Albert Saint George won the Nobel Prize in 1937 for discovering Vitamin C. He once said,
“Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.”
That’s a perfect description of how it came to pass that we are talking about leadership today.
We didn’t set out to become leadership gurus and it’s a fair question to ask, “what do these guys know about leadership?” Let me briefly explain how we got here:
Crucible
Our firm has helped companies solve terrible employee relations problems for 37 years – I’ve been doing it for almost 25 years. Nearly every one of these cases was brought on by a leadership failure. We learned and continue to learn about leadership in the trenches. I’ve seen a lot of terrible leaders over the years. But I’ve also been blessed to work with some amazing leaders too – and it always seems to be in the toughest conditions when you really see the best leaders shine. So this whole journey began with a simple question that we had to answer: what separates the good leaders from those who fail? This isn’t a bunch of theory about what could work, or what works when things are going great. It is based on observations of thousands of leaders under fire, and what separates the ones who come out of the crucible hard as steel from the ones who crumble.
Mission
This also isn’t some new revenue stream. Teaching people how to improve their leaders and avoid problems is not the worst way to make money – speaking from personal experience I can tell you starting a pizza restaurant is. But it’s probably a close second. I’ve watched companies fail over and over again because good people made bad leadership choices. Even after helping them through it, many of those same leaders fall right back into their old habits. Approachable Leadership developed because for 25 years I’ve searched to solve a problem: how to teach mostly blue-collar, unsophisticated managers how to become successful leaders over the long haul. This isn’t just a job for me. It’s my life’s work.
Head and Heart
I’m a lawyer and a nerd. My hobbies include playing chess and teaching debate. That means I better be able to prove something before I say it. The research behind AL is not just based on “gut instinct” or some back of the napkin theory. It is based on some incredible research. One of the crazy things about approachability is that its impact has always been out there hiding in plain sight. What we’ve done is identify and name the behavior, then helped connect the dots between what has been studied before. Like St. George says, we saw what others have seen for years but saw it in a different way. Approachability is just now getting studied in its own right, and the results are nothing short of astounding. Being approachable may sound like a “soft skill” and it is, but the research on its impact both at work and in life is as hard as it gets.
We know there’s a lot of great leadership advice out there already – 5 Dysfunctions, 7 Habits, Crucial Conversations, Situational Leadership, Start with Why. So why doesn’t it stick? Well, it’s a lot like saying I know how to swing a golf club, why aren’t I a scratch golfer?
Let’s face it, most leaders know what they are supposed to do. But when you get into the heat of battle a lot of times you end up falling back into bad habits. The more you do to complicate things the more likely you are to abandon it early. Like the esteemed management thinker Mike Tyson once said:
“Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”
Just like that perfect driving range golf swing falls apart when you are a few holes away from your best golf round, great leadership advice tends to fall apart under the pressure cooker of today’s workplace.
That’s the problem with all these other great resources (and I do mean great – I think there is value in all of them). But there is something fundamental underneath all of these different leadership trainings that, if missing, makes all the best plans crumble when the pressure is on. If your leaders aren’t approachable – if there is a power distance gap – you won’t ever overcome the dysfunctions of a team or have a crucial or fierce conversation. You can be emotionally intelligent, understand your situation and start with why and STILL fail as a leader.
You have to get approachability right first. It is THE leadership fundamental.
