Leaders wish these two fantasies were true:
- Everything will be happy-happy-joy-joy while I’m the leader
- Every challenge withers in the face of “being authentic”
When I see a young leader acting as though the organization owes them a happy experience, all the time, the most charitable thought I muster is “They haven’t been doing this very long.”
I suspect all of you reading this understand the truth. The world is complex. People are complex. Organizational dynamics and business models are complex. Therefore, it’s hard.
But we hear so much today about “being authentic” that I want to speak to another framing of it.
Authenticity matters, at least 80% of the time. It’s something people expect (though they often willingly misinterpret clever acting for authenticity). I advocate truthfulness over lies, genuine expressions over manipulative acting, and serving others over using power for selfish exploitation.
Yet there are situations where reaching the objective requires a different approach. You cannot be fully transparent; you must selectively adopt a posture which drives the direction. You must have steely courage that does not waver in the face of opposition, confusion, weariness, and frustration.
When is this necessary? Circumstances like these:
- Leading an organization through a very significant change, big enough that not everyone can make the transition
- Effectively dealing with a peer who won’t be satisfied with anything less than your destruction
- Fending off a competitor or usurper
- Executing a large budget cut
- Letting poor performers go
- Executing a strategic direction you didn’t pick and don’t favor
- When you realize you are not the right person in your role
Perhaps the best characterization of this is the Chinese phrase, “Thick face, black heart.” These are odd words. What does this mean? It has nothing to do with skin density, and black heart does not mean “evil” in this context. This is a good translation:
Opaqueness to the outside world, plus
Deep resolve to see it through
That opaqueness might be deceit and subterfuge (especially in times of war) but in most organizations it’s enough that you consistently wear your warrior face. Don’t allow people to creep inside. Don’t be swayed by “friends” or cajolers. Let people wonder what’s going on in your head, but don’t tell them.
Once your objective is fixed, the resolve to see it through is essential. You can’t quit partway, no matter how tempting. The resolve is your fuel to push past all resistance. There is no plan B.
This “Thick face, black heart” concept is a good description of a 1800’s surgeon who knows the shattered leg needs to be amputated, and finishes sawing through the bone even as the patient is screaming.
“Thick face, black heart” is not appropriate all the time. It’s a strategic posture which can be abused, and abusive. But it is an important strategy in the leader’s toolbox.
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Personal note – Several of my critics point to my emphasis on Western Civilization (the synthesis of ideas from Athens and Jerusalem). What few people know is how deeply I studied Asian philosophy in high school and college. The librarians at the Carnegie library in Parkersburg WV had to bring in books from other libraries because they didn’t have the treatises on Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, and Hindu Vedic texts that I requested, and biographies of Asian leaders. I practiced Taoism for several years, which helped take the edge off my ferocious anger. I won’t say that I plumbed the depths of Asian philosophy but do have a reasonable grounding.
