Eighteen months after starting this column, business leadership still hasn't reached perfection. Haven't they been reading? Why is good leadership still so rare?
Maybe it's because we use a whacked-out definition of leadership. "Leader" has become code for "rich guy with an impressive title who orders others around." But leading by giving orders left and right with no accountability doesn't work. We're living in a world of low loyalty, high mobility, and extreme uncertainty. "Push" leadership will push people right out the door. We need leaders who inspire others to follow, who engender loyalty. We need leaders who practice "pull" leadership.
Pull leaders don't give orders; they create social systems that inspire people to join
They do it using principles that many people in official leadership positions wouldn't follow if their lives depended on it.
Pull leaders take responsibility for the success of their organization and their people
Responsibility isn't given; it's taken. The loss of faith in American business starting earlier this decade has been driven by a batch of CEOs who have chosen not to take responsibility for the consequences of their actions, even when the responsibility was required by law. Pull leaders take responsibility voluntarily, even when it's optional. You want to change how your company does business, but you're too junior to have an effect? So what! A corporate trainer saw students struggle with the company's product, so he wrote up the shortcomings, proposed solutions, and sent the CEO a weekly dispatch. He took responsibility for leading a product quality effort, despite being a twenty-three-year-old new hire.
Pull leaders believe that success of the organization is their responsibility, no matter what their job titles are. They don't have to do all the work themselves, but they have to make it possible for everyone else to