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Leadership on A Razor’s Edge
by Ken Embley, CPPA Outreach Director
It is common to hear those with traditional management
values define leadership in technical terms.
For example, technical step one is vision; step two is persuasion; and
step three is action to realize the vision.
To say it another way—a leader is a person with a clear vision and the ability
to persuade people to realize the vision.
There may be some truth to this traditional approach to leadership, but
I also believe it is incomplete. Why? The traditional approach places the responsibility
for actions to resolve pressing challenges on the shoulders of leadership. Therefore, when vision and persuasion prove
true—the leader is a hero and John Wayne triumphantly rides off into the
sunset; and when vision and persuasion prove false—the leader is a villain and
Richard Nixon in shame turns from a White House helicopter and waives goodbye.
What reality demands to complete the scene is for both
leaders and followers to take responsibility for actions and to realize a
collective vision. In addition to the
traditional role, the job of leadership is to help people adapt to resolve the
challenges—a role that places leadership on a razor’s edge.
Ronald Heifetz, in his book Leadership without Easy Answers, states, “Leadership is [on] a
razor’s edge because one [leader] has to oversee a sustained period of social
disequilibrium during which people confront the contradictions of their lives .
. . and adjust their values and behavior to accommodate new realities.” Leadership does more than provide vision and
persuade; leadership creates conditions such that people can adapt.
Thirteen years ago, my youngest turned 10 and he was up for
new and exciting challenges. At the
time, we enjoyed hiking so I came up with the brilliant idea of taking him on a
new and exciting hike—one that promised to meet his expectations.
Being a great leader, I established the vision. “Scott, let’s go up Little Cottonwood
Canyon, hike to White Pine Lake, and then,” with Scott’s challenge in mind and with
a persuasive voice, “let’s cross over White Pine Ridge and return on the Red
Pine trail.” Scott, believing in my
vision and excited by my persuasive tone of voice, was ready to go in a flash.
With relative ease, we found ourselves at White Pine Lake
and I began to survey the area for the best route. Wow! As I thought to myself, the reality of White Pine Ridge rising
sharply over a thousand feet above the lake placed a little damper on my
vision. However, one look in Scott’s admiring
eyes and this leader was ready for action and the pressing challenge of White
Pine Ridge.
Confidently, I pointed the way, “Let’s head up the Ridge
where the grade is not so sharp, and get as high on the Ridge as we can. Then
when it gets too steep, let’s traverse and follow the map’s contour lines around,
then over the Ridge to Red Pine trail.”
Wow! I marveled at my plan and could not help thinking to myself, not
bad for a “fair weather” hiker. I
headed out, and Scott followed.
Going up the Ridge was a little challenging for us “fair
weather” hikers. Neither of us had ever
scrambled in our hiking lives, but being on “all four” seemed to work. Scott
certainly had his challenge and we both became very serious about what we were
doing. Scott looked at me with his
trusting eyes. He looked to his dad for
leadership!
As expected, we encountered a sharp incline and that
signaled us to begin our traverse of the Ridge. The contour line strategy quickly took a turn. We could traverse the Ridge but below, the
drop off was sharp. We continued for
maybe a quarter mile or so and then came to a small but challenging fissure—and
a call for leadership. Scott, we can do
this!
We made our way into the fissure but found ourselves nearly
swallowed by it. We got in but there
was no easy way out—and another call for leadership. I turned to my son, looked at him and our eyes said it all; clear
vision and the capacity to persuade vanished, the trust was gone. All I saw were tears and
disappointment. For me, I was scared
and I knew I needed help. Scott and I
were in a position where we had to adjust our values and behavior to
accommodate new realities. We were in
big trouble.
Heifetz describes leadership as being on the razor’s edge
because conditions create “disequilibrium during which people confront the
contradictions of their lives . . . and must adjust their values and behavior
to accommodate new realities.” He goes
on to describe leadership from a position of authority—in adaptive situations.
Exercising leadership from a position
of authority in adaptive situations means going against the grain. Rather than fulfilling the expectations for
answers, one provides questions; rather than protecting people from outside
threat, one lets people feel the threat in order to stimulate adaptation; instead
of orienting people to their current roles, one disorients people so that new
role relationships develop; rather than quelling conflict, one generates it;
instead of maintaining norms, one challenges them.
“Dad, we’re in trouble, aren’t we?” The threat was real, and we both knew the
answer to his question. Silence! All we
could hear was the wind above the fissure.
“What do you think, Scott?”
He looked at me as if to say, “I am 10 years-old, Dad, what do you want
from me?”
“I need your help, son. I am not the guy with all the
answers.” “I’m your dad, but here and
now we need to be partners; we need to help each other. Scott, I’m scared,”
“Dad, so am I,” and with that said, weird but true, trust
eked back into our relationship, a relationship that had never before existed.
Scott looked over my shoulder, made his way around me and to
the side of a large bolder that blocked our path. “Dad, if we can squeeze through here I think we’ve got a
chance.” That was a tight squeeze and I
was fighting claustrophobia all the way. Scott yelled, “You can do it!” and I
did.
Now standing on the other side of the fissure, something was
completely different. My vision and
capacity to persuade was meaningless to the relationship of the moment, but a
relationship had developed that was stronger than any we could imagine. We made our way down the Ridge and into
familiar “fair weather” hiking conditions.
There, we came across an experienced hiker who took great pleasure in
our story and then directed us to a pass over the Ridge. Once again, we found ourselves in a
challenging position, scrambling up and over the White Pine Ridge with sheer
drops everywhere. Once again we had to
accommodate new realities and, together, create conditions where we could
adapt. This time we worked together
from the start and we made our way down to the Red Pine trail and safety.
The traditional role of leadership between a father and son
remained. We both knew my role calls
for leadership to initiate action by saying, “Eat your vegetables, be home at
ten” and the like, but our relationship was now different. Ours was no longer a
one-sided, top-down, traditional relationship.
Our relationship developed far beyond that to one where we can together,
in the face of adversity, adapt and resolve a pressing challenge.
A traditionalist might say something like, “Hey Dad, you
have a ten year old son who really needed your help and the bottom line is you failed
to take charge when your son needed you most.
This story is not an example of good leadership; it is an example of bad
leadership, you wimp!”
Hence, the title of the article is—Leadership on A Razor’s Edge. Heifetz recognizes that adaptive leadership
is risky business. Traditionalist may
not understand or value adaptive leadership as a concept or as a practical means
to address and resolve pressing challenges.
However, folks like Heifetz, and for that matter, a person like me, want
to encourage people to develop adaptive leadership skills. When the conditions call for adaptive
leadership—and conditions up on White Pine Ridge called for it—Heifetz and I want
leaders who can help followers “. . . adjust their values and behaviors to
accommodate new realities.” We want to
encourage adaptive leadership, leadership on a razor’s edge.
Note to readers—I will have more to say in the coming months
about Ronald Heifetz, adaptive leadership and his extensive writings.
Learn more about Ronald Heifetz’s: http://ksgfaculty.harvard.edu/Ronald_Heifetz
Leadership without
Easy Answers: http://www.amazon.com/Leadership-Without-Answers-Ronald-Heifetz/dp/0674518586
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