Leader’s five unique sights

I was carrying out my regular intellectual exercise recently when I stumbled on this unique definition of a smart leader: the “bulb” that illuminates the workplace by creating, building and sustaining a result-oriented organisational culture. However, whenever this light bulb is unplugged from the appropriate socket, it delivers the exact opposite of this experience.

What are the five (5) unique “sights”?

They are: eyesight, insight, foresight, hindsight and mindsight.

Let me set the context. To be successful, the leader must have confidence in himself. He must regularly take courageous steps “birthed” by consummate passion for the business he is involved in. He must be a strategic thinker who is enamoured with mental agility. A visioner and a people manager who attracts, nurtures, develops, rewards and retains employees as stakeholders.

He hones skills and experience to, with momentum, navigate challenges with tailored strategies, impactful ideas and decisions. He develops perspectives, solves problems and finds outcome-based solutions to inspire his teammates. His leadership presence grows and progresses with his mastery of workplace dynamics.

His team engagement activities are enhanced with differentiating innovation. Effective team collaboration delivers ideas from teammates regularly and makes work better and faster.

To further enhance effective engagement, the smart leader religiously runs regular one-on-one meetings with key staff. He immensely listens to his teammates, and make sure they are heard. He encourages feedbacks.

The smart leader meritoriously satisfies the 3Cs of smart leadership. First is Competence and this is determined by his abilities. Character is the second, this is appropriately discerned from his actions and demeanor. The third “C”, is completion or accomplishment. He must be an achiever who regularly accomplishes great results from his actions. Let me add this foot note; the higher the learning, the higher the knowledge and creativity. The higher the knowledge, the higher the benefits delivered to the triple stakeholders: consumers, employees and the organisation.

A core principle of leadership is self-consciousness or self-awareness. You see why the smart leader needs the five (5) unique sights. There are two categories of leaders, the above-the-line leader and below-the-line leader.

The above-the-line leader is not the old-school charismatic leader who carries on as if he does not make mistakes. A smart leader must always learn from his teammates who of course, have varied experiences and skills. Everybody makes mistakes and gaps can be identified but immediately plugged.

The above-the-line leader with grit, matches challenges and opportunities from market forces and competition successfully and still delivers his numbers. He challenges his teammates regularly but respects and genuinely cares for them. He carries on in full consciousness of the fact that the uncommitted, unserious, laid-back employees of today can be the champions of tomorrow if they are properly nurtured, encouraged and challenged.

Below-the-line leaders are “kill-joys”. They diminish organisational energy and drive. They are the purveyors of foul moods that negatively impacts productivity. They belittle teammates instead of encouraging them. They are aggressive and get angry easily. They kill positive energy, momentum and enthusiasm.

Let us quickly allude to three relevant strategic communication strategies that are hallmarks or distinguishing characteristics of below-the-line leaders. These are: symbolic and gradual annihilation, gate keeping and hegemony.

The leader with “put-down” on belittling words and body language seriously but gradually weakens or impairs productivity and kills the zeal needed for creativity. He disrupts surreptitiously workplace interactions and value chain. The second one is the “gate-keep” leaders. He is a cog in the wheel of progress. He checkmates productivity through manipulation. Unlike the ambidextrous leader, he blocks or shuts down access to new ideas. He is rigid and not adaptable.

The smart leader must totally shun “mean” demeanor. He must turn conflicts to collaboration. He should allow and encourage conflict of ideas and must not turn them to personal conflicts. He must be nice to teammates and treat them with respect and kindness. “Hegemony” is the negative posturing of the be domineering leader. He demolishes team building and shuts out collaboration.

Let me introduce you to the “echo chamber”, that reflected sound. Who and what are you listening to as a leader. Is it positive encouragement, feedbacks or “blinding” or sycophantic adulations.

The smart leader surely needs people to encourage him and give him insights into blind spots and even help him clearly identify the blind spots. He also needs to hear his mistakes and have the courage to correct them.

Let me conclude by explaining why the smart leader’s unique five (5) sights are critical essentials for strategic thinking and mental agility.

He needs them to meaningfully solve problems and resolve challenges. He cannot rely on cognition or what is in front of him alone. He must effectively deploy insight, hindsight, foresight and mindsight to achieve success. This is the only way to achieve robust decisions and solutions. These “sights” are tools for robust pattern recognition and system analysis.

The smart leader must use these five unique sights to manage and influence the “reality” of his teammates. People always see reality from their own perspectives. The leader must therefore use these tools to align their “realities” to the organisational goals and objectives.

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