Leadership Style

In this chapter we review the second pillar of the creative model of leadership. Leaders must now deploy the direction to follow and show their personal engagement to convince employees not only to follow them, but also to take on a leadership role. This leadership style involves three main aspects: first, the long-term personal commitment of leaders; second, their ability to communicate and share the chosen direction and goals; and third, their willingness to engage employees to cooperate, learn, and innovate, by empowering them. But developing a convincing leadership style again appears elusive. Good resolutions are weakened by self-centered predispositions deeply rooted in the brain. This tendency to put oneself first is fueled by the egocentric bias that some leaders manage to push very far with omnipotence and narcissism. What undermines the credibility of leaders is not only their tendency to put themselves first, but above all their lack of persistence and long-term commitment as they are conditioned by the bias of immediate reward. Moreover, the problem with well-designed strategies is that they often remain at the exhortation level. Speeches and hype create a gap between talk and reality. Finally, are leaders ready to share power and reduce their obsession with control and immediate results? Are they ready to let go of the easy path of command-and-control in line with the hierarchical bias, a bias that remains pervasive in most institutions.