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18
I
Nonprofit
Professional
Performance
Magazine
What Leads the Leader?
Roberta Gilbert
S
ome leaders are led by their
emotions, and they lead their
organizations with an intensity that
leaves little room for others and won’t
take “no” for an answer. These are the
ones who use up all the oxygen in the
room. Their emotions are catching, so
the whole organization becomes intense as
a result of their emotionally-led leadership.
They are intensely loved or intensely hated.
Sometimes they are dealing with many
personal issues. This may be a pattern
that started in their families of origin and
continued to the present. Or it may have
more to do with present stressors. Wherever
it comes from, they carry around a high
level of emotionality. Typically this type of
leadership ends up not lasting overly long.
The leader, or the organization led by a leader
who leads by emotion, may self-destruct in
any of several different ways.
For one, the organizations they lead find it
hard to carry through on projects for many
reasons. One is that these leaders change
their minds a lot. That is because emotions
are evanescent: they come and they go, so
emotion-led leadership changes the direction
of the organization frequently, and often
without a discernible basis for doing so.
This organization can’t stay with a plan long
enough to accomplish anything of value, and
so it fizzles out.
In addition, emotions are not always logical,
so when the whole organization is operating
under a handicap of emotional intensity, it
becomes difficult for everyone in it to think
logically and creatively about carrying projects
through from beginning, to middle, to the end.
Without that ability to carry through, death of
the organization is the end result.
The thinking of the emotion-led leader
is fired by the emotional centers of their
brains, (located lower in the brain), so we
call this bottom-up thinking. Their thinking
is strongly affected by the emotion of the
moment. They have little ability to separate
the thinking and emotive (automatic)
functions of the brain. Unfortunately, under
the influence of strong emotion, the cerebral
cortex, where thinking takes place, and
which is required for most high level human
functioning, does not operate reliably. I think
of it as the cortex’s message getting jammed,
like a radio or TV station’s might.
Bottom-up (emotionally-based) thinking is
illogical, evanescent, and contradicts itself
a lot. When someone who thinks like this
is at the helm, everyone is at sea, usually
wondering what kind of a day it will be today,
or “What next?” No one has enough reliable
cerebral cortical activity for long enough to
think, create, or innovate, all of which supplies
the life blood of a successful organization.
People who live and work there must expend
too much energy adapting to the emotional
environment and pleasing the leader, who is
usually quite controlling.
Other leaders lead (mislead?) in a different
way. They lead on the basis of relationships.
They choose their friends to work around
them.The friends may or may not be the best
ones for the job, but they are loyal. They will
do what is required and expected by the leader
on the basis of friendship. Because
they may or may not have competence
for the job, the organization is at risk.
These bosses like to give orders, and
they surround themselves with people
who are good at taking them and are
loyal to a fault.
These leaders may install people who are
emotionally immature, or do not understand
the product or goals of that work group,
or who are just plain incompetent for
placement into positions of leadership
within the organization. Yes, they are loyal
to the leader but, again, the organization is
at a disadvantage when these people are in
leadership positions simply on the basis of
friendship loyalty. People are not free to think,
innovate or bring energy to the workplace –
they have too much energy tied up in making
the relationships work well in a relationship-
led organization.
So, though relationships and emotions are
important and valuable to the total human
experience,and important to leadership,when
leadership is based primarily on one or both
of these, it will rarely be successful for long.
What remains, then? What leads the most
successful leader? Extraordinary Leadership
Seminar, with a thoughtful approach to high-
level leadership, considers much of what it
takes to become an emotionally mature, solid
leader – the kind whose organizations do
well, for whom people love to work, and who
do not carry around an inordinate amount of
stress. We find that these leaders lead on the
basis of principle.
First of all, they lead their organizations
into an exploration of becoming clear on
just what its guiding principles are. This