The graphic illustrates the four core attributes or values of a leader who wishes to choose #OpenLeadership.
Now let us look at how these create a healthy tension by taking them into two sets of two
BRAVE and HUNGRY
Imagine, first, that we say we want leaders with the only qualifiers being that they are “Brave and Hungry”.
Energetically, these feel like strong energies, powerful, driven, passionate, the type of energies that can really energise and propel others as well as an organisation.
However, without balance, such energies can go too far, go to the edge of or even out of control, so resulting in a leadership culture that can become less than healthy, even toxic.
One company that comes to mind is Goldman Sachs. With many complaints from their younger staff about having to drive themselves to 80, 90 hour weeks, the answer from the company was “we already pay you extremely well, we will pay you more so you can keep working this hard”.
OPEN and HUMBLE
Now let us take the other two words as a group, Open and Humble. The energies we associate with these attributes are very different. They are calmer, more patient, gentler, yet also can be inspiring in their own way, through believing in others, empowering, collaboration, communication, empathy.
Such attributes are indeed power, yet again, taken as a set and without balance, leaders working from this place can easily slip into leading in a way that does not create creative constraints and pressures that can, if done in a healthy way, lead to powerful results much faster than such more gentle energies.
BRAVE, HUNGRY, OPEN and HUMBLE
I hope you can see that when we then combine all four of these attributes or values as a piece, the healthy tension between the four of them can really be powerful in a positive way.
To close, I’ll use one corporate example of four values, from a company I know well, Stantec, and who I see live these four values, in combination, in a powerful way.
- We Put People First
- We Do What is Right
- We are Better Together
- We are Driven to Achieve
Take a look at these four, then consider what risks could occur in the culture of an organisation that solely focussed on “We are driven to achieve”, then sense the power of that fourth value in combination with the first three. I see this regularly in interactions with Stantec people within a company that leads from Purpose and oh, is also achieving remarkable commercial growth over time.