I’ve known a great many leaders in my time. Bosses, CEOs, heads, provosts, managers, politicians, coaches, supervisors, managing directors — whatever you call them, I’ve met my fair share of them. Some, I’ve known intimately. They are my friends, family, and close colleagues. Others I’ve watched from afar. Because it’s important to watch the leaders in our lives. According to Aristotle, it’s the only way we will learn.
In his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle argues that to be a good person doesn’t mean doing one or two good things but developing certain virtues that allow you to do good things. Doing a brave thing doesn’t make you courageous. Giving a compliment doesn’t make you kind. To be good is to practice — over and over again — until you transform your character. A good leader is no different.
To develop the character traits of a good leader, you must consciously work on yourself. Treat your choices as bricks and, over time, those bricks will form something wondrous. The question then becomes, how do I know what bricks to lay? What must I do each day to evolve as a leader? To Aristotle, the best and easiest way to seed and nurture a virtue is to imitate those who embody it. Find a moral exemplar, a role model, or what the Greeks called a “phronimos.”
So, I watch the leaders in my life. I see what a boss does or does not do. I take note of what works for this colleague and is an utter failure for another. Everyone in my life is a potted lesson in how to become better. And in my recent conversation on the How to Make a Leader podcast with Hannah Beaver, I shared what I’d learned over many years of philosophical observation.
Here are three virtues I believe are essential to being a good leader.
Fairness: Treat everyone with a straight bat
Many years ago, I had a boss who wasn’t always well-liked by everybody. I tend to get on with most people, but even I have to admit this was not an especially approachable, affable boss, willing to shoot the breeze. But that didn’t matter, because everyone respected him. People would roll their eyes and laugh, but no one really said a bad word about him. And the reason he was respected was that he enforced the rules the same for everybody. As I told Hannah, “Whether you were new or old, whether you’d been there for years or whether you had just joined the company, it didn’t matter. Here are the rules, and this is what I’m going to do.”
When it was time to leave that job, I asked to renegotiate an element of my contract. I knew it was a long shot, but don’t ask, don’t get. He said no. He was very reasonable and very straightforward about it, but he told me that this was the same rule for everyone, and no special pleading or careful argument could persuade him otherwise. Since then, I’ve come to see fairness — “playing a straight bat,” as the Brits say — is an indispensable virtue for any leader.
Diligence: Roll your sleeves up and work hard
If you are going to be a leader, you must work hard. This is how I worded it in our interview:
“If you’re a leader, you often get paid more. And I should say, actually, not everybody has to become a leader. But if you do want to become a leader, I think you have to accept that with more money comes more work. I think you have to be willing to roll up your sleeves and to muck in. I have had a few bad leaders in the past who you felt as if they were delegating too much. Now, obviously, you should delegate as a leader or as a manager, but there have been times when I felt as though the leaders weren’t actually doing much work themselves.”
I should caveat what my past self has said. While I think it is true that some managers in my past have crossed the border from “delegation” into “laziness,” it’s also true that, sometimes, the frontline grunts simply just don’t see what leaders are doing. They don’t see the blocked-out calendars, the long and tiring admin, or the hard job of hiring and firing. But that needn’t take away from the general point: If you’re going to take on more power, responsibility, and a greater salary, I think you should expect to do that much more or harder work.
The Gandalf Effect
I think fairness and diligence are fairly uncontroversial. I’m sure you’ve read 100 learning and development articles about how to give your best work or sat through a seminar or two about how to (legally and morally) be as fair as possible. But the third virtue that I think all leaders should embody and model is something that we possibly don’t consider as much these days: optimism. A good leader needs to inspire, rouse, and motivate everyone else. They need to give the kind of fiery hope that brought out my inner geek:
“So I’m a massive Lord of the Rings fan. I’m sure that doesn’t surprise you. I grew up on a diet of Middle-earth and Tolkien. But, in the deep law of The Lord of the Rings — it’s in The Silmarillion, actually — there’s the idea of the ‘rings of power.’ And Gandalf has a ring of power.
All of these rings have different powers. Some give you long life, some give you wealth, some can heal people, and some make you powerful or give you strength. But the ring that Gandalf has is hope. And so, Gandalf gives a kind of inner fire to people because of this ring. And I think that’s really important.
The reason why it’s one of the most powerful rings in Tolkien’s work is because Tolkien knew that if you haven’t got hope, then you won’t work hard. Whereas if you have hope, you will work hard. And so, I think that optimism needs to come from the leadership. And I think that does trickle down into the company. And if you don’t have that, I don’t think you should be a leader, really.”
The Gandalf Effect is when a leader embodies the kind of inspirational fire of an ancient wizard. Of course, a leader can think, say, and do whatever they think is best for the company behind closed doors. But in all their interactions with most of the company, they need to lift people up. They need to bring people along. Gandalf did not throw the One Ring into Mount Doom. Gandalf did not singlehandedly defend Helm’s Deep. Gandalf did not lead the armies of men. But he was the engine that drove it all. A good boss needs to be that engine. A good leader needs to be a White Wizard.
To listen to the full conversation, explore the How to Make a Leader podcast episode with Jonny.
This article The Gandalf Effect: The most important thing for any leader is featured on Big Think.
