Myth 1: Leaders are superheroes

Growing up, I thought successful leaders saved the day largely on their own, by figuring out the answers. Being smart—and making sure everyone else knew it—seemed to be the mark of the best leaders. The best schools were supposed to lead to the best jobs, which produced the best leaders. Power, fame, glory, and money were the measures of professional success. And truthfully, these considerations influenced some of my early career choices.

During my last year of business school, I was invited to the dean’s office, where I was offered a job assisting the chairman and CEO of Sacilor, a large state-owned steel company. My predecessor in the job, who was by then ready to climb the next rung on the well-defined career ladder, had been, like me, class valedictorian. I accepted the job immediately, not out of a sense of purpose, but because the job was prestigious, and the connections it would bring would help my career. I was taking my first step toward the rarefied circle of France’s business elite, made up of smart graduates from a handful of top schools who became those powerful hero-leaders, the smartest people in the room.

The idea of a brilliant hero-leader who single-handedly saves the day is deeply rooted, reaching back to ancient Greece and all its powerful demigods, with Hercules the most prominent one, and extending all the way forward to business today. Early in my career, prominent business leaders like GE’s Jack Welch were revered for their intellect, strategic sense, and hard-charging style. They were considered infallible geniuses, inspiring a quasi-cult following.

Recently, though, the infallible leader prototype has lost much of its appeal. First, an increasing number of people now value authenticity and connection. Research by Paula Niedenthal, professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, points out that we are wired to detect inauthenticity.¹ And projecting infallibility, strength, and authority at all times—something that for decades has been expected of leaders—comes across as inauthentic and distant. Second, the hero-leader model fails to take into account the idea of purpose, which is central to business. Superheroes belong in movies, not in business.

Third, it is easy for successful hero-leaders to start believing in the myth that they are smarter than everyone else, untouchable, and ultimately indispensable. It is easy to be seduced by power, fame, glory, and money. It is easy to become disconnected from reality and from colleagues, surrounded by sycophants and yea-sayers. Matt Furman, in charge of Best Buy’s communications, perfectly sums up that mindset: “Enough about me,” he jokes. “Now let’s talk about me!”

History is littered with celebrity CEOs once seen as business geniuses or superheroes, who have moved from the cover of magazines to prison cells, from Enron’s Jeff Skilling and Nissan’s Carlos Ghosn to Qwest’s Joseph Nacchio and WorldCom’s Bernie Ebbers.

The years I spent wrestling with feedback and letting personal ambition drive some earlier career decisions illustrate how I used to gravitate toward that mythical superhero CEO model. Once I realized this was not the kind of leader I wanted to be, I actively decided to protect myself against this trap. “Your mission is to make sure I am never on the cover of any magazine,” I instructed the communications team when I became the CEO of Best Buy. I insisted on flying commercial for as long as I could. I set up guardrails to keep my feet on the ground. I wanted to make sure that my ego would not get the best of me.

“I am not the CEO of Best Buy,” I said, shortly after I joined the company, in a column in the local Minneapolis newspaper. What I meant was that although I was honored to have the job, it did not define me. My goal from the very start was to be dispensable. This is why I decided to pass the baton of CEO to Corie Barry and her team in 2019. I felt I had accomplished what I had set out to do, and it was an easy decision. The company was doing well, powered by exceptional people and led by an extraordinary executive team. Hero-leaders believe in being out in front, highly visible. In the case of leadership transitions, I would say that a key to success is not being visible. Be available in the background, only if and when needed. After a year, the transition was complete, and I stepped down as executive chairman. Because I never defined myself as the CEO of Best Buy, it has been easy to move on.

Myth 2: People are born leaders

When Lloyd Blankfein was still CEO of investment bank Goldman Sachs, I heard a speech he once gave at the Minneapolis Club. Blankfein shared with us that, every day while shaving, he asked himself, “Is it today? Is it today that the world is going to realize that I am not competent for this job?” Here was one of the most successful bankers in the world, and he was doubting his own abilities. Most leaders I know—myself included—suffer from the same imposter syndrome.

