ENT.8 Something’s I’ve learned on Leadership

Not all leaders are worth following. Not all leadership models are admirable. Not all advice given is worth taking. Every experience will not be your experience, and your experience will not be everyone's experience. These things are true; decipher for yourselves the validity of what I have learned about leadership. Are there good models of leadership or just simply good leaders? While I can not answer that specific question in its entirety, I can shed light on what I have learned recently about the quality of good leaders. There are many characteristics of a good leader, and there is much speculation about what type of leadership is the best. Leading a diverse group of people, as any leader does, requires a diverse skillset and diverse set of knowledge and skills. Five traits of good leaders come to mind. Good leaders demonstrate courage, judgment, integrity, humility, and responsibility. 

Courage

Abraham Lincoln once said the ever true maxim that goes something like “It often requires more courage to dare to do right than to fear to do wrong” - Abraham Lincoln. Leadership is ultimately about doing what is right, not just for ourselves but for those who commit themselves to you and your leadership. Inversely, this makes even more sense as a poor leader is someone who is not firm in their beliefs and not courageous enough to stand for them. If a leader is not courageous enough to stand for what is right, who will follow their lead? Additionally, if the goal is to do what is right, then the leader needs to be the one to stand in front of the line of adversity and objection in pursuit of that goal. Standing in front of objections for the pursuit of the goal of the team is, by definition, what a leader does. That is the defining feature of “The Leader.”

Judgment 

What is the use of courage if what you believe to be right is not truly right in the first place? Good leaders must have good judgment. Whether it is situational judgment, relational judgment, financial judgment, or any other aspect of leadership, they must exert good judgment. Naval Ravikant posits a beautiful heuristic that elaborates on this, stating, “If you evenly split on a difficult decision, take the path more painful in the short term.” - Naval Ravikant. The leader is ultimately the one responsible for the team and, therefore, the one responsible for the decisions of the team as well as the team's success or lack thereof. Therefore, it is a good leader's responsibility to exercise specific judgment in areas of the team. Part of this judgment for the betterment of the team is choosing the right balance of short-term and long-term gain. Good leaders exercise judgment and take short-term sacrifices for prospective long-term gain.

Integrity

The backbone of a good leader is solid integrity. Integrity is not only what you do when no one is watching but also what you do when everyone is watching. It is cohesiveness between your character and your ethics or morality. Sincerity in your actions and beliefs. James Macgregor Burns has a great quote that goes “Divorced from ethics, leadership is reduced to management and politics to mere technique.” - James Macgregor Burns. Good leadership is more than pure management because good leaders lead with integrity. They lead with their heart and their head. Their morals and ethics drive their actions, and people follow their example.

Humility

In all of this, the leader is not to be the spotlight of the show. Lincoln understood this. In “Lincoln on Leadership,” Donald Phillips describes the goal of Lincoln's leadership as desiring to have his subordinates take total ownership. Phillips describes Lincoln as leading “In a way of humility without insecurity of his own competence…allowing his subordinates to take all the glory for their victories” - “Lincoln on Leadership”, Donald Phillips. It is this type of humility that enlightens a leader's subordinates, invigorating them in the mission and empowering their trust and relationship with their leader. In the words of Ernest Hemingway, “Courage is grace under pressure”. This is true with humility as well. Good leaders demonstrate humility through grace, under pressure, and during victory.

Responsibility 

The good leader ultimately takes responsibility for every aspect of the team while also allowing members of the team to have autonomy and responsibility themselves. In the example of Lincoln above, Lincoln understood that he was ultimately responsible for his subordinates. He, however, did not use this as an excuse to micromanage them but rather as an opportunity to trust them with their own responsibilities. Entrusting his subordinates with responsibility gave them real ownership of an aspect of the team. All the members of the team feel that their ownership is exalted in every win. Good leaders take total responsibility for their team while giving team members responsibility, and therefore ownership, of their contributions.

Good leadership is applicable in every aspect of life, whether now or in the future, and courage, judgment, integrity, humility, and responsibility are five characteristics of a good leader. History is learned and studied not merely so that we can be more intelligent but rather that we may learn from the vast sea of knowledge and experience that has come before us. In referencing those who have succeeded in leadership, we may actually be able to apply something novel to our perspective on life. The hope is that something novel, something beneficial, something applicable, or even something preventative can come out of all the life that has come before us and through all the life we live. Through life so far, I have seen good and bad leaders as well as had the opportunity to lead myself. For the sake of the future, I hope to build this list and repertoire of traits that make up a good leader. Ultimately, a good leader is someone who never stops growing, learning, and adapting to their environment.