Mind the gap!

As a growing lad, I enjoyed watching war films whether classic, where the warriors wear steel armours and fight with swords and spears, or contemporary where the soldiers don fatigues and bullet proof vests that make them look invincible. What never ceased to amaze me however is that in spite of the seemingly impenetrable and intimidating gait and costume, many of them still ended up being felled by the enemy. It didn’t make sense. I actually said to myself that if I ever found myself in a war situation clad in those regalia, nobody would be able to kill me. But that was then. Now I know better.

Goliath was a giant with a stature that could intimidate the best of normal men. As if that was not bad enough, the sight of him in his armour was enough to dampen whatever enthusiasm any Israeli soldier had for battle. For 40 days, this giant showed up, threatened and taunted the entire Israeli army with no one bold enough to confront him. The Israeli army under the command of King Saul was petrified. Until a young lad named David came to the theatre of war and changed the entire narrative. As it turned out, he knew something that I also only found out as I grew up. Just as every chain can break at its weakest link, every soldier is only as invincible as the chink in his armour permits him to be! With that knowledge, he took one slingshot at the small opening on Goliath’s forehead and the giant was history!

Train services in London run with sometimes uncanny precision. As you stand on the platform to board the train however, you hear over the loudspeakers a repeated warning as the train approaches, “Mind the gap!”. This warning is in relation to the small gap between the train and the platform. Even though it doesn’t seem to be a wide gap, it is considered risky enough as tripping on it could mean a fall that could be fatal or injurious because the trains are powered by electricity.

Great leaders are usually perceived as perfect and literally flawless. What is not certain is whether this perspective is reinforced by the way some leaders carry themselves – strong, sometimes intolerant of dissent or other people’s foibles, hardly betraying emotions – or the socio-cultural myths that have been built around leadership. Suffice it to say however, that gods too sometimes have clay feet.

No matter how strong a leader may be, the weak areas of his life that he leaves exposed and hardly pays attention to can become his nemesis. Leaders are not leaders because they are perfect. They are leaders because they made themselves available to take responsibility when the need arose. They stepped up to the plate when most people would have found it convenient to balk at the opportunity.

Thus, it is quite possible that a leader may be functionally excellent but have a predilection for the opposite sex. Chink in the armour. A leader may be very charismatic but unusually temperamental. Chink in the armour. A leader may have solid organizational skills but may have problems with handling money. Chink in the armour. Many years ago, I had cause to work with a leader who was CEO of a successful publishing firm. His problem was that in order not to displease people, he promised more than he could deliver. Consequently, on the long run, he ended up disappointing the very people he ab initio, did not want to displease. Chink in the armour. A leader may have a great motivational effect on people but may not have capacity for proper organization. Chink in the armour.

Every leader will have his. However, the chink is not the problem. The real challenge is how the leader handles it. Strong leaders have a tendency to deal with the world around them as they would love to see it. Consequently, they cannot understand why anyone would not want to see things the way they do. However, according to Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric and Leadership development guru, the most vital quality of leadership is the reality principle which says that you deal with the world as it is, not as you wish it were. To do this well, every leader must come to terms with his own fallibility. The greatest favour any leader can do to himself is to be brutally honest with himself when it comes to acknowledging his own shortcomings of skill and character. Leaders are very good and prompt at doing a SWOT analysis of the organization but hardly apply the same rule to themselves. Strong leaders are usually the last to know that the perfect leader is an oxymoron.

When a leader allows himself to be blindsided by his weaknesses, he is on his way to becoming irrelevant. This is because once the situation or problem that made people follow him while overlooking his foibles has been dealt with, his followers are likely to reassess their relationship with him based on his personal profile or character. Leaders who seek consistent relevance must therefore subject themselves to a constant analysis of their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (S.W.O.T).

When a leader knows his strengths, it is not to settle in self-congratulatory mode that makes him feel invincible. It is to open his eyes to things he needs to do more of in order to remain on the cutting edge of his leadership role and personal effectiveness. In recognizing his weaknesses, he does not lapse into condemnation or self-flagellation. If a functional flaw is identified, the leader is alerted to the need to acquire the needed skill or to hire expertise to fill that gap for him. If it is a character issue, he may need to submit himself to a channel of accountability via mentoring and the development of replacement habits. An effective leader must be able to anticipate and identify opportunities for continued relevance by constantly being aware of his environment and the leadership gaps created. In identifying the threats to his leadership function, the leader seeks to know what pitfalls to avoid, which challenges to confront and which chasms to bridge.

To do this effectively, the leader may need to put a feedback system in place. Unfortunately, this is where many leaders with strong, overbearing personalities set themselves up as victims of their own character gaps. They hardly can bear feedback, especially when it points them to the chinks in their armour. When a leader is not comfortable in his own skin, he is likely to see negative feedback as dissent, disloyalty or outright betrayal rather than an opportunity to improve. Such leaders breed sycophants like a carcass breeds maggots! Unfortunately, sooner than later, what the leader refuses to deal with will ultimately deal with him.

If you want to be around for the long haul as a leader, take honest advice from the London Underground train service, “MIND THE GAP!”

Remember, the sky is not your limit, God is!