For those of you who read my previous columns in the Augusta Chronicle, you know that I like to write about leadership. Although I have been in a number of leadership positions across my two careers in the military and higher education that does not necessarily make me a great leader.
One thing I do know that I have in common with great leaders is that I am always looking to improve my leadership ability. Therefore, I read about leadership, and listen to others speak about leadership, but most importantly, I do my best to observe both great and not-so-great leaders to help me determine what makes a great leader.
Based on recent discussions with some great leaders, combined with almost 40 years of work experience, I had an “aha moment.” However, since I enjoy puns, it was more of an “ah ah” moment which causes me to identify great leaders as “Wizard of AHs.” Please allow me to explain.
In a recent conversation with some senior and retired leaders, one word kept coming up when discussing the best leaders that we all knew or know: authenticity. While we all seemed to agree that authenticity is important in a leader, I was eager to learn what my colleagues meant by authenticity and their thoughts were enlightening.
The key word that kept coming up was consistency. That is, an authentic leader is consistent in his/her actions and demeanor, such that they reflect the leader’s personality and values.
We all found it difficult to follow people who co-opted the leadership style of someone else. Rather, we agreed that a leader who is “true to him/herself” and did not try to be someone else was the type of person who can best lead.
I learned about authenticity early in my development as a leader. As a young Air Force officer, I was an ROTC instructor at Georgia Tech. I was about 10 years older than 18- to 21-year-old cadets who were students in my sophomore and junior-level courses. One of the courses I taught was in leadership and management.
One day, a cadet asked me, “Do you have to be ‘cool’ to be a good leader?” As I often did and still do, I asked my other students to attempt to answer his question. Another student said, “Hey, Captain Franza is clearly not cool in the way that you mean it, but he’s a really good leader because he doesn’t try to be cool. There are other officers here who try to act cool and that turns me off.”
That was one of my first lessons in being true to myself and not trying to be someone else in order to be a good leader (although I do admit it hurt a little to realize everyone agreed I was not cool!).
In order to be Authentic, you have to be Honest; hence, my first AH comes from Authenticity and Honesty. I think we all agree that to be a good leader, you have to build trust with the people you lead and the best way to do that is, to be honest. While it can take many moments of honesty to build that trust, it only takes one moment of dishonesty or inauthenticity to undermine it. So, honesty goes hand-in-hand with authenticity; thus providing you with the first of my two AHs.
My other “AH” starts with Accountability. If you have read much of my writing in the past, you know that I am big on accountability. I believe that you cannot be a great leader without being accountable.
Accountability is accepting responsibility for your actions and being willing to own the results that come about because of your actions, choices, and decisions. Leaders must take full responsibility for their decisions and for communicating those decisions and their outcomes.
Unfortunately, many leaders today, whether they are politicians running for election or re-election or business people hoping to get promoted, often blame failure on others when it is clearly their responsibility.
Accountability is a rare commodity in today’s world. However, when it is seen, it is typically found in a leader who is respected and loved by his or her people. The leader who takes the blame when things go poorly and deflects credit to those being led when things go well typically has the support of those being led.
However, one cannot be accountable without being humble, which brings us to the second AH – Accountability/Humility.
Humility allows a leader to accept accountability for his/her actions and also be willing to accept feedback to improve. My favorite quote on humility comes from C.S. Lewis, who said, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.”
It is much easier to follow a leader who cares about you more than he/she cares about him/herself. Being humble makes it easier to be accountable and both accountability and humility make you a better leader.
I have learned over the years that to become a better leader, I need to better master the “AHs” – Authenticity/Honesty, and Accountability/Humility. I hope this column will help you to follow the yellow brick road on the way to being a great leader by being a “Wizard of Ahs!”
Dr. Richard Franza is the Dean of Augusta University’s Hull College of Business. Reach him at rfranza@augusta.edu.
