Leader, Who’s Sitting at Your Table?

November 19, 2009 by Art Petty
Filed under: Career, Leadership, Management Education, Middle Management, Organizational Transformation, Performance, Professional Growth, Talent Management 

Leader, Who's At Your Table?Once again, Mom is proven right.  You become the company that you keep.

Surround yourself with intelligent, aggressive individuals comfortable in professionally articulating their perspectives and taking accountability for both their words and their actions, and you will flourish.

Have the self-confidence to bring together groups of extremely capable individuals with varying skills and divergent views and you will be challenged to raise your game every day and on every key issue.  This type of an environment sharpens your skills, keeps you honest and ensures that you focus on your job…creating the environment for others to do theirs.

Show me a troubled organization and I’ll guarantee you that I’ll find leaders that failed to remember and heed Mom’s advice.

Instead of the super-charged professionals in high performance organizations, I’ll find Yes-Men (and women) or individuals of questionable character and even more questionable motivation.

It’s certainly not new news that many less than effective or overly paranoid leaders view it as important to secure their power by surrounding themselves with individuals less capable and if you’ll pardon the term, weaker than themselves.  It’s an ancient story, and a tactic that is both visible to all and horribly flawed.

I’ve built winning teams in global giants and in small, troubled and ultimately successful firms, and I’ve yet to experience a case where an organization was worse off because I found the smartest people that I could and put them in positions to do what they do best…drive positive change and create value.  There was remarkable joy and success in watching and supporting these people tackle challenges that I could not master on my best day.

The Bottom-Line:

If you don’t have the self-confidence to hire people smarter and stronger than you are, it’s time to get out of the leadership profession.

If you are preoccupying on fixing people’s weaknesses instead of leveraging their strengths, it’s time to get out of the leadership profession.

If you can do better, then take time to assess what potential mix of strengths plus values will help you and your firm, and don’t rest until you’ve put those people in place.  Then start leading by doing everything in your power to help them succeed.

Oh, and once you’ve set this new table with talent, be prepared to find out how great and what a privilege it is to serve others.  And last and not least, remember to thank Mom.

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Comments

15 Comments on Leader, Who’s Sitting at Your Table?

  1. Andrew Meyer on Thu, 19th Nov 2009 11:03 am

    2. Someone once said, you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. There is a lot of truth to that. I wonder if a corollary to that might be, your understanding is the average of the 5 blogs you most frequently read?

    Love your stuff,

    Andy

  2. Art Petty on Thu, 19th Nov 2009 11:07 am

    3. Andy, I love the saying. Thanks for the reminder and thanks for the kind words! I’ve done a quick mental check on the blogs that I read and I think I’m in good shape as well!

    Best,

    Art

  3. Loren Loiseau on Thu, 19th Nov 2009 3:13 pm

    4. Great article. It interesting that a leader will become insecure after assuming the leadership role. They must have been picked by their management for some reason. That reason is not going to go away just because they assemble a great team. They already have the leadership position. What are they worried about?

  4. Art Petty on Thu, 19th Nov 2009 3:19 pm

    5. Loren, thanks for reading. Not sure I’m following your comment on the “become insecure” issue. If you clarify, I will be happy to comment back. Thanks! -Art

  5. Zachary Vernal on Thu, 19th Nov 2009 4:02 pm

    6. Art;

    Great Article. I completely agree with your premise that your only as valuable as the people around you. A leader must be willing to accept the fact that he or she is not the smartest person in the room. Once a leader has comes to realization, he or she is able to assemble a team on qualifications alone.It is way to common in today’s day and age that people are not hired because of their qualifications (or lack there of) but because he or she is smarter than the interviewee. Anyways, until next time, have a good day and happy holiday

    -Zack

  6. Siraj Malik on Thu, 19th Nov 2009 4:21 pm

    7. Hi Art,

    Interesting correlation you’ve made between who your mom wants you to hang out with as a kid and who you surround yourself with as an adult. It’s funny how true this was when growing up, seeing that the people that my mom liked me being around and not being around and seeing the success or lack thereof that they have had since high school even, she was right. I also think you really hit the nail on the head mentioning that this is a self-confidence issue, because it really does take a confident person to surround himself with people that will criticize and question his decisions. Nice read, thanks!

