What does it mean to be a wide-open leader?
Today you get to be creative! Picture a leader. Not someone you know or someone you have heard about. I want you to conjure the image of a leader from scratch.
We could scrutinize the characteristics that you may have assumed — gender, race, ethnicity, clothing, demeanor, etc. — and draw inferences from them, but for now I want you to ask yourself a question.
Aside from the fact that I prompted you to conjure a leader, how do you know for sure your conjuree is a leader? What is your leader doing or what should your leader do to demonstrate leadership?
Perhaps your leader is in front of a group. Is your leader facing toward or away from the group? I have written on that topic before.
Or perhaps your leader is gesturing or pointing. Whatever the case, it’s likely your imagined leader has an open mouth or is poised to open their mouth. Why?
To be sure, opening wide is a key to leadership, but great leaders know there are plenty of other things they should open wide well before they open their mouth.
Open Your Eyes and Ears
To start, leaders must open their eyes and their ears, figuratively and/or literally. They must absorb information from and gain awareness of their surroundings, yes, but they must also understand and acknowledge the context their people exist in, be it individual circumstance or broad culture. To understand context requires constant intake, which in turn requires open eyes and ears.
People don’t exist in a vacuum separate from their environment. Similarly, great leaders don’t spend their time isolated in a corner office issuing commands via memoranda and pronouncements. Leaders, effective leaders, absorb information about their people and their context or culture. They leave their comfy bubble to learn about and interact with their people constantly. They observe with curiousity, though not in some creepy way but in the spirit of openness.
To be a great leader you must watch and listen attentively.
Open Your Heart
Truly great leaders also open their hearts, which means they are willing to accept or at least consider others’ perspectives and perceptions, to start from a place of yes, and to feel and express compassion, empathy, and sympathy when appropriate.
An open heart is pretty easy to fake — even to oneself — so sincerity is vital. I have known leaders who appeared compassionate and even empathic in their public-facing actions but were absolutely pitiless in their outlook and behaviors behind the scenes. The higher you climb in an organization, the more you witness this duplicity, and it is too common. What is even more appalling is that these hypocrites actually take pride in the sensitivity they express publicly even though it is an utterly false pretense. Their self-congratulatory self-delusion is appalling to behold.
Great leaders, in contrast, act the same in private as they do in public. We call this consistency “integrity.”
Open Yourself
Another important marker of great leaders is that they open themselves to others and to themselves. By “open themselves to others” I mean regularly making themselves transparent and even vulnerable. I have written about vulnerability as the secret strength of great leaders.
I have also written about the relationship between honesty and transparency as well as the powerful practice of radical transparency.
Openness to others is not a passive state. Great leaders actively strive to be truly and fully honest with their people.
Openness to the self is also an active state, one that demands rigorous self-awareness. Great leaders are honest with themselves because only then can they be honest with others. Openness to the self requires an ongoing application of values and — here’s that word again — integrity.
In all things, great leaders act with integrity.
Open Your Mind
Having an open mind means you are willing to change your mind, which is not to be confused with being mushy brained, wishy-washy, or namby-pamby. If you are open minded, you resist flitting from one belief system to the next just as readily as you reject dogma and rigidity. Instead, an open-minded leader enthusiastically explores new ideas or ways of thinking to find inspiration and challenges to their assumptions.
Great leaders must consciously open their minds. Otherwise, they would cease to learn.
Great leaders are great learners and, for that matter, great teachers.
Open Your Mouth
At long last and after all the rest, great leaders may open their mouths, but there are only two reasons to do so really. One is obvious. Great leaders are great communicators. They express purpose by emphasizing clarity, which is the most important aspect of communication. Clarity leads to comprehension.
The other reason great leaders open their mouths is in the service of others, to protect and defend and to see that justice is enacted. I believe that justice is a human invention, perhaps the greatest human invention. Therefore to me justice exists due only to human practice and practicality, which makes it fragile and precious, requiring constant attention and care. Perhaps you have a different view of justice, maybe one that is more theologically or metaphysically based. Whatever the case, if you have come this far in this essay, you can probably agree that great leaders act with integrity and that they do so in the name of justice.
Great leaders are a force for good.
Has Your Picture Changed?
I want you to recall your imaginary leader. Does your leader look any different? Is your leader behaving differently? Perhaps your leader is carefully listening to others, mouth closed, head tilted, hand on chin. Instead of shouting to or over people, your leader may now be making deliberate eye contact and exuding sincere curiosity and concern. This is the image of an open leader, a great leader. When you lead, which one are you? The one from before, mouth open, or the one now, truly open. It’s entirely your choice.
How do you picture a leader? What do you open first as a leader?
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The Picture of an Open Leader