Articles and articles about leadership. Is it charisma?

Can it be taught? What makes a great leader? All over the

world people want to know this. In fact, I’ve just been

asked to submit a proposal to do a workshop on EQ and

Leadership in Saudi Arabia, for a bank. They knew the

competencies of emotional intelligence and they know they

want their people to have them. It’s a worldwide

phenomenon, and for good reason.

Can leadership be learned? Yes, I think so. In the same

way that you can learn to be a therapist. They used to tell

us in graduate school, “It can’t be taught, but it can be

learned.”

Three things factor it: wanting to be a leader, observing

good leaders with your thinking cap on and your feeling

heart open, and then practice – on the firing line!

We’re observing this right now with President Bush. As I

write this from my office in south Texas, we’ve been under

threat of Hurricane Rita for two days, and millions of Texas

have fled to hopefully higher ground. I just opened an

article in the Washington Post that began, “President Bush

flew here ahead of Hurricane Rita on Friday to show command

of a federal disaster response effort that even supporters

acknowledge he fumbled three weeks ago.”

Everyone seem to have fumbled the ball with Hurricane

Katrina. Those who learn from their mistakes still have a

chance. Bush appears to be one of them. He is quoted as

having said to reporters before leaving Washington, “I need

to understand how it works better.” He is also, of course,

scrambling to regain the confidence of the people. At his

level, he gets to fail in public. But he also gets to

succeed in public.

I read also that a military leader was heading out to the

scene because he “wanted to watch the troops in action

during a disaster.”

I can't stress enough that a leader shows up and pitches in.

I see this frequently in offices. There's a deadline --

let's say the brief has to make it to the 4th Circuit which

means a 7 p.m. Fed-Ex deadline, and everyone’s working

overtime already. There are two ways the head guy (or gal)

can handle this -- well, 3 actually.

One is to disappear completely, because it's chaos. That

gets minus 2 points. (Ask Bush.) Hiding in your office is

bad. The major point about primal leadership is that the

leader models the emotion the workers are “supposed” to

have, and we do pick up on that. If the leader disappears

at the crucial moment, we are left to our fantasies, and

they are never going to be positive.

The second is to stand around looking worried, disgusted or

angry – say off to the side with your arms crossed. While

everyone else is running around like chickens with their

heads cut off? This gives you zero points. I don’t think

people who do this understand the impression this makes. I

might even give this a –2 and give the disappearance the

zero. It smacks of arrogance, of disdain, or being separate

from, or above it all. The first thing they tell us in

management class is if there’s a crisis – get help. More

hands are needed. And there’s a set of hands that won’t

pitch in? This annoys people. To say the least.

The third way is to show up, smile, look confident and PITCH

IN. Last-minute production involves grunt work - in the

case of a brief, attaching CMRRR receipts, punching holes,

stuffing envelopes, filling out Fed-Ex forms by hand. (It

may be going to 15 lawyers as well as to the Court, and all

must be served.) The leader who considers this "beneath"

him or her, makes a statement. If you don’t value the work

your employees do, how do you expect them to? Studies show

that as many as 60% of workers are engaged in

“present-eeism” – showing up, but in body only. The leader

who stands at the end of the assembly line, and seals the

envelopes, calm and confident, gets 10 points. And lots of

support in the future.

One example I saw of this was an executive chef for a 5-star

resort here in town. The banquet was set to go in an hour.

The pre-formed pasta nests hadn’t shown up. There were none

to be had in town. Noodles had to be boiled, then BY HAND

shaped into nests. Guess who stood at the head of the

table, smiling, and forming gooey little nests? The sous

chefs hadn’t known how to do it. Chef Rene didn’t either,

but he figured it out and showed them.

There are few things as chaotic as a kitchen before a big

banquet, and you tend to get some temperamental types to

begin with. When emotions run high, the leader shows up and

pitches in. And looks confident. It works wonders.

If you aren't a walking-around kind of manager, boss or

leader, you never really get the FEEL of the situation. If

you hide in your office and rely on the reports of your

likely-to-prevaricate mid-managers you're going to hear only

what they think you want to hear. Unless you go to the

scene and observe, in person, you won't know who's really

pulling their weight, who buckles under pressure, who rises

to the occasion, who the "real" leader of the team is (not

always the one with the title), who supplies the positive

can-do attitude, who drags the team down -- a host of EQ

traits that move your team toward goals.

But it doesn’t count to go and just stand there and make

mental notes. You won’t be part of it so you won’t be able

to feel it, and you’ll appear to be critical which will add

more tension to the situation. And popular you will not be.

Yes, you need to be popular, because motivation is not a

thinking word.

Get in their like Chef Rene, roll up your sleeves and join

in. Get the feel of it. Combine that with your

intellectual understanding of the logistics, and your gut,

and you will be learning leadership. It never ends. Ask

President Bush.