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Myth Busters

A leader with difference

by Antonio Garrido
Indian Management November 2022

Debunking the following myths:
MYTH 1: Time is your most valuable resource.
MYTH 2: Experience is everything.
MYTH 3: What got me here, will get me there.
MYTH 4: Good managers are naturally good leaders, and good leaders are naturally good managers.
MYTH 5: I know my weaknesses.

  • MYTH 1: Time is your most valuable resource.

    What came to be known as the Facebook Files—which Frances Haugen, a former product manager in Meta/Facebook’s civic integrity team, leaked in 2021—show that the company, among other things, had a program running called XCheck. The program provides a VIP list consisting of approximately 5.8 million profiles made up of celebrities, politicians, and other high-profile users, enjoying particular privileges as they do not have to live up to the Facebook community standards to the same degree as more regular users.

    The VIP-profiles have a greater freedom in what they decide to write, even if what is authored is on a direct collision course with the community standards. Soccer player Neymar, former US President Donald J Trump and sons, Senator Elizabeth Warren, and Mark Zuckerberg himself were among the profiles being accordingly entitled.

    No, it isn’t.
    Neither is it your people, or money, or even your health. Your most valuable resource, as a manager or leader, is energy. Energy, and the application of it. This is characterised as action bias.

    All successful individuals share the common trait of action bias. Whatever their market, whatever their vertical, whatever their business, action bias is a sure-fire guaranteed predictor of success.

    To be clear, we are not advocating working harder, trying harder, doing more, putting in more hours, or squeezing more juice out of fewer lemons. No; action-bias is not the same thing as work ethics. Action bias means the preparedness to do the difficult things, the tricky things, perhaps, the things that others are not prepared to do. Action bias can just as easily be characterised as actionable commitment. Commitment is not work ethic, it is turning goals and plans into reality.

    To paraphrase many: A goal without action is just a daydream.

    This means that great management requires specific and intentional activity, not just good intentions and great planning. The best of the best are able to create action-bias in others too. Action-bias is intentional, it is inspirational, and it is infectious.
  • MYTH 2: Experience is everything.

    No, it isn’t.
    Wisdom ‘does not’ evolve as a consequence of experience and time served; it only (yes, only) comes from evaluated experience.

    Whenever we interview managers and leaders for our clients, or whenever we coach them, we often see resumés packed with lots of experience carrying with them the hope that this high-level experience somehow qualifies the candidate for their next step up the ladder. When we dig a little deeper, however, we often discover that ‘ten years senior management experience’ in reality is simply, “I learned a minimum set of management skills for the first two years, and then I just repeated that stuff five times over.” Hmmmmm. Next!

    The best of the best take time to be incredibly intentional about their self-development—they do not passively wait to be spoon-fed their development by their organisation; neither do they attempt to learn everything about everything in a random haphazard way like a bee collecting pollen from a field of flowers. Sure, Youtube and TED are great places to make a start, but real learning comes from extremely intentional and structured (guided) programing and reflection—seek out proper development programs that deliver both. Lay the hope of absorbing management greatness by some sort of heavenly osmosis, or wishing that it might appear as a consequence of time served, to bed since neither of those strategies will do.
  • MYTH 3: What got me here, will get me there.

    No, it won’t.
    To paraphrase the inimitable Marshall Goldsmith, yesterday’s experiences will not solve tomorrow challenges.

    All managers and leaders have a responsibility to future-proof themselves, their people, and their business.

    We all want to be the Wayne Gretzky of the business world, right? We want to skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been, nor where it is now. A good hockey player, says Gretzky, skates to where the puck is; a great one, to where it will be.

    Great managers must somehow predict where the business and the market that it should serve is going, its trajectory, and they should start moving there in advance of it.

    The best leaders predict the challenges that they are going to face—the skills and competencies that will carry them successfully through to the future state of the business and beyond. We all need to become the leader of the future, not the leader for ‘right now’. When we become great for ‘right now’, sometime down the line, the ‘new now’ will be significantly different again and we will have missed the boat.

    You should pay attention to the future leader that you are going to be, that you need to be. Questions that help you unravel the challenges that you will face at some future point are as critical as the issues we face now.

    Find somewhere appropriately forwardlooking in your daily leadership journal (what do you mean, you haven’t got one? Get one!) and complete this rather tricky thought: In order for me to future-proof myself, my people, and my business, I will need to learn significantly more about these three key issues right away:

    1_______________________________
    2_______________________________
    3_______________________________
  • MYTH 4: Good managers are naturally good leaders, and good leaders are naturally good managers.

    No, they are not.
    Leading and managing, are entirely distinct and different entities. Often times, we tend to confuse these two concepts believing that leading is managing, and managing is leading—but they are most definitely not.

    Similarly, managing change is not the same as leading change.

    Is it possible to be a great leader, or a great manager, or both? Of course, yes, but you have to be intentional with what you are trying to achieve.

    Most business executives find themselves flipping and flopping between these two lists on a day-by-day basis (sometimes hourby-hour), since all senior roles require a mixture of these two disciplines. But ask yourself which list you mostly resemble and how you spend most of your time. Do not confuse yourself or others—when you want to manage, manage; when you want to lead, lead.
  • MYTH 5: I know my weaknesses.

    No, you don’t.
    Want proof? Write down your top five leadership or management blind spots in your new journal.

    You won’t be able to. Why? Because, if you could, they wouldn’t be blind spots. QED.

    Self-awareness is fundamental management and leadership attribute—but it is, unfortunately, in woefully short supply. The only way to know your weaknesses (including your level of self-awareness) is to take an objective leadership assessment. There are lots to choose from.

    Some assessments measure personality types, while others measure communications styles, and others are designed to measure strengths, aptitudes, attitudes, and so on. None of these are what we are looking for.

    Find an assessment that measures key leadership building blocks, as well as core skills and competencies, and that gives you a clear self-awareness rating. Try www.mydailyleadership.com/ leadershipassessment
    Whichever assessment you plump for, it is incumbent upon you to pay very close attention to the results and make a resolve to make some fundamental changes—otherwise, well, why even bother benchmarking yourself in the first place, right?

    And please don’t be like any of those dreadful leaders with crushingly low selfawareness scores who wholeheartedly agree with all of the positive comments that the assessment reveals, and then, when reading the not-so-positive comments say things like, “Bah! Nonsense. I mean, how accurate are these things anyway?” If you choose the right assessment, it is accurate. Please pay close attention to the results and its recommendations.

    To intentionally adulterate and misappropriate the genius of Tom Landry of Dallas Cowboys fame: “A leadership assessment is something that tells you what you don’t want to hear, which has you see what you don’t want to see, so you can be who you always knew you could be.”

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