Volodymyr Zelensky, shown above with his family, established his public persona and his influence as a comedic performer, once noting that “Laughter is a weapon that is fatal to men of marble.”
When you assume a leadership role, to be effective, you soon must realize, as William Shakespeare wrote, “all the world’s a stage. “
Leadership is a performing art. Your success is measured only by what you accomplish. As Dr. Lee Thayer would say, the only measure of performance is performance: you must have the right stuff and be prepared to be competent in applying what you need to know to change the course of the future for the better in pursuit of a noble cause.
This stage can be a lonely, even frightening place for leaders who shy away from the spotlight. With all eyes fixed upon you, examining your moves and your motives, your leadership performance cannot be a function of costume, disguise, or cleverness. You might get by for a little while by employing distraction, sleight of hand – or cunning deception. But to be a truly exceptional leader, your performance must exude the humility and vulnerability of a virtuoso stage actor who knows that it is their audience that makes them successful. Again, back to Thayer, “it is always the organization that makes a leader successful, not the other way around.”
In this sense, leadership is not an “act.” It is a state of being. Who you are is what informs how you think and what you do to accomplish what you know to be necessary and strive to make possible. Leaders who seek to lean on their charisma and capture attention with song and dance find that their influence quickly grows thin and that their effectiveness is short-lived. For leadership to be sustainable, you must constantly learn, adapt, and decenter yourself to see your role and your performance as others do. Absent this self-awareness and emotional intelligence; you will likely find yourself alone on your stage in an empty theater.
Leadership is not an “act.” It is a state of being.
You may have seen Meryl Streep in “Florence Foster Jennings: The Inspiring True Story of the World’s Worst Singer.” The wealthy socialite was indeed a child prodigy pianist whose humiliating sold-out Carnegie Hall performance, as portrayed in the film, was a function of renting out the theater and giving away free tickets. Though a talented and even accomplished pianist, her singing lacked talent – and her performance was seen as a farce. To Ms. Jenkins, performing was her passion and her purpose in life. But the world saw her as a joke.
Talent, by itself, will not bring you success as a leader. Being fully competent requires more than knowledge, skill, talent, or credentials. To be an effective leader, you must apply your competencies in ways that accomplish what really matters.
Success alone is not the full measure of a leader. Accomplishing something meaningful may be necessary, but it is not sufficient. Your organization might be successful despite your poor leadership performance. During good times, the impact of leadership may seem negligible. In times of adversity, though, leadership becomes critical. Captain “Sully” Sullenberger’s “Miracle of the Hudson” now-famous account illustrates this.
Leadership knows when to follow the script – and when to tear it up and improvise.
Modern commercial airplanes are practically capable of flying themselves. Avionic systems almost make it possible for a child to sit in the cockpit and fly the plane from New York to London. But when you lose an engine on takeoff through a flock of geese, most experienced pilots would have been unable to land all passengers safely on the Hudson River. Rather than a safe water landing, it would have been a catastrophic aviation incident. It was Sullenberger’s extreme competence that mattered that day – and his performance as a leader guided him to follow his inner guidance rather than the instructions from the tower that research had demonstrated would have resulted in the plane crashing and killing all souls aboard.
Leadership requires knowing when to follow the script – and when to tear it up and improvise. The stage for leadership is not about drama. It’s about performance. Exceptional leaders don’t tolerate drama. They demonstrate what performance looks like and expect the same from those they lead. But poor leaders thrive in drama, where it’s easy to hide. When drama reigns in your organization, it is nearly impossible to understand who is responsible for the dysfunction that invariably exists.
Learning to act like a leader is not a metaphor. It is a journey that you must undertake if your purpose is to take paths less traveled, aim for what others believe to be impossible, or create high-performance organizations that change the world.
Drama is not a measure of performance. It is an art form that thrives upon itself. As a leader, when you tolerate drama – you are endorsing it. When people believe that drama is acceptable, they elevate the artform to full-blown theater, where the actors and their understudies play out the same drama day after day. This is when you watch the exits and see the real performers leaving. High performers have no need or tolerance for drama. Exceptional leaders who understand the dynamics of high-performance organizations quash drama whenever it rears its head. It is how they steer clear of the dysfunction that defines mediocrity in the world.
Learning to act like a leader is not a metaphor. It is a journey that you must undertake if your purpose is to take paths less traveled, aim for what others believe to be impossible, or create high-performance organizations that change the world.
You cannot learn to act like a leader by reading books or taking classes. In his book “Management and Machiavelli,” Anthony Jay wrote, “the only preparation for leadership is leadership.” It is not that you learn by doing or that you fake it until you make it. It isn’t a hobby. It’s a deliberate journey of purpose, genuine curiosity, deep humility, and jarring vulnerability. The journey isn’t for everyone. It takes believing that you have the right stuff and demonstrating the grit required to go the distance, understanding that there is no final destination, just a final curtain call.
