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If you’re interested in gaining critical insights into how things work in a prospective employer, look to the style, values and priorities of a firm’s top leader.
When I meet senior leaders, I listen and look for indicators on clues to what makes them tick. I want to know what they stand for…what makes them breathe…what makes them do what they do.
As a prospective employee, it’s essential to know what you’re signing up for in terms of culture and values and environment. I’ve learned how important it is to go to work for leaders whose values and approaches align closely with my preferences. Get this right and you’ll flourish. Get it wrong and you’ll suffer. Like everything else I’ve ever learned, I had to screw this up once to figure out how to get it right.
Most leaders are fairly transparent about what they stand for, although they vary in depth a great deal.
Some are wired to drive results. They want to move the numbers in the right direction and they focus almost exclusively on the issues of growth. This focus predominates all decisions and metrics and rewards and sets the tone for your daily work.
Some are wired for innovation. Their emphasis is on new and different and they place a premium on surrounding themselves with the best and brightest and creating environments (from gentle to raucous) that they believe promote idea generation. Bring your big ideas, and if don’t love the creative game, you might just get run over.
And still others are simply wired for power. They like being in charge, they’re good at it and for them the focus is on calling the plays and surrounding themselves with people who are good at execution. The environment is command and control and your role is that of soldier. If you struggle to take orders, run the other way.
And then there are the leaders I personally prefer. They have depth. These are the ones who are on a mission to transform lives and firms and the world with their efforts. To them, growth and innovation are outcomes of bringing in other mission-driven professionals and letting them do what they’re great at.
These leaders are driven to transform something for someone and they project this mission in every encounter. You cannot help but understand what they stand for and as a result, what their organizations stand for. The mission is core to who they are and their leader’s soul is always on display. Their organizations run on the energy generated by passion for the mission. It helps to be a dreamer who believes in achieving the impossible in this environment.
There’s no one style that defines these mission-driven energizing leaders. Some of them are servant leaders. They propel people and teams to do their best in pursuit of something remarkable by elevating their team members and focusing all of their energies on enabling them to succeed. Others are visionaries who drive their organizations to remarkable heights almost by sheer force of will. Think Steve Jobs. For the people in these firms, the drive from the leader is rocket fuel.
I get the leaders above…the growth, innovation and power leaders. I love the mission and visionary leaders, but those are personal preferences. I’m most at home in a change-the-world situation. None of them are perfect and not all of them are right for you as a contributor.
The leaders I struggle and will caution you against are what I term the “plain vanilla” leaders. They’re not confident enough to show you their leadership soul, or, worse yet, they haven’t take the time to develop one. They have no discernible mission. They operate at the transaction level, flitting from issue to issue but never breathing life into anything beyond the next few minutes. There’s no substance or depth to these leaders, and to me, they are dull and uninteresting. Be cautious of these characters. Life is too short to spend time in their chaotic and plain environment.
The Bottom-Line for Now:
The firm always reflects the leader(s). They establish the cadence and their styles define the environment during their tenure. Strive to understand what makes a firm’s senior leader tick and you’ll have great insight into what life is like this firm. Choose carefully, because a mismatch between your values and style preferences and those of the leader you go to work for is almost always a formula for trouble.
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Art,
Great post! However, I think you’ve missed one. How about the leader who is wired for recruiting? Let’s just say that some leaders are so used to “selling” that they can’t even give you an accurate picture of the company or themselves. Everything they say is geared toward convincing you that their company is the best place on earth to work. Beware this type of person – the reality can never match the vision they present. In this particular case, if I had insisted on talking to other members of the leadership team, I might have chosen a different path.
I believe that these types are often masking the wired for power persona. The drive to bring more “soldiers” on board is strong and it serves to not only build the ego of the leader, but to show others that the company is indeed strong and healthy, because who in their right mind would willfully join this madness???
So my advice here is to be careful. Not only evaluate the top leader, but talk to his/her direct reports, and talk to others as well. Look for signs of struggle. Project deadlines missed because of interference from the leader, high turnover, or just examples of people who left the company after a short time, either by choice or termination. These are all signs that the top leader is wired for power and although you might be getting told during recruiting that you are absolutely the most critical hire in the history of the company, you will soon be yesterday’s news and will just be another soldier.
Dave, I like your call-out. Perhaps this character is aptly named, “The delusional leader.” I’ve not encountered this one, but I have no doubt they exist in the wild. Great advice! Thanks for sharing. -Art