  7. Art Petty on Thu, 19th Nov 2009 4:36 pm

    8. Zack and Siraj, thanks for reading and jumping in. You both bring some wise perspectives to the discussion.

    Siraj, isn’t it funny how right our parents are…and often how we don’t figure that out until much later.

    Best to both of you!

    Art

  8. Mark D. Cohen on Thu, 19th Nov 2009 5:34 pm

    9. Art,

    I completely agree with your bottom line. In fact, half way through the article, I said to myself that the key is being confident enough to be a leader among smart, strong, and capable people. If you are not strong enough to allow yourself to get advice from people who are your equal or greater talent-wise, then leadership is not for you. In addition, your time as a leader will yield poor results. People will see your weakness and paranoia, no doubt.

    Another good point you bring up is that leadership is about making the most of your team’s strengths, not just minimizing weaknesses. In fact, leadership is primarily centered upon marrying strengths with tasks. Now, I agree that it is good to try to improve weaknesses, but leaders should focus on maximizing strengths.

    -Mark

  9. Nicole on Thu, 19th Nov 2009 6:07 pm

    10. Hey Art,

    Great points about insecure leaders surrounding themselves with people weaker than themselves. This is a good gut check on what type of leader you are and can provide some objective information for reflection. Additionally, you can use this to see what type of leader you boss may be – are they threated by your own skills? Do they think your are successful or a failure if your own reports can outperform you?

    Great stuff, Thanks!

    Nicole

  10. Art Petty on Thu, 19th Nov 2009 6:29 pm

    11. Nicole, great question. It’s generally not a competition and your reports are not doing your job, so it’s hard to gauge whether they are outperforming you. However, it is absolutely a success if you can help high performers get to the next level or position. You never know when you are training your next boss…and that’s OK. -Art

  11. Jeff R on Thu, 19th Nov 2009 6:48 pm

    12. Art – Great blog with great advice! Thanks for sharing your thoughts. This blog reminded me of an article I recently read that discussed “Dean’s Disease”. Basically, it stated that many deans (in academia) suffer from a drastic group-think environment which they created by surrounding themselves with people (doppelgangers, as described in the article) that do not possess that attributes you highlighted in your blog. The idea of “Dean’s Disease” can be applied towards leaders in all types of environments. If I can dig up this article I’ll post a link for you to read… pretty similar stuff to what you’re blogging about. Personally, I believe we should all practice servant leadership, check our ego’s at the door, and give our all do develop great teams that will be beneficial for everyone involved.

  12. Art Petty on Thu, 19th Nov 2009 6:51 pm

    13. Jeff, thanks for adding your always enlightened and enlightening perspective! Would love the link to the article. Absolutely agree on the Servant Leadership. -Art

  13. George on Thu, 19th Nov 2009 8:43 pm

    14. Hey Art

    Moms usually know best. I absolutely agree that self-confidence, or lack of, leads people to surround themselves with certain types of people or groups. But it takes self awareness to realize what type of people one is surrounding or should be surrounding themselves with.

  14. Dan McCarthy on Sat, 21st Nov 2009 9:40 am

    15. Art –
    Great advice from Mom!
    I once head a senior executive tell a group of new managers: “A great leader should know more than anybody on their team.” Really? What arrogance!

  15. Art Petty on Sat, 21st Nov 2009 10:52 am

    16. George, you bet. Sounds like a great pre-requisite and area to assess for those of us putting new leaders in place.

    Dan, I love that example…because those leaders make me cringe! I know a few of those very characters. Thanks for reading and commenting!

    -Art

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