A Stable Environment Needs a Boring Leader

We want to work with leaders who are charismatic, fast-paced and charging ahead, right? Maybe not, according to Joel Stein in his Harvard Business Review on Boringness: The Secret to Great Leadership. Stein identifies boringness as a trait he repeatedly found in multiple leaders while conducting research for his new book. One could argue that Stein’s example of a fire chief requires a “boring” leader, someone who is able to keep processes running smoothly to prevent repetition from causing dissatisfaction. In his case, repetition is actually necessary when lives are on the line, requiring a leader who is a Stabilizer and Unifier.

However, this may not be the best leadership style in organizations that require high innovation and volatile markets. So how do you identify the best leadership style for your organization? Here are two things to consider:

1. A leader’s job is to inspire passion and pride. A leader helps employees believe in the cause and mission of the organization. This can be accomplished through different methods. Even if work is repetitive and task oriented, it’s important that employees understand the ultimate goal of each task. Otherwise, it’s easy to get tunnel vision and get bogged down by unpleasant, boring tasks, diluting the employee’s passion.

2. Inspiring people only through your personality is risky. We’ve all seen the larger than life CEO, whose personality is bigger than the company. That can work for some, like Richard Branson, but in general, inspiring people only through personality is risky and not always necessary. Care should be taken to make sure that a leader’s personality never gets in the way of actual work or becomes too self-focused.  As a leader, what kind of example are you setting? How are you aligned to your organization’s ultimate mission? It speaks volumes to your employees to see how much a leader believes in the people he or she leads.

In addition, it is helpful to understand what kind of employees you have and their preferred work style. Does the team need heavy management or are they extremely creative and need space to breathe life into their idea? This would be a great question to ask your employees, to see what they think.

On the other side of the coin, what kind of management style do your supervisors follow? Are they stabilizers? Or do they completely ignore the type of leadership that is required within your organization? Let me know what you think and leave me a comment below.