High-performance leaders realize that more often than not they just don’t know how their people really feel about their leadership. ~Michael C. Feiner
This past week the fairy tale, The Emperor’s New Clothes, or The Emperor Has No Clothes, whichever title you prefer, has been going through my mind. I’ve thought of this tale because I’ve seen leadership “teams” not acting at all like a team but assuming that no else in the organization really notices.
If you’re not familiar with the Danish fairy tale written by Hans Christian Andersen in 1837, here’s a quick synopsis.
Many years ago there lived an emperor who cared only about his clothes and about showing them off. One day he heard from two swindlers that they could make the finest suit of clothes from the most beautiful cloth. This cloth, they said, also had the special capability that it was invisible to anyone who was either stupid or not fit for his position.
Being a bit nervous about whether he himself would be able to see the cloth, the emperor first sent two of his trusted men to see it. Of course, neither would admit that they could not see the cloth and so praised it. All the townspeople had also heard of the cloth and were interested to learn how stupid their neighbors were.
The emperor then allowed himself to be dressed in the clothes for a procession through town, never admitting that he was too unfit and stupid to see what he was wearing. He was afraid that the other people would think that he was stupid.
Of course, all the townspeople wildly praised the magnificent clothes of the emperor, afraid to admit that they could not see them, until a small child said: “But he has nothing on”!
This was whispered from person to person until everyone in the crowd was shouting that the emperor had nothing on. The emperor heard it and felt that they were correct, but held his head high and finished the procession.
Do you really know how people feel about your leadership; or, are you naked but just don’t know it or think if you ignore the fact that you’re naked everyone else will ignore it as well? Sometimes it really surprises me how leadership perceptions and/or culture around leadership can get so far out of whack before leaders acknowledge that things aren’t going well and they own how they have contributed to the problem.
Too many times a leader’s first instinct is to figure out how to “fix” everyone else. But fixing everyone else means the leader is still naked. Leaders need to acknowledge their nakedness and put on some clothes. In other words, acknowledge that things aren’t going well and it’s likely something that everyone realizes (the elephant in the room) and identify the three things that you (the leader) will own and personally change to begin to address the issue. Acknowledge it. Own it. Change it.
