Canadian Government Executive - Volume 22 - Issue 4

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April 2016 // Canadian Government Executive / 27
charitably called. “The ability to misrepresent reality is a crucial–
maybe the most crucial–leadership skill,” Pfeffer provocatively
suggests.
Trust is the glue of most social relationships and widely be-
lieved to be crucial to effective leadership. But Pfeffer no longer
believes it’s essential to organizational functioning or even to ef-
fective leadership because the data suggests it’s notable mostly
by its absence. Yet organizations and their leaders don’t suffer too
many consequences for their untrustworthiness, to some degree
because even after our trust is violated we tend to still be predis-
posed to grant trust to our leaders.
Leaders are supposed to eat last, letting their subordinates go
first. It’s a noble idea, common in the U.S. military but not else-
where. Indeed, he notes it’s a curiosity when it occurs. Unselfish
leadership is rare and servant leadership–devoting yourself to
helping your followers–difficult to implement.
The final behaviour he highlights is trusting the organization to
take care of you. But the last three decades, with constant pruning
of loyal staff, has put paid to that notion. “The logical conclusion
from systematic data and countless cases in multiple environ-
ments, ranging from college and professional athletics to corpora-
tions to universities: Relying on the good behaviour and positive
sentiments of work organizations for your career well-being is sin-
gularly foolish,” he says. His advice: Take care of yourself.
This is a stimulating and important book. I found myself resist-
ing his opening attacks on the leadership industry since they were
more bombastic than thoughtful and the research scant. But the
following chapters, each tackling one of the six main themes, were
in fact solid and eye-opening, making his case better and giving
us cause to rethink the leadership messages we have been bom-
barded with.
moments is ‘authentic’ –at least if authentic means both being
in touch with and exhibiting their true feelings. In fact, being
authentic is pretty much the opposite of what leaders must do.
Leaders do not need to be true to themselves. Rather, leaders
need to be true to what the situation and what those around them
want and need from them,” he notes.
Anthony Weiner, the New York mayoral candidate who sent
pictures of his private parts to various women he met on the In-
ternet, was unabashedly authentic. He was owning his thoughts,
needs, and wants. Is that to be praised? On the other hand, a col-
league of Pfeffer’s was probably being inauthentic when after his
daughter died from a drug overdose he continued to soldier on in
his administrative job, providing motivation and encouragement
to others.
The noted writer-editor Harriet Rubin studied successful indi-
viduals and found inauthenticity was vital. Their success came
from playing a role. A study by the University of Michigan’s Syd-
ney Lieberman found that union leaders who were promoted
into management and then during a recession returned to the
frontlines exhibited the attitudes of their different posts in those
two periods, changing with the situation. Inauthentic, but real-
istic and probably effective. “The idea of behaving authentically
as a leader is almost certainly rare, because this is a concept that
is at once both psychologically impossible–because of situational
effects on personality and behaviour–and also not very useful be-
cause of the requirements for acting as a leader regardless of how
one may feel at the moment,” he says.
Jim Collins propelled the notion of modesty into the leadership
discussion when in his best seller Good to Great he revealed the
best business leaders were humble and determined. But research
has shown that overconfident people achieve higher social status,
respect and influence in groups. A study of the recent financial
crisis found narcissistic CEOs did worse at the beginning of the
episode but because they have a stronger bias towards action and
risk-taking, as a result of their self-confidence, they led their firms
to bounce back more successfully. Whatever you believe about
the virtue of modesty, Pfeffer warns we are surrounded by self-
promotional if not narcissistic leaders–Donald Trump is a prime
example–who seem to earn more than their counterparts, so it
may be a tack to consider. (Interestingly, in his companion work
Good to Great and the Social Sectors, Collins didn’t focus on modes-
ty but instead called for a blend of executive and legislative skills.
In executive leadership, the individual leader has enough con-
centrated power to act decisively. In legislative leadership, the
person must rely instead on persuasion, political currency, and
shared interest to create the conditions for the right decisions to
happen.)
Gurus insist leaders must be totally honest. But Steve Jobs was
known for bending the truth–his “reality distortion field,” it was
web
user/21-harveyschachter.html
“Relying on the good behaviour and
positive sentiments of work organizations
for your career well-being is singularly
foolish,” he says. Pfeffer’s advice: Take
care of yourself.
The Leader’s Bookshelf