On Leading with Greatness

Think of your worst job interview experience, and I bet I could match or top it with one of mine from my decades in higher ed. I could regale you with such classic tales as the college president who interviewed me while delirious with the flu or the school that put me through a grueling all-day interview only to announce at the end that they had always intended to hire an internal candidate. Come to think of it, both interviews were at the same college decades apart! I am not kidding!

Let’s talk about that most persistent of boss myths: that the tougher they are, the more effective they are. This nonsense is related to the “strongman” myth in politics, which assumes that authoritarian leaders are somehow superior at getting things done. There’s that tired line about how Benito Mussolini, the brutal fascist dictator of Italy known as Il Duce, got the decrepit Italian trains to run on time. Except he didn’t. What worked so well in fascist Italy wasn’t the rail system; it was Mussolini’s propaganda machine.

Grab your space helmet and strap in, folks! We’re about to launch into the one of the universe’s great conundrums:

Which is superior, Star Wars or Star Trek?

As a sci-fi devotee who will sit through the most tedious space-travel saga, I am too familiar with this cosmic clash and how it reflects our culture.

Let’s call Marni’s approach “disagreeing to agree.” It can go by a variety of names, but it is a powerful move in the leader’s playbook. Whether formal or informal, planned or spontaneous, or with individuals or groups, disagreeing to agree creates space for discussion and even arguments while insisting on the civil tone and mutual respect that team members deserve and that productive discourse demands; in other words, it allows and even encourages dissent and debate within the bounds of civility.

Bullying in the workplace is more prevalent than we probably like to admit, but we tend to view it as an anomaly—an isolated bug rather than a widespread feature.

What if I told you instead that many workplace structures themselves encourage noxious behavior? What if workplace policies and procedures—even some of the ones that are supposed to foster a healthy workplace—provoke abuse and bullying? More often than we may realize, bullying is a built-in feature and not just a bug.

Let’s sneak a peek behind those sunny “we value our employees” posters tacked up in the breakroom and uncover some of these features.

One of the biggest leadership myths is that “leaders get things done,” a notion I find disastrously specious, as I discussed in my piece on steering clear of gurus.

This misconception has led many to believe that tangible outcomes are the best or even the only hallmark of exceptional leadership.

Change is inevitable. You’ve heard that before, but it bears repeating. Change is what happens while you are off planning for something else altogether. Birth is change. Life is change. Death is change, too. Change in itself is neither good nor bad, but everything changes for better or worse. Even stone changes.

Impulsiveness is usually rewarded as though impetuousness is the best path to success.

However, in the reality of everyday human existence, how frequently do we face such stark and immediate choices that demand instant action? And when we do act thoughtlessly in such situations, how often does it turn out a-ok?

One of the most pernicious practices of the bad boss is bullying. From the monstrous cruelty of public humiliation to the comparatively elegant art of gaslighting, bully-bosses have a diverse arsenal of tricks. What sets bully-bosses apart from most other bullies is the control they—as bosses—exert over every aspect of the workplace. I know how to neutralize a colleague who tries to bully me, but a bully-boss is a different matter.

Yes, I had them do an assumption audit, an evaluation of ideas they unconsciously embraced. I gave them the assignment two weeks in advance so that they could stew over it. Also, we needed time to have an in-depth discussion about the meaning of “cultural assumptions.” After all, few people—particularly young college students—have ever contemplated such things let alone audited them.