My First Lesson in Leadership

I watched with disgust as an employee blatantly, and with no reserve, insulted the boss, to his face, at a meeting table. I was baffled, struck with anger at his disrespect and ready to take the boss' defense, until I took a moment to stare at the boss' reaction. To my dismay, he held his temper, displayed a poker face, and continued as though nothing has happened. 

I raged into his office after the meeting. 'I would have fired him right away', I said still appalled by what had happened, and completely baffled by the reaction. He just smiled and calmly replied still unmoved 'you have to think about the other employees reaction'. That was my first lesson in leadership. 

I couldn't understand back then. How could letting an employee insult you to your face be thoughtful to other employees? If anything, it would teach them that they could do the same and not face any consequences, I thought. 

Further down the road, as things unfolded, I realized that not taking his own defense made other employees, just like me, ready to reprimand the insulter. I learned that the boss, by not reacting, had the sympathy of his staff. 'Turning the other cheek' as against our nature as it can be, is a valuable lesson. Everyone sympathizes with the victim, and sometimes taking the defensive might be just as bad as an offensive in people's perceptions and only aggravates the issue. 

I strongly believe that evil breeds evil unless countered with good, as hard to implement as it might be.

Level 5 Leadership & EQ

Level 5 leadership is a term instilled upon people who can balance two almost contradicting worlds. According to Jim Collins, they make ends meet between shyness and fearlessness, as well as modesty and strong will.

The importance of that kind of leaders lies in their skill to drastically turn companies from a downfall into a success that is maintained after their reign is over. They are more concerned for the goodwill of the company than their own personal fame and fortune. In fact, they dread recognition and tend to grant credits to the organization and the actual employees.
Following a 5-year research, based on the fortune 500 companies, only 11 experienced the exceptional turnaround mentioned above and were able to maintain it. All of which had level 5 leaders on top at the time when the transformation took shape. Quite a remarkable finding.

Could that type of introverted leadership be qualified by a superior EQ level? Think of it this way. If a CEO takes credit for the work of the organization, how would it effect the rest of the staff's motivation? When one person is granted the fruits of their labors, employees feel used. If the level 5 leaders do not take credit for the firm's success, it is probably not because they don't think they deserve it; rather that they understand how people function and know how to behave to gain the respect of their co-workers. This is emotional intelligence by excellence. Do those people lack the critical skill of EQ, as defined by Daniel Goleman, that is "awareness" of their capabilities? I think not. Their modesty is part of their job. This can be attributed to another characteristic that qualify their Emotional intelligence's superiority: "empathy".

I think that it would be interesting if those people were to be interviewed after their term is over; once they're off the job; would they admit, then, their achievements?