Leadership Lessons From Bestselling Author of The Leadership Challenge^®, Barry Posner

What does a scholar and researcher of leadership for over 30 years have to say about his personal leadership?

That he likes people. Yes, that he likes people. It is his genuine desire to discover people and their interests, that spurs him to understand them, enable them, and lead them. The most effective leadership stems from relationship.

Barry Posner is the co-author of the bestselling The Leadership Challenge^®. A highly distinguished educator, he has received several teaching and academic awards such as the President’s Distinguished Faculty Award and the School’s Extraordinary Faculty Award. He currently teaches at Leavey School of Business in Santa Clara University. Barry also conducts conferences and workshops, as well as consults for private sector organisations, around the globe. Notably, he has also been recognised as one of the Top 50 Leadership Coaches in America, and ranked among the 10 Most Influential Thinkers in the World by HR Magazine. Recently, we had the chance to interview Barry about leadership and his advice for fellow educators.

Halogen360 (H360): In your 30+ years of leadership research, have you seen a shift in leadership styles? Across the globe, do you see this same difference across the East and the West?
Barry Posner (BP): The world has changed, obviously; and so the context of leadership has changed but not the process. People still want to be treated with dignity and respect, want to envision a brighter future for themselves and their families, want to feel that what they are contributing is adding up to be part of something bigger than just a task, don’t want to be taken for granted, and the like. Indeed, the content of what people tell us they are doing when they are at their personal best as leaders has not changed over the past three decades, nor has it varied dramatically across the globe.

In James Kouzes’ and my newest book, “Making Extraordinary Things Happen in Asia”, we make the point that people are people, and that effective leadership requires making a connection with people and building relationships. In many ways, the world, and especially the organisation of work, has gotten smaller in the past 30-plus years because we are more easily connected with one another, and with sources of information.

H360: The world has been increasingly volatile, uncertain and ambiguous. What are the key skills that leaders need to have to navigate their people and organisations through these challenges?
BP: It’s a question of scale and scope. Are students more difficult to teach today than they were 10, 20, or 30 years ago? Are teachers less, or more, prepared to face the challenges of teaching today than they were in the past? The challenges, and especially for leaders, are ever present. Progress is the consequence of leadership.

One of the key skills these days is curiosity. Being curious about what’s going on; why and how. Without curiosity, too many people just don’t develop a sense of “caring” about the way things are, or believe that they can do something to alter the status quo. We’ve asserted that the first truth about leadership is believing that each of us matters, and can make a difference. Otherwise, nothing happens, nothing changes.

“One of the key skills these days is curiosity… Without curiosity, too many people just don’t develop a sense of “caring” about the way things are, or believe that they can do something to alter the status quo.” – Barry Posner

H360: The Leadership Challenge^® is extending its reach to a junior audience through new research and products. In your observation, what type of leaders do young leaders look up to?
BP: When it comes to leadership—learning about what it means to be a leader and to lead others—research indicates “family” members as the most often cited source of both inspiration and example (and from both a positive and negative perspective). Aunt, uncle, grandparent, older sibling, and even Mom and Dad, are most frequently mentioned as the ones who have taught or “shown us” what it means to be a leader.

The second most frequently mentioned role models are teachers and coaches. Think about what these two categories have in common. They are typically the people that we know and the ones who typically know us, in return. This finding reinforces the key notion about the importance of relationships when it comes to leadership. It also serves as a reminder that other people are watching us; all the time, so we’d better be prepared to be the kind of person that we’d hope that others will see us as!

H360: Enable Others to Act is one of the Five Exemplary Practices of Leadership^®. Personally, how do you do that?
BP: I like other people. Not much more complicated than that. I’m generally more interested in finding out what other people are doing, and what’s interesting to them, than I am talking about myself or my own interests. As I listen to what they are doing, along with their hopes and dreams, I think about what I can do to enable them to be even more successful. Mostly this is about making connections for them with sources of information, resources, and people from my network that they might otherwise not have access to.

I’m also a fairly good coach—listening, and then helping them to figure out what’s important and what they could do to get started on being better, meet challenges or realise opportunities.  And, I’m willing to catch them when they fall, so they know that they have a safety net, that any falls will have a soft landing, and that they will be able to pick themselves up and try all over again.

Finally, I love celebrations; with delight I let people know just how great they are, and what they have accomplished.

H360: What is one piece of advice you would like to share with educators in Singapore?
BP: T