What is Good leadership?
A Women-In-Tech York lightning talk
A simple question indeed. Can the answer fit neatly in a short lightning talk?
Yes, it can.
Well, at least I thought so. Therefore, I decided to give a lightning talk to Women In Tech York about leadership and the Action Fallacy.
The Action Fallacy
Martin Gutmann coined the term and made it popular in his TED talk “Are We Celebrating the Wrong Leaders?”. The idea is simple. We celebrate leaders who act boldly, decisively, and dramatically in times of crisis. It’s exciting, challenging, and even inspiring. However, more often than not, the crises are a direct result of a lack of leadership. The leaders who plan, organise, and make sure problems are overcome before they happen are boring. There’s no drama, no fires, no crisis. Things just runs smoothly.
To add a couple more quotes,
“Since we reward people who are good in crises (and ignore people who are such good managers that there are few crises), [people] soon learn to seek out (or reframe situations as) crises” — Keith Grint
“The evidence is clear that boring management matters” — Raffaella Sadun
In his TED talk, Martin Gutmann talks about two arctic explorers. I did not want to just mimic him, so I picked a different leader from his book: Gertrude Bell. Since she was a women, I thought it appropriate to talk about her in a Women In Tech meet up.
Who was Gertrude Bell?
Gertrude Bell was a mountaineer, a cartographer of the middle east, an archaeologist, and a confidante and ally of Iraq’s new King Faisal, building Iraq with him.
She was highly esteemed and trusted by British officials giving her great influence. She was the only woman at the 1921 Cairo conference where the British Empire decided the fate of its new possessions in the middle east after the successful Arab Revolt. She was there alongside W. Churchill and T. E. Laurence. The latter is probably a name you have heard, if only via the epic Laurence of Arabia film. A perfect example of the Action Fallacy in action: we remember the warrior Laurence, but not the planner Bell.
But what makes Bell so special?
When mountaineering, she never got into an accident, got lost, or got hurt. When mapping the desert, she never got lost, ran out of water, fought brigands, or got kidnapped. She talked to Bédouins and other natives of the region, took native guides with her, learned where there was water, and just did mapping. She planned, organised, and made sure problems were overcome before they happened.
In other words, she was boring: no drama, no crisis, nothing exciting to write about.
A true leader.
Was sexism a factor? Of course, it was. So was racism. She could not be an official of the new government of Iraq as a white British woman. She was highly respected in Britain, in the middle east, and in Iraq. But still the prejudices again her gender were influences. However, that was not the point of my talk.
Conclusion
First and foremost, my thanks to Women In Tech York for inviting me to do a talk. It was a pleasure to be there.
Secondly, to Martin Gutmann for his research into leadership and history. It was a pleasure to read his book. And he’s a great guy to talk to!
If you want to know more about the Action Fallacy, I cannot recommend more The Unseen Leaders: How History Can Help Us Rethink Leadership by Martin Gutmann. If you seek a good book about both leadership and history, this is it. I can guarantee you will not regret reading it.
Finally, Boring Management/Leadership is what you want in your software production function.
Imagine, if you will, a day when all the drama is removed from your software production: no panic, no crisis, just smooth software releases that exceed your customer’s expectations. This is what we have done in the past and can do for you.