Two Questions At The Core Of Leadership

Forbes

30-04-2025

'Leadership is not about job title. It isn't even a matter of style. At the core, it comes down to two simple questions: What kind of person are you? And are those personal qualities inspiring to others?'
Leadership
I got his quote years ago when I interviewed E. David Coolidge III, Vice Chairman, William Blair & Company, but in this time of heightened uncertainty and chaos, his statement is even more relevant.
Leadership is the art of engaging the hearts and minds of ordinary people to achieve extraordinary results. In my work as an executive coach, I've worked with hundreds of leaders from business enterprises and professional associations. And all the exceptional ones have this in common: a set of emotional and intellectual qualities that make people want to follow them.
How they do it is easier to note in practice than it is to define in principle. Because I'm talking about an individual's character. Like the force of gravity or the lump of uranium in a nuclear generator, the force of character works invisibly. But its positive effects upon others can be readily observed, and two of these observations, in turn, can be put to immediate use by anyone charged with leading fellow employees at any level of an organization.
First, great leaders act from deep-seated principles that are grounded in strong personal values.
Webster defines value as 'a principle, standard or quality considered inherently worthwhile or desirable.' The root is the Latin valor, which means strength. Values are a source of strength for an enterprise or an individual.
At the heart of authentic leadership presence are the values that define you. The 'homework' of truly knowing yourself begins with a deep reflection on your core values and why they are important to you.
When an executive talked about his first job working in a London bank, he said he was treated as an inferior because he had a different accent and came from a lower social class than his co-workers. The executive went on to say that one of his core values was inclusion, so that no one who worked for him would ever be made to feel the way he had.
Once you share your values, it's crucial to embody them. As one of my clients told me, 'What I do in the hallways is more important than what I say in the meetings.' An executive who says she values respect, transparency, or candor must be a living example of that, or she'll lose all credibility. Or as another executive put it: 'One thing I've learned over the years is that you can talk until you're blue in the face, but you will never create trust unless your sustained behavior parallels what you say.' Leaders who display their stated values in daily interactions are trusted and motivational.
Secondly, they are Pygmalion Leaders who expect the best from those who report to them.
The powerful influence of one person's expectation on another's behavior is known as the 'Pygmalion Effect.' Eliza Doolittle explains it in George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion: 'You see, really and truly, apart from the things anyone can pick up, the difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves but how she's treated. I shall always be a flower girl to Professor Higgins because he always treats me as a flower girl and always will; but I know I can be a lady to you because you always treat me as a lady and always will.'
Pygmalion in the Classroom, one of the most controversial publications in the history of educational research, shows how a teacher's expectations can motivate student achievement. This classic study gave prospective teachers a list of students who had been identified as 'high achievers.' The teachers were told to expect remarkable results from these students, and at the end of the year, the students did indeed make sharp increases on their IQ test scores.
In fact, these children had been chosen at random, not because of any testing. It was the teachers' belief in their potential that was responsible for the extraordinary results. The children were never told they were high achievers, but this message was delivered subtly and non-verbally through expectancy behaviors such as facial expressions, gestures, touch, and spatial relationships.
In much the same way, a leader's expectations of people influence how they treat people, and this in turn become a key factor in how well people perform at work. Pygmalion leadership is in evidence when staff excels in response to the manager's message that they are capable of success and expected to succeed.
In his inspiring book, Life Lessons in Courage, Integrity, and Leadership, Robert Dilenschneider asks people what their version of an ideal world would be. His personal answer: 'An ideal world would be one in which everyone gets to be all they can be.'
I'd add this as a third to our opening two questions about the core of leadership:
• What kind of person are you?
• Are those personal qualities inspiring to others?
• Do those qualities inspire others to be all they can be?