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The Power of a Clear Leadership Narrative

The document discusses the importance of a clear leadership narrative in the context of digital transformation and evolving leadership roles. It emphasizes that effective leaders must articulate a compelling story that conveys purpose and inspires others, while also highlighting key leadership traits such as authenticity and trust. The author provides steps for individuals to develop their own leadership narratives to foster connection and community within their organizations.

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irving garcia
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39 views6 pages

The Power of a Clear Leadership Narrative

The document discusses the importance of a clear leadership narrative in the context of digital transformation and evolving leadership roles. It emphasizes that effective leaders must articulate a compelling story that conveys purpose and inspires others, while also highlighting key leadership traits such as authenticity and trust. The author provides steps for individuals to develop their own leadership narratives to foster connection and community within their organizations.

Uploaded by

irving garcia
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The Power of a Clear Leadership

Narrative
To find your own personal leadership narrative,
figure out and share what great leadership means
to you.
September 23, 2019

Douglas A. Ready Reading Time: 6 min

Future of Leadership in the Digital Economy

Digitalization and other critical factors are transforming what it means


to be a great leader in a new environment. Discover the cultural and
strategic shifts organizations must embrace to prepare their leaders to
succeed.

More in this series

Great leaders build amazing communities. They


do so in a variety of ways and over an extended
period of time. One of the most effective tools to
accomplish that is to shape and articulate
powerful narratives of what’s possible. Effective
leaders share stories about what great leadership
looks and feels like when individuals come
together as teams, and teams come together as communities, with a
unifying sense of purpose and collective ambition.
This insight has emerged from both survey data and dozens of C-suite-
level interviews as part of a major global study, Future of Leadership in
the Digital Economy, that MIT Sloan Management Review is conducting
with Cognizant. In this new world of work, where being connected and
resilient are of paramount importance, 82% of our global survey
respondents and virtually all of those interviewed indicated that an
individual in the digital world would need a certain level of digital
savviness to be an effective leader. Yet, when asked what skill or
behavior was the most important to leadership effectiveness, the
answer was being able to articulate a clear sense of purpose, vision,
and strategy. What at first seems old is new again: Clarity of
communication in a hyper-speed world is a key difference maker in the
eyes of current managers and leaders from around the world.

To gain a better feeling of the texture that forms the fabric of this
insight, consider this comment from Susan Sobbott, former president
of American Express Global Commercial Services: “In the digital
economy, physical presence can’t be mandatory to be an effective
leader. You have to be able to lead people from many different cultures,
in many different locations, and often with imperfect information
because things are moving so fast,” she says. Her simple and elegant
solution to this decades-old challenge reflects the power of a clear
leadership narrative. “You have to be able to see a story emerging and
to articulate that story in a way that has meaning and inspiration for a
wide range of people. You have to convey your passion and beliefs
through a powerful narrative.”

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Why Finding Your Leadership Narrative Is Important

We analyzed our survey responses from more than 120 countries and
conducted a sentiment analysis and heat-mapping exercise to identify
the most important leadership behaviors in this new economy. The
traits that emerged were authenticity, transparency, trust, inspiration,
the ability to connect and invest in others, analytical capability,
curiosity, and courage, among others. Few would argue that these
behaviors and attributes are necessary, yet by themselves, standing
independently, without the context needed to create meaning or
catalyze change, they run the risk of being considered buzzwords.
Stories help prevent that from happening, and that’s where the power
of creating your leadership narrative comes into play. Developing a
powerful narrative demands that you, the leader, take a stand on what
you believe in, what you are about, and what impact you hope to create
as you set out to form teams and build communities. The leader
behaviors and attributes listed earlier become your means of
communicating to others who you are, as well as your expectations for
others concerning how you will lead together in your organization. It’s
about finding and sharing your voice.

In a recent interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, late-night comedian


Stephen Colbert talked about his search to “find his show.” For months
his show struggled in the ratings, not because it lacked comedic appeal
or impact, but because it had no thesis or arc that held it together.
Once he and his writing team took a stand on what they believed in and
followed through on those beliefs transparently, authentically, and
:
courageously, Colbert believes they found their show, and since then
he has commanded the No. 1 slot in the ratings. To find your personal
leadership narrative, you need to figure out what great leadership
means to you. David Schmittlein, dean of MIT’s Sloan School of
Management, made a similar point while being interviewed for this
study. “A great leader must be willing and able to display the courage it
sometimes takes to stand by well-founded convictions — to take a
stand on a decision that may be unpopular,” Schmittlein states. “It is
about finding your narrative — what you believe in — and not being a
willow in the wind. A well-thought-out leadership narrative helps create
meaning and motivation for others.”

Getting Started: Finding Your Leadership Narrative

I spend a good deal of my time coaching senior executives to shape


and tell their leadership stories in leader-led development initiatives
around the world. When crafted well, and integrated with important
conceptual content, engaging senior leaders to share their
perspectives can be a powerful learning experience. Years ago, I was
coaching a vice-chairman of a large global financial services company
to share his story on what it meant to be a great leader in a changing
world. He looked at me, almost with a sense of embarrassment, and
said, “I’ve been in leadership roles for 35 years, and this is the first time
I have ever been asked to share what I actually believe to be the
essential ingredients of great leadership.” My response: “Well then, let’s
get started!”

Follow these simple steps to find your leadership narrative:

1. No matter how busy you are, how many deadlines you are facing,
or how many people are vying for your time, give yourself
:
permission to reflect on what being a great leader means to you.
Don’t think about it for five minutes and consider the job done.
Take a day or chunks of several days away from the office to
seriously reflect on this. After you do that, write those thoughts
down as a draft narrative. It might start out as a series of bullet
points, and that’s completely fine to get you started. But make
sure it begins to take shape as a story.
2. Share your draft narrative with one person, or several people, you
trust. By trust, I mean that you trust that they will be honest with
you concerning how authentic your narrative feels. Does the
narrative describe you? Have they seen you behave this way over
time? Have they witnessed you trying to cultivate those behaviors
in others? You are trying to discover whether you are an authentic
role model for your own narrative.
3. When your narrative is refined enough, try it out. Tell your story
transparently and with authenticity. Your leadership narrative
should not be seen as a war story, simply recounting something
you did. Work on it so that others can learn from it. At the right
time and with the right people, seek feedback on the impact your
narrative is having and ask how your story can have greater
impact.

How we work is changing, but why we work and what we hope to


achieve through our work remain largely the same. We want to be part
of something larger, something special, something that helps make this
world we live in a better place. Your leadership narrative can motivate
others in important ways. Finding your narrative — one that expresses
authentically, transparently, and courageously what you believe in as a
leader, what you are about, and indeed what you are willing to fight for
— will let you begin to unite individuals into teams, and teams into
:
amazing communities.

About the Author

Douglas A. Ready is a senior lecturer in organizational effectiveness at


the MIT Sloan School of Management, founder and CEO of the
International Consortium for Executive Development Research, and MIT
SMR guest editor. He tweets @doug_ready.

Tags:

Chief Executive Officer, Corporate Values, Creativity, Leadership Vision


:

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