That syndrome is born in part out of the misguided belief that leadership is an innate ability, emerging out of a level of intelligence, self-confidence, and charisma that you’re born either with or without. If it were true, there would be just a few exceptional beings who could do the job, and the rest of us would be out of luck. Research suggests it’s not true, though; so do the narratives of great leaders’ lives. Iconic figures such as Winston Churchill hardly fit the mold of the flawless born leader, spawn fully formed and ready to inspire. Early in life, Churchill was a notoriously poor student and suffered from a speech impediment. Later on, he became one of the most prominent leaders of the twentieth century. Yes, became. I believe that most of the attributes often associated with “innate” leadership—from strategic thinking to eloquence—can be learned. As recounted in earlier chapters, coaching and role models have helped me become a better leader throughout my career.

Myth 3: You cannot change

During my time at Best Buy, one of our executives once told me she was convinced that people do not and cannot change. I vehemently disagreed because I am living proof that people change. The way I lead today is remarkably different from the way I led 30 years ago. I once believed that leadership was about a top-down, strategic planning approach driven by data and analytics; I now focus on purpose and human magic. I once strove to be the smartest person in the room and solve all problems; I now focus on creating an environment in which others can flourish and find solutions. And I used to believe that profit was the purpose of business; I now know that it is only an imperative and an outcome.

What drives you?

In the fall of 2018, I spent a Sunday afternoon in Midtown Manhattan attending one of designer Ayse Birsel’s workshops—Design the Life You Love. Ayse encourages people to use principles of design to think about life choices. In one particularly profound exercise, she asked us to think about the people we admired. My list was a diverse group of individuals, from Gandhi to former Medtronic CEO Bill George. Ayse told us to write down the qualities that made us admire the people on our list. My list of attributes seemed to center on the will and ability to make a big difference in the world and an unwavering commitment to support and help others.

“This is what you want to be,” Ayse then told us. It was up to us to embrace these qualities as our own and to act accordingly.

The timing of this exercise was perfect. I had started thinking about moving on from Best Buy. Although the purpose I had identified during the Loyola spiritual exercises all these years before remained the same, Ayse’s workshop helped me further crystallize the qualities that were important to me and be bolder about taking them to what I would do next.

What legacy do you want to leave?

Second, it is worth investing time to reflect on that question and making sure that your decisions and how you spend your time, efforts, and energy reflect that choice. How do you get that kind of clarity? Executive leadership coach and author Hortense le Gentil routinely asks her clients to write their obituary. This is a powerful way to focus their minds on what they want to accomplish and whether the choices they are making are aligned with that purpose. Similarly, during Harvard Business School’s workshop for new CEOs, professor Michael Porter asks participants to write their retirement speech. How do they want to be remembered? What do they want their contribution to be? What kind of legacy do they want to leave?

Of course, when asked these questions, few executives ever highlight how much money they will have made, how many people they have fired, or how many times they have appeared on the cover of magazines.

How do you stay the course?

Christensen pointed out in his speech to MBA graduates that no successful executive sets out to go to jail. But high achievers have a propensity to unconsciously allocate their time and energy to what yields short-term tangible accomplishment and recognition rather than to what and who they would say matters the most.⁴ Correcting for such propensities requires self-awareness and a daily routine to help you keep in touch with yourself. Marshall Goldsmith encourages his clients to write down a list of questions about behaviors reflecting important values and ask themselves every day whether they have done their best to act that way. Whatever form of introspection you choose, hit the “pause” button every day to make sure you stay in touch with your purpose and live by it. Besides self-awareness and firmly holding on to your principles, we can choose to rely on family, friends, colleagues, a coach, a mentor, or a good board of directors to act as guardrails that help us stay on course—or get back on track if we slip up.

I no longer believe that my role as a leader is to figure it all out.

Choosing why and how to exercise power, and whom to give it to, are the most crucial choices leaders have to make. The notion that companies are human organizations made of individuals working together in pursuit of a common purpose implies that we need to change what we expect of leaders, at all levels.

What is required now is a style of leadership that puts purpose and people first, what I call purposeful leadership.

Questions to Reflect On