Leadership Essentails - 2017 Spring Spectrum

LEADERSHIP ESSENTIALS:Passion for the “What” andCompassion for the “Who” By Elaine W. SmithAs the presenter at NABA’s Executive Leadership SPECTRUM: What is leadership?Development Institute (ELDI), Michael T. McDermott McDermott: Leadership is really about producingknows more than a thing or two about leadership. development and change in an organization to helpMcDermott is the associate academic director of the make the firm or company more competitive or to help itExecutive Leadership Program at the McDonough School accommodate its growth.of Business at Georgetown University, and has served SPECTRUM: What is the relationship between ain four global companies where he led enterprise-wide leader and those that they lead?teams in organizational effectiveness, HR strategy, and McDermott: The basic relationship is one of mutualleadership development. In an interview with Spectrum, trust. While many people think of leadership as a positionMcDermott offers his thoughts and insight on leadership. of power, it is really a position of dependency. As a leader, you’re only as effective as the people that will follow you. And what that really means is that you depend on them to follow and to execute and to support your leadership. The people who you are leading also have to trust that you have a vision or an idea that is taking them somewhere or establishing a direction that in the long run will benefit them individually and collectively.12 SPECTRUM | SPRING 2017

SPECTRUM: What do you believe are the key SPECTRUM: Should or can a manager or supervisorbehaviors of an effective leader and what behaviors be a leader?impact the ability to lead? McDermott: I think they can. I also believe personallyMcDermott: The fundamental behavior of a leader is that anybody can be a leader and at times we are allsomething that I’ll call their core values and ethics. They leaders. A leader is someone who has a passion for theare the values and ethics that they bring to work in how what (whatever they are leading or doing), they havethey treat people, how they treat communities, how they compassion for the “who” ( they have compassiontreat the organization. Behaviors that impact the ability for the people they are doing it with) and they haveto lead include being able to clearly and effectively the courage and the confidence to take action on thatcommunicate, to behave consistent with stated values, passion and compassion. A lot of people have passionbeing open and honest with people, and being available and compassion, but stand by and complain or don’t doto them. anything and watch the world pass them by. The leaderSPECTRUM: Leadership takes a lot of energy. How has the confidence and the courage to step out and trydoes one stay motivated to lead? to do something. For example, I work with girls and onMcDermott: I think you stay motivated because you find women’s leadership roles. In this definition of a leader,leadership and all of its opportunities and challenges it means that the little girl on the playground who putsrewarding, and hopefully fun and engaging. But if her arm around someone who’s being bullied and says:you don’t find it that, it can quickly lead to a lack of “Why don’t you come over here and play with us?”That’smotivation and possibly burnout. I also think you have to a leader, because she’s showing compassion, and she hasbe committed to and aligned with your mission, believe the courage to stand up to everybody and move awayin your mission and really be dedicated and devoted to from the crowd. I think that anybody can be a leader inthe mission that either you individually are promoting or their lifetime and in any given situation.the company is pursuing or your team is pursuing. SPECTRUM: Are there particular challenges toSPECTRUM: How do you inspire people to give their leadership in the accounting and finance profession?best service? McDermott: There are great challenges to leadership inMcDermott: You inspire them by showing them and this profession because its members are often very criticalenergizing them to overcome political, bureaucratic, or advisors to decisions that people are going to make andresource barriers and major obstacles so that the work they’re also critical producers of information that peoplein and of itself that you are doing becomes a source are going to consume. So I see them as people whoof motivation and pride and gives them a sense of must have great passion for what they do, but also greataccomplishment and a sense that they are working with courage and confidence to stand up and do the righta team and working to accomplish something that is thing. They also must follow the values around justice andbigger than themselves or something that they could honesty and fairness in what they do and how they do it.not individually accomplish. In today’s world there is a great emphasis on short-termSPECTRUM: How do managers to become leaders? gains and short-term profits, so I think that people in thisMcDermott: One of the first things to do is to get clear on profession, more than many, face ethical challenges everythe difference between a manager and a leader. We often day – what they report, how they report, how they trainconfuse them in organizations and they are two very people and how they actually represent their knowledgedifferent roles. A manager’s job is really around creating and their vision of what’s going on.a degree of effectiveness, efficiency, predictability and SPECTRUM: What will participants of 2017 ELDI learn?order to produce consistent results and to continuously McDermott: They’re going to learn a little bit about somekeep the engine running and to be on budget. of the things that are different in the generations. They’llLeadership, on the other hand, is much more about l earn about an ethical-based decision-making processestablishing a direction and future vision, motivating and using the three universal ethics of autonomy, non-and inspiring people to align and buy into that vision, maleficence and beneficence in terms of thinking aboutbut not so much with the implementation of it. It’s individual decisions and organizational decisions. Ireally about aligning the people and their emotions and also want them to understand the difference betweenfeelings towards a goal, and then letting the managers or a manager and a leader and deciding who is who andperformers figure out how to get to that goal. what we are looking for from our people. If we expect management from our leaders, we often think the leader is failing; if we expect leadership from our managers, we often think the manager is failing. So there are two different sets of expectations from each with different approaches and different outcomes. ▲ SPRING 2017 | SPECTRUM 13