor and diplomacy, encourage innovation through failure, and assess qualitative as well as quantitative measures. Competency models and performance management all too frequently reward the extremes you illustrate, so inspiring leaders to take the road less travelled is wise advice for those who want to truly make a positive difference.
Love how you point out the power in the softer side of leadership: “Great leadership also has its roots in listening, understanding, perspective, good judgment, and balance.” Bravissima!
Thank you Jane. Times change as so must we as leaders. Diversity of culture and generational differences require leaders to flex and teach others to do the same — all without losing balance and focus.
Always grateful for your insight and feedback!
Warmest wishes,
Kate
“When you use the same bluntness on team members at the staff level, it burns and inflicts emotional scars. It leaves employees cautious and less willing to engage and take risks.”
Kate, do you think that this (leaves employees cautious …) is because of past experiences or just common behavior? Is it “cultural dependent” or natural to all?
I’ve been in different positions and situations and always heard “you have the guts to …” but my motto through life was that people “treat you the way you allow (accept) them?” just referring to great film: “La vita è bella” by Roberto Benigni.
Your opinion would be much appreciated 🙂
Cheers jaro.
Hi Jaro,
You ask a very interesting question — “What goes into it/what does it depend on?”
There are many factors of course. You mention “Internal guts” and yes that can develop over time. Yet I find that “gutsy” folks sometimes believe everyone is gutsy or should be gutsy and through that fallacy blurt/blunt out their thoughts.
For those who feel they have very little organizational power or influence, it leaves scars. Organizational culture and leadership style play a big role in this as well. Do leaders retaliate if people speak up? Is there a confusing message “Be gutsy yet don’t disagree with me?”
You mention past experiences as a cause of feeling scarred. Well past experiences often play a role. Yet I think what staff perceive in the present or don’t see in their current work culture has an even stronger effect.
Do they see the leaders:
– Truly encouraging differences of opinion and engaging in respectful discourse?
– Giving positive feedback more than negative!
– Highlighting and appreciating individual talents?
Morale matters. It really does. And a culture of tough “lay out all the mistakes” will not toughen everyone up in a positive way.
Study after study shows that for many people, positive recognition and appreciation affect engagement and productivity.
My motto: Be honest with care not blunt w/ scarring emotion.
Kate
Kate yes indeed “organizational culture and leadership style play a big role…” where “…what staff perceive in the present or don’t see in their current work culture…” comes in. Like this very much as it is introducing a kind of “happy organization” where inner self of a leader and emotions are perceived as valuable assets. Which (unfortunately) today most companies overlook due to time, finance (=profit) and other factors and therefore just swipe under the curtain.
What would be then an answer to: “how to change these attitudes (current corporate culture / or capital behavior) to come to what I like to tell: ‘Organizations are made for employees to work there, and organizations suffer when employees are made to fit the organization’?”
Jaro.
Moderation isn’t the sign of mediocrity, or even weakness. Another great post on the impact of leadership behaviours and the need for self awareness. Enjoyed your post thanks Kate.
Thank you Peter! As we re-assert that moderation isn’t a sign of mediocrity, so many leaders continue to push for extremes. There are even blogs and brands focused on “extreme leadership” — and it sends a very risky message especially to those entering the workforce.
I think experience sometimes is the best teacher of moderation yet it can be a hard road for those being told that extremes are the pathway to success.
Many thanks for your comment on this topic.
Kate