We often find ourselves dazzled by the ‘brightness’ of others and fail to notice the lack of substance under the sparkle, hype, positive words.
As we’re finding in the UK our seemingly ‘feel good’, everything’s positive PM notably dazzled many of the electorate when we should have been seeking something more sober, substantial, stable.
This is by no means the only example. US former tech billionaire Elizabeth Holmes dazzled investors with her claims of revolutionary blood testing technology. Her business, Theranos, boomed until it was discovered the technology didn’t work and the whole thing unravelled.
The learning here? Leadership based on bluster and (being kind) untruths doesn’t work. Sooner or later it gets found out, gets found to be hollow. When we’re dazzled we want to believe in something. Yet when the layers are peeled away and we can see clearly what is and isn’t that belief ebbs away fast, destroying trust in the process.
In leadership we need to beware of hype and amp up the honesty, even if that’s inconvenient and uncomfortable. In the long run honesty, telling it like it is but with compassion, is the only thing that really works whether we’re leading a small team, the whole organisation or a nation.