THE FISH STINKS FROM THE HEAD

The positional authority of leadership in an organization is like the rudder to a ship.  The ship goes where the leader directs.  This direction often comes from a subconscious level as the leader shapes the people in ways they are not aware of.  The human animal is a social creature shaped as much by their tribe as they are through individual integrity.  The influence of the “the head” of the organization shapes not only the success of an organization but also the feel and climate of well-being of the people.  As the leader goes, so goes the people.  Truly, as the Chinese say, an organization is like a fish that stinks from the head.  

In my time in both military and corporate leadership I had the pleasure and pain of serving under many different styles of leadership.  It was fascinating to see the change in both collective and individual behavior and performance.  Junior leaders would mimic the stance, speaking style, values and decisions of the senior leader.  These were men and women who became different people under different leaders.   They led as the senior leader led.  This of course had huge implications on the culture and performance of the organization.   While some leaders were able to extract short term performance gains, they would pay the price of team engagement and retention as the emotional wake settled into the bones of the organization.  Other senior leaders’ laid back style and disengagement led to chaos and confusion as junior people begin vying for power and position in the vacuum created by the distance of distracted leadership.   I have seen the extremes of charismatic leadership followed by systematic leadership.  Both with pros and cons and both leaving something to be optimized.  

Ultimately the leaders I have seen have the most success have had a few things in common but the most important from what I have witnessed, has been the perspective of looking at the role as an opportunity of service.  They saw they role as a calling to serve the people in their command.  They made decisions on what was best for the viability of the organization based on creating the highest good possible while remaining inline with the values of both the whole and the personal.  If the people who directly reported to the head felt that they had their best interest at heart, then they did the same for the people who directly reported to them.   This continued down the line and shaped the feel of the entire organization.

When we work with organizations, our first initiative is to deeply understand the makeup of the head of the organization.  We know that the more self-aware a leader is of the impact they have on the world around them, the more opportunity to help them leverage their strengths and weaknesses to build a team that will ensure the flourishing and success of the operation, as well as the people that it make up.  If you want to improve the performance and output of your team, the first place to look is in the mirror as the fish always stinks from the head.