Humility and Authenticity – the Key to Effective Leadership

The position I had right before I started Cheetah was as a research scientist in Systems Engineering. In that position, I found myself facilitating many project disaster recovery efforts (it is what spurred the creation of the Cheetah Project Management methodology).  Project disaster recovery was in such demand there because of all the extremely intelligent people who held Ph.D.’s in complex engineering fields. They mistakenly thought their high intelligence translated into having developed the skills to manage projects in a corporate research setting.

It is a novice’s tell to think there is “nothing” to an area they know nothing about. This was the situation many of the top engineers and scientists would discover in the one-day Accelerated Project Management class I piloted in that environment.  After one of the early classes, this one engineer said to me, “I had no idea I have been doing projects so wrong for the past 30 years.”

This is a problem with people who have experienced the “Peter Principle.” According to the principle, individuals who perform well in their current roles are rewarded with promotions to higher positions. However, as they continue to be promoted, they eventually reach a position where they lack the necessary skills, abilities, or aptitude to perform effectively. This plays out in some horrendous ways in organizations where it’s difficult to terminate people or in an environment where it’s difficult to terminate a specific person (like a family member in a family business). It’s in these situations where promotions are a way to remove poor performers from creating operational havoc due to their incompetence.  They can more easily hide in higher positions as everyone else around them is experiencing the Peter Principle.  Reference the “Systems Dynamics of Delusional Project Management.”  Is there any wonder for the increasing preference for flat organizational structures……

Just because someone was an effective leader in one situation during a point in time, does not automatically translate to them being an effective leader in all situations over all times. This is just like the scientist who is skilled in their area of expertise, they or others believe their intelligence makes it so they will be equally skilled in other areas where they may not have a clue what is required.

The challenge is the self-aggrandizing braggarts who often get promoted into and stay in positions of leadership, (sometimes just to get them out of the way), while those truly qualified, wonder how someone in a position to decide such things was so bamboozled by this poser’s BS.

Here is where authenticity and humility come into play. The most effective leaders for a situation have authentic talent and mastery exhibited over time in that situation with a good dose of humility as they know they still have much to learn. Counter that with the Dunning-Kruger effect where people with low ability have high hubris and overestimate both their knowledge and their ability.

Certified Virtual Leaders learn how to develop virtual teams – part of this development is cultivating talent. Some people may be far more talented in an area than they believe they are, while others may way overblow their performance thinking their mediocre results are the bomb. The key to developing high-performing teams is to base their development on reality, rather than the wishful thinking of the overconfident or the insecure workaholism of overachievers with “imposter syndrome” (the belief that even though highly qualified, you are an imposter). It’s actually harder to hide incompetence on a virtual team as you have to establish capability based on actual results – it’s an environment where the truly competent get to shine.

Here are three ways Certified Virtual Leaders help people develop their capabilities to be strong contributors.

1. Require Credentials:  These exist for a reason as they tell you this person is willing to invest in their professional development. Invest in people willing to invest in themselves. How did they do in school, what have they done to continue learning since they graduated?  What books and periodicals do they read?  How do they stay current in their field and what do they do to keep their skills sharp in their chosen profession?  Credentials are one of the ways to stand out more in the virtual workforce.
2. Have Performance Benchmarks: This helps ferret out those who may not have demonstrated the performance requirements standard for their profession or recognize someone highly qualified who may fear imposters syndrome and be uncomfortable tooting their own horn. Occasionally I’ll hear from a competitor’s former business development staff. I inquire about their contribution to revenue, as I know what is the standard performance for this field. Inevitably, it’s the low performers who brag about their numbers. Whereas, high performers usually discuss their processes, offer to share their experiences or references, and inquire about the capabilities of others on the team (as they want to understand if their skill set will be amplified or attenuated by the existing team).  For the virtual workforce, monitoring attendance is futile – you need to monitor performance.
3. Develop a Path to Mastery For Creating Desired Results:  Learning is a natural intrinsic part of being alive. People learn by first becoming aware of what they don’t know about a topic. Awareness is a key step for learning as it drives motivation to want to learn more. Then there is a dive into what there is to know about a topic and a decision on how much to invest in developing skills to create desired results. From there is a maturation process to develop the mastery to have consistent results with those skills. Certified Virtual Leaders learn how to cultivate this step-wise approach to mastery for the people on their virtual teams.  It’s a collaborative effort with each person as they map out their path to mastery – assessing skill levels, testing the waters on their talents and aptitudes in different areas, and charting their path for how they want to authentically contribute using their talents to create consistent results.

Long-term effective leaders are authentically transparent on both their strengths and foibles, recognizing humility creates wonder and curiosity – fertile ingredients for continued growth.

Michelle LaBrosse, PMP, CCL, CAC, PMI-ACP, RYT

Chief Cheetah, www.cheetahlearning.com

Find out More About the Cheetah’s Certified Virtual Leader Program