Consider The Place

Posted on April 06, 2010 by Ronald T. Brown, Ph.D.

Tony Mayo, author of “In Their Time: The Greatest Business Leaders of the Twentieth Century”, discusses the importance of

context

for leaders:

“Yes, business leaders need to have certain personal characteristics to be successful, but it is often the application of those characteristics within a specific context that define great success. It’s not only who you are, but when and where you are as well.”

Today, too much emphasis is placed on leaders who have special and unique traits. There is too much focus on individual “traits” of leadership, and far too little focus on the leader’s situational context. By placing too much emphasis on the individual, we can easily fall prey to the belief that any leader who is successful in one setting will naturally be successful in a new setting. Yet the list of once-successful CEOs who have failed in their next business setting is long and well documented.

To focus solely on effective leadership “traits” can lead to a number of dysfunctional behaviors, including

:
*

Oversimplification

: The tendency to reduce “effective” leadership into a simple list of traits and behaviors. The traits and factors that have made leaders great in the past, will not necessarily make a leader great tomorrow. This is why you cannot blindly copy successful leaders from the past and expect to get good results. What made Jack Welch successful, will not make you successful. People need to learn from successful leaders - without trying to copy them.
*

Underconfidence

: The tendency to over-estimate the importance of a list of traits or abilities may cause another person to under-estimate the difference they can make when using their own unique talents and skills.
*

Overconfidence

: The tendency to to believe one will quickly become a good leader if they emulate some distinct list of skills and behaviors - ignoring how the context in which they lead will greatly influence how successful (or not) such skills and behaviors will be.

Given the importance of context, it’s important for leaders to be able to make sense of the changing environment and then adapt their leadership style, approach and behavior to ensure they are effective in the new context.

“Clearly, context is important. Business leaders who have been sensitive to context possess what is called contextual intelligence. Not only do these leaders understand the implications of the contextual forces that surround them, they also have the ability to adapt and change their leadership style and approach as environmental conditions evolve. Success in one realm does not always translate into success in another. Indeed, relying on past models of success without being sensitive to the context of the situation has often yielded major disappointments.”

Do you have a good understanding of the context in which you are now leading? Do you know what leadership behaviors and traits will be most effective in your context?