Leaders are everywhere we look. For more than three decades, we’ve been traveling the world constantly researching the practices of exemplary leadership and the qualities people look for and admire in leaders they would willingly follow. We’ve talked to people from every type of organization, public and private, government and nongovernment, high tech and low tech, small and large, schools and professional services. They are young and old, male and female, and from every ethnic group. They represent every imaginable vocation and avocation. They reside in every country we’ve studied. And they all have a story to tell.
Conventional wisdom portrays leadership as if it were found mostly at the top. Myth and legend have treated leadership as if it were the private reserve of a very few charismatic men and women. Nothing is further from the truth. We have examined the immense variety of stories from so many different people and places, and it has become crystal clear to us that leadership is not a gene. It’s not a birthright. Demographics play no role in whether or not someone is going to become an exemplary leader. It’s not about position or title. It’s not about power or authority. It’s not about being a CEO, president, general, or prime minister. Leadership is not about who you are or where you come from. It’s about what you do. Our images of who’s a leader and who’s not are all mixed up in our preconceived notions about what leadership is and isn’t.
Scott and Laurie are right on target when they say any organization that can harness the leadership talent of all of its employees has a competitive advantage. By shining a light on the “hidden” leaders—those individuals who act like leaders, regardless of their position or job description—they call our attention to what it takes to discover, nurture, and support the leadership talents within each person—talents that, while they may be hidden, are actually abundant in every organization.
Our multinational and cross-generational data, along with theirs, challenge the myth that leadership is about position and power. And those data support the fact that leadership is about the actions you take. One individual in Asia told us it became very clear to her, when she reflected on her personal-best leadership experience, “that leadership is everywhere, it takes place every day, and leadership can come from anyone. It doesn’t matter that you don’t have the title of ‘manager,’ ‘director,’ ‘CEO’ to go with it. In the end, that’s all they are—titles on business cards and company directories. Being a true leader transcends all that.”
Another individual contributor, from the United States, recognized that growing up, she had “assumed leaders had certain traits and qualities that I didn’t seem to have. I thought there were ‘natural’ leaders who were born to lead. I thought leadership was the description of what these people did.” Upon reflection she realized, “to my surprise, that I had those leadership traits.” Hidden leaders are those people in your organization who share the belief that what they do matters, that their project, team, or organization would be less successful if it weren’t for their efforts. These feelings translate into not only the additional discretionary effort they put into their work but also the leadership they are willing to exert to make extraordinary things happen.
Scott and Laurie have provided us with lots of concrete ideas about how positional leaders can identify and support the people in their organization who are, and could be, providing leadership. Their experiences, along with our data, clearly show that in the best organizations, everyone, regardless of title or position, is encouraged to act as a leader. That’s because in these places people don’t just believe that everyone can make a difference; they act in ways to develop and grow people’s leadership talents. Scott and Laurie want this to be true of your organization.
Joon Chin Fum-Ko, director of people development and engagement at Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, describes that thinking and action as “working to build an organization and culture where everyone feels that they are leaders, regardless of what they do, and appreciates that what each one of us does has an impact.” Scott and Laurie provide many strategies and tools for doing just this. On a number of occasions they show how we can make some simple shifts in our thinking to leverage great results. Consider, for example, what it means if “the end defines the means,” or what would be different if the organization was “customer purposed” rather than customer driven, or measurement systems were used “to improve, rather than prove”?
What you should also appreciate about this book is its scale. You don’t have to be in the C-suite to take advantage of their advice and perspective. Indeed, you really don’t even need to be in a position of leadership to learn about becoming an even more effective leader. After all, as one of our MBA students summed up in his concluding essay for our leadership course:
“Where do I start becoming a better leader? This question has been nagging me for some time. Naively I assumed that to become a better leader meant to perform formidable tasks: moving mountains, saving lives, changing the world for the better. Then it occurred to me—I was thinking selfishly. What I envisioned was instant gratification, recognition for my skills and talent. I found that every day I had an opportunity to make a small difference. I could have coached someone better, I could have listened better, I could have been more positive toward people, I could have said ‘Thank you’ more often, I could have . . . the list just went on. At first, I was a bit overwhelmed with the discovery of how many opportunities I had in a single day to act as a better leader. But as I have gotten to put these ideas into practice I have been pleasantly surprised by how much improvement I have been able to make by being more conscientious and intentional about acting as a leader.”
That’s the point for all of us—those of us in formal positions of leadership, those acting as “hidden” leaders, those emerging as leaders, and those aspiring to simply make the world a better place. Each day provides countless chances to make a difference. The chance might come in a private conversation with a direct report or in a meeting with colleagues. It might come over the family dinner table. It might come when you’re speaking at a conference on the future of some new technology or methodology, or it might come when you’re listening to a friend talk about a current conflict with a peer. There are countless leadership moments each day, and many moments each day when you can choose to make it possible for others to lead.
That’s the secret Scott and Laurie are trying to share in this book: As they say in the epilogue, “Someone’s contribution to the value of a business need not be constrained by that person’s position on the organizational chart.” Well said. Now put this idea into practice. Read on.
— James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner
Coauthors, The Leadership Challenge: How to Make Extraordinary Things Happen in Organizations and The Truth About Leadership: The No-Fads, Heart-of-the-Matter Facts You Need to Know