Why Shoud Any One Be Led by You

Why Should Anyone Be Led by

by Robert Coffee and Gareth Jones

We all know that leaders need vision and energy. But to be inspirational, leaders need four other qualities. Probably not what you'd expect, these qualities can be honed by almost anyone willing to dig deeply into their true selves.

F YOU WANT TO SILENCE A ROOM OF EXECUTIVES,

try this small trick. Ask them, "Why would anyone / want to be led by you?" We've asked just that ques-' tion for the past ten years while consulting for dozens of companies in Europe arid the United States. Without fail, the response is a sudden, stunned hush. All you can hear are knees knocking. Executives have good reason tb be scared. You can't do anything in business without followers, and followers in these "empowered" times are hard to find. So executives had better know what it takes to lead effectively-they ihust find ways to engage people and rouse their commitment to company gOals. But most don't know how, and who can blame them? There's simply too much advice out there. Last year alone, more than 2,000 books on leadership were published, soirie of them even repackaging Moses and Shakespeare as leadership gurus.

HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW

September-October 2000

63

Why Should Anyone Be Led by You?

We've yet to hear advice that tells the whole truth about leadership. Yes, everyone agrees that leaders need vision, energy, authority, and strategic direction. That goes without saying. But we've discovered that inspirational leaders also share four unexpected qualities: • They selectively show their weaknesses. By exposing some vulnerability, they reveal their approachability and humanity. • They rely heavily on intuition to gauge the appropriate timing and course of their actions. Their ability to collect and interpret soft data helps them know just when and how to act. • They manage employees with something we call tough empathy. Inspirational leaders empathize passionately-and realistically-with...