When I joined the Leadership Somerset program, we were all asked to name leaders.
Out came the obvious choices: Colin Powell, Abe Lincoln, George Washington, Alan Greenspan, and a host of other presidents, historical and political figures, business leaders, and role models, including the general category of “my parents”.
Then the facilitator asked, “What about Hitler?”
“But he did horrible things!”
While what he did with his leadership was abominable, that doesn’t change the fact that Hitler was an extremely effective leader. He turned a weak and demoralized country into a world force to be reckoned with.
And anyone who’s read Steve Jobs’ biography would be hard-pressed to conclude that he was either a nice person or a benevolent leader.
We are tempted to dismiss those whom we don’t admire. This is a mistake. Often we can learn as much from leaders we DON’T admire as from those we do.
Early in my own actuarial career, I found that a large number of actuaries didn’t have very good management and leadership skills. All of our curriculum to get actuarial credentials concentrated on mastering highly technical skills, not on communication, people skills and leadership.
As a result, I often found myself carefully observing what other supposed leaders were doing that I did NOT want to emulate. I experienced a repertoire of tactics, strategies and skills that I saw were either not effective in leading groups, or were effective in achieving the wrong aims. I found as much that I knew I wanted to do differently as that I wanted to repeat.
So don’t just ignore ‘leaders’ because you don’t want to be like them. Sure, make your true role models the positive examples, but act like a sponge in soaking up both the good and the bad. Carefully distinguish between what you want to be like in the future, and what you do not want to emulate. Then go out and be the best leader you can!