A question of leadership with Paolo Gallo

Guest post by Paolo Gallo who discusses leadership ahead of his latest book coming out.

Can I ask you a question? What word comes to mind when you think about the best leader you’ve ever worked with? Just take five seconds to think about it. I confess: I already know what your answer will be. You’re thinking of words like Trust, Empathy, Integrity, Listening, Humbleness, Help, Authenticity, Passion, Altruism, Generosity, Energy, Optimism, Motivation. And now I’ll confess something else: I’ve asked this same question at least 200 times to countless teams, students, managers, and employees in companies in 30 different countries.

What always strikes me is that no one – I repeat, no one – ever answers that a leader is someone who “doubles profits,” or “cuts costs,” or “increases share value,” or “wrote a book” or “speaks four languages” or “has a degree from such and such university,” even an Ivy League.

So what’s the takeaway?

When we think about leadership, our minds and our hearts tell us to stop and reflect on human qualities, before considering any economic or financial outcomes or academic qualifications. But although this might seem plausible, it’s also idealistic, if not down-right naïve. Is leadership really forged from an individual’s character and personal qualities?

A question of leadership with Paolo Gallo

To find an answer this question, let’s look at various disciplines such as psychology, history, and management, in addition to empirical evidence from academia. The psychologist Daniel Goleman, who rose to fame after the publication of his book Emotional Intelligence, wrote a piece for the Harvard Business Review that became a classic: What Makes a Leader? In this article, he tells us that a person’s IQ and technical skills are important, but emotional intelligence is the true sine qua non of leadership. As a reminder, the five components of emotion intelligence are self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills.

The historian Doris Kearns Goodwin has written the biographies of five US presidents. Her latest book, published in 2018, is entitled Leadership in Turbulent Times. In it she compares different presidents who held office during periods of conflict, and concludes that leaders need humility, empathy, self-control and self-confidence, These are personality traits that the author finds in the best US presidents, such as Abraham Lincoln.

But remember, self-confidence must be understood as a positive approach toward listening to “strong” people who don’t think like we do, not “I’m the boss, so I’m always right.” That’s called narcissism, something entirely different, light years away from Leadership. If we think about management, the evidence is overwhelming. To cite the father of management Peter Drucker: “A manager does things right; a leader does the right thing.” This insightful assertion helps us understand the essential role of Leaders, people who never lose their moral compass, or the ethical awareness that underpins their choices.

James J. Heckman and Tim Kautz, Professors of Economics at the University of Chicago, conducted research published in 2012 to ascertain the correlation between soft skills and success. In their study, entitled Hard Evidence on Soft Skills, the two authors write that soft skills can predict and produce personal and professional success.

The MIT Sloan School of Management recently proposed a different definition. Instead of calling them soft skills, let’s call them smart skills, based on a book by Loredana Padurean. Guess what smart skills are? Adaptability, emotional maturity, humility, listening, multiple perspectives, productive inclusion, validation.

In my seminars I always ask participants to share a concrete example of leadership that they experienced. Their stories are consistently about someone who did something for them, without ulterior motives, when they found themselves facing personal or professional challenges.

A Leader is someone who helps, even just by listening with no judgement, someone who builds trust and dedicates their valuable time to people.

The second question that gives us food for thought is a simple one. What are you doing for the people who work for you? Are you trying to be the kind of leader that you hoped to find when you were just starting out on your career? If you’re not convinced yet, here’s another question for you. What happens on a team when the behaviors of whoever is heading (not leading) the team are the exact opposite of the words you thought of when you were remembering the best leader you’ve ever worked with?

Sadly, many of us (me included) have struggled at times, working for bosses who had no scruples, no respect for others, no integrity – vain narcissists. And we are very well aware of the consequences in terms of motivation, and at worst, burn out, quitting, stress or illnesses. Jeffrey Pfeffer addresses this in Dying for a Paycheck, an intense book that offers evidence of a lack of ethics, of Leadership, and companies that ask more and more from their employees.

What struck me was reading that our boss has more influence over our mental health than our family does. So your answer to my first question is right. Character is the starting point of our journey to becoming a Leader, the foundation to build on. It’s like a house. We can’t see the foundation but we know that without it, the house won’t stand.

The same is true for Leadership: we start out inside ourselves, from our sensitivity and our character, constantly working on self-improvement as good people, striving for and achieving tangible results to share generously with others. All this is True Leadership, when it’s lacking, it’s immediately obvious, but when it is present, it becomes an invisible – but essential – characteristic of a Leader.

Paolo Gallo is an executive coach, author and keynote speaker.

Paolo Gallo is a recognized Global Expert in Professional & Personal Development, Human Capital, Future of Work, Leadership, Energy Management and is ICF certi?ed Executive Coach. Paolo is Adjunct Professor in Leadership & Organizational Behavior at SDA Bocconi University, Milan. He is the Founder of “Gallo Compass Consulting” and has been the Executive coach of more than 150 Executives, including CEOs.

Paolo Gallo has served as Chief Human Resources Officer at the World Economic Forum in Geneva and has also been Chief Learning Officer at The World Bank in Washington DC and Director of HR at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in London, with prior experience at the International Finance Corporation in Washington DC and at Citigroup in London, New York and Milan, his home town. He is also a board member of selected companies.

Paolo graduated with top marks in Organizational Behavior from Bocconi University, Milan, is a Chartered Fellow of the FCIPD, UK and a Certi?ed Leadership Coach from Georgetown University, Washington DC. He has worked in 80+ countries and written the award winning book “The Compass & The Radar: the Art of Building a Rewarding Career while remaining True to Yourself” published by Bloomsbury in 2018 and translated in 7 languages, with 60K copies sold worldwide.

Paolo’s new book “The 7 Games of Leadership: Navigating the Inner Journey of Leaders” also published from Bloomsbury is available from October 2023. Paolo Gallo has published 100+ articles with Harvard Business Review (Italian & Arabic editions), Sole24 Ore, Forbes, World Economic Forum Agenda, Irish Tech News, and Tribune de Geneve.

Paolo Gallo has delivered more than 100 keynotes – live or virtually – such as: 10 Downing Street, Ferrari, FCA-Fiat, Pictet, Toyota, Microsoft, Salesforce, IBM, Manpower, Ministry of Economics and Finance (Italy), Citigroup, Blackrock, UBS, ENI, Unicredit, Arup, United Nations, World Bank, ITU, IATA, WTO, WHO, WIPO, IMD and given 3 TEDx and commencement speeches and Gallo’s posts on Linkedin got 14 millions views since 2020. He lives in Geneve with his wife and daughter.

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