The Hindu Business Line : The essence of credible leadership

Studies show that charisma has no positive correlation to leadership credibility. In fact, there might even be a negative correlation — excessive charisma can get in the way of building trust with those being led.

To truly inspire trust, leaders must be extremely fair and predictable in how they deal with people.

Santanu Paul

It has been said that so much is written about good leadership precisely because there is so little of it. Certainly, my experience with various corporate organisations suggests that leaders are rarely trusted to do the right thing by those being led. Trust in leadership is like truth in advertising — highly desirable but quite rare. Having watched colleagues, subordinates, superiors and myself over the years, it is evident that in many situations, much of what leade rs say is met with scepticism or worse.

It is easy to dismiss such apathy (or shall we say antipathy) as a vagary of human nature, but what complicates matters is that all of us have encountered at least a few leaders, in our careers, who are highly credible. Therefore, rare as it is, credible leadership does exist and is quite discernible when it does. A natural question follows — what makes a small minority of leaders credible and the vast majority not so? Without the protective air cover of rigorous research, let me posit that leadership credibility is a direct result of clarity, consistency and courage.

Clarity, consistency, courage

What is clarity? In simple terms, it is the ability to apply first principles to sift through myriad details and make good and timely decisions. A great college friend of mine used to say: “I pray that I have the clarity to rise above my own confusion and that of others around me.” This is not to say that clarity must emerge unilaterally from the leader; to the contrary, good leaders create an ambience where the collective wisdom of their team is harnessed to arrive at clarity fairly quickly. It is tempting to say that clarity is always the outcome of linear logical reasoning; the facts are that corporate situations are often replete with incomplete information, and deep collaboration and superior intuition are often as valuable as copious data and analysis in getting to the ‘right’ decision.

If clarity is important, consistency is paramount. To truly inspire trust, leaders must be extremely fair and predictable in how they deal with people. Trusted leaders generally enjoy a reputation of being ‘apolitical’, ‘beyond favouritism’ and ‘above the fray’. My working hypothesis these days is that being fair is a more useful leadership trait than being nice. Peter Drucker once said that Harry Truman was the most credible US president of the twentieth century — despite apparently having the charm of a ‘dead mackerel’ — simply because he was consistent in what he said and did. His ‘yes’ was a ‘yes’, his ‘no’ was a ‘no’, and it did not change based on who he was speaking with.

Finally, there is courage, the absence of which is a proverbial kiss of death for any leader. In my observation, nothing erodes a leader’s credibility faster than timid conduct. Good leaders demonstrate courage when they take on unpopular positions in the organisational interest. They demonstrate courage when they confront their people to advance an important corporate agenda or, in reverse, confront the corporate agenda if it conflicts with what is good for the people. They are just as good at receiving critical feedback from their teams as they are in giving feedback.

Such courageous leaders do fit into the corporate hierarchy, but they really report to a higher authority, their conscience.

What of charisma?

The astute reader has by now noted that charisma does not figure on the list of must-have qualities. In fact, studies as well as experience repeatedly show that charisma has no positive correlation to leadership credibility. In fact, there might even be a small negative correlation — excessive charisma can often get in the way of building trust with those being led. Charisma does help make a great first impression, but it hardly compensates for substantive shortcomings in areas that really matter, namely clarity, consistency and courage.

So the next time you feel the need to inject your personality with a shot of charisma, resist the temptation! An ability to connect with warmth and humour may be a better option.

(The writer is Senior Vice-President for global delivery operations at Virtusa Corporation.)

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