Page 68 - The extraordinary leader

Great Leaders Make a Great Difference • 45

shirts, dark suits, and wing-tip shoes. He once remarked that if he wore
a pink shirt to work, he was sure that the following day he would see
hundreds of executives wearing pink shirts.

Leaders cast a significant shadow in the organizations where they work. A
colleague, Paul McKinnon, did some research several years ago to measure
the shadows of leaders with several of his clients. In a follow-up study we con-
ducted to analyze the shadows of leaders, we found that employees who have
worked for the same boss for several years tend to share not only the strengths
but also the weaknesses of their boss. In the study, we examined the 360-
degree results for a manager and identified areas of strength and opportuni-
ties for improvement. The 360-degree results were then analyzed for all of the
direct reports of the manager (who were also managers). Managers with a large
shadow showed the exact same list of strengths and opportunities for improve-
ment as their direct reports. The analysis calculated the percent overlap
between managers and all of their direct reports. The percentages varied from
a small shadow (e.g., 25 percent overlap) to a large shadow (100 percent over-
lap). This “shadow” can cut both ways. If you work with an extraordinary
leader, the tendency is that your leadership effectiveness will be close to that
of your leader. On the other hand, if your boss is an ineffective leader, the
tendency is that you won’t be much better. In the study, we found the length
of a leader’s shadow to vary. The length of time people spend with the same
boss can increase the size of the shadow.
In the study, we found that some leaders and their direct reports had a 100
percent overlap between strengths and weaknesses. By their nature, people
think their approach to work is best, and bosses tend to hire employees who
have a similar style. Over time, bosses reinforce their positive as well as neg-
ative traits by unconsciously rewarding some employee behaviors while dis-
couraging or ignoring others. As a result, employees are conditioned to mimic
those to whom they report.
For example, assume a leader who is very detail oriented, task focused, and
technically proficient, but not sensitive toward co-workers reporting to him.
More often than not, this person’s subordinates generally share his skills and are
also not regarded as especially considerate of others. Most of the time, bosses
do not actively encourage brusqueness, but the managers saw their boss get away
with it and felt they could, too. The process of mimicking the strengths and
weaknesses of one’s boss is an unconscious process. Possibly, one of the most