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Can you be a leader without followers?

Absolutely – at least, if you’re in Norway.

That’s an oversimplification to introduce a complex fact: cultural differences mean effective leadership looks different across the world. Followership is just one example. Most of the globe takes it for granted that followership and leadership work in ineluctable tandem. That’s been the premise of several of these very articles.

Norwegian business consultant Bjørn Z. Ekelund points out that Norway doesn’t have followership in the usual sense. They call it employeeship, with staff having distinct rights and responsibilities that affect leaders. The individual shoulders more responsibility for their own work, as well as their colleagues, the organization’s societal promises…and even their leaders.

Culture matters.

If you want to be an effective leader, adapting to your team’s culture is paramount. It might not be an ethnic, regional, or national culture. Large organizations foster different cultures in different departments in the very same building. Or think about the vastly different cultures of the US Navy’s SEALs and the Navy’s accounting Logistics Specialists. Or the warehouse team vs the sales staff in The Office.

These differences affect how you delegate, make decisions, and communicate.

“Delegate” provides another unexpected example. In the United States, delegation is the prerogative of the leader. Indeed, it’s a key responsibility of the job. But in Norway, delegation is institutionalized as part of the organizational norm, not the leader’s choice. Because of that employeeship mentioned above, the enhanced responsibility and autonomy of employees makes explicit delegation far less critical.

This ripples deeper into Norwegian leadership. Because staff are more involved in what happens in the workplace, they resist purely top-down, chain-of-command decisions, often disregarding written directives if they feel uninvolved in the decision-making process. Dialogue and collaboration thus become core leadership skills to succeed.

One of the biggest cultural differences in American and Norwegian organizations is trust. Distrust has become almost a hallmark of the relationship between U.S. labor and management. A long history of strikes countered by union-busting reinforce that feel. But the propensity to trust soars remarkably high in Norway; they’re in the 85th percentile, far above their American counterparts.

With all that in mind, these quick steps will guide you to leading effectively across cultures:

1. Foremost, share your vision. Your goal for the team transcends cultural differences. They may have different paths, but if everyone knows the destination, each path will get you there.

2. Foster open communication – starting by communicating openly yourself. This is a kind of psychological safety. If everyone knows it’s okay to ask questions and share ideas, your team’s strengths will shine. Those diverse cultural backgrounds will find solutions no monoculture could conceive.

3. Promote trust. This might be your most difficult, because you must walk the talk. Trust only happens when you deliver on your promises, and when your actions match your words. Then encourage your team to do the same.

4. Learn. Whether it’s between departments or between continents, study the various cultures you’ll work within.

Knowing your team’s cultural nuances separates success from failure. Or at least makes your efforts less comedic; one of our American consulting friends couldn’t click with his first Mediterranean customers because he was always right on time for meetings. In that particular nation, it’s disrespectful to be that precise and concerned about time. They finally paid attention when he showed up “late.”

Put much more succinctly: respect the culture, and the team will respect you.

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This article was adapted by Dan Mushalko from our podcast episode Cultivating Cross-Cultural Leadership: Comparing Americans & Norwegians at Work.

Thank you for reading our newsletter, where we bring you thought leaders and innovative ideas on leadership topics each week.

We strive to elevate the quality of leadership worldwide. Are you ready? If you are looking for help developing your leaders, explore our services.

Do you know a tyrant?

We tend to think of tyranny on a national scale, but tyrants can arise in any leadership role: a parent, a supervisor at work, a CEO, or a town mayor. We also tend to think of tyrants wielding the power to rise on their own, but they require followers to exert any authority at all.

And that, according to our podcast guest Ira Chaleff, is how we can put the brakes on a toxic leader – maybe even nudge them to a better path. Ira is the author of the book To Stop a Tyrant and a globally recognized expert on followership. He unearthed several ways you, as either a follower or a fellow leader, can reduce such extreme toxicity.

Before that, two quick reminders:

-Ira is careful to point out the equal nature of tyranny: it’s apolitical, historically arising from both the left and the right.

-There are exceptions, but few tyrants start off that way; many even begin with genuinely good intent.

As the saying goes, prevention is better than cure. To that end, spot the proto-tyrants around you. These are simply people exhibiting early signs of tyrannical tendencies. An authoritarian leadership style is the most obvious: making decisions unilaterally, disdain for others’ authority or checks and balances, seeing feedback as a threat, and so on. That’s the low-hanging fruit; many proto-tyrants evolve more subtly. They’ll slip in polarizing language, for example, or cultivate personal loyalty over the organization or mission, and flout the company’s (or society’s) norms. Most subtly, they’ll change their messaging and stated goals based on what excites their teams, departments, or other followers.

There’s a reason Ira’s earlier book is entitled The Courageous Follower. It takes courage to speak up in almost any social situation, but all the more when you’re speaking truth to power. This is vital, though; as a toxic leader’s power grows, the bubble of loyalty around them spawns groupthink. Few, if any, followers are providing different, even factual, counter opinions. There can be risks. People may fear losing their jobs in retaliation, for example. But sometimes, even tyrants cherish a check on their views; that was the actual job behind many court jesters in kingdoms of old! Jesters point to your approach in discussions with these leaders: be respectful, non-confrontational, and positive. Argument and anger serves no one.

Be proactive. Leadership training is all but nonexistent in politics, families, the arts, small business, and many other sectors. Even in large corporations, it can be a mere formality. That means many of our leaders in both the private and public sectors make assumptions, teach themselves, and mimic poor leaders they admire. In short, they make the mistake of thinking leadership is only about power. So, help them learn. Introduce them to thought leaders, encourage them to join the International Leadership Association or similar groups, suggest books, recommend consultants – generally, help them realize they’re not alone, and that there’s a wealth of leadership wisdom out here for them.

Finally, follow your moral agency. That may sound old-fashioned, yet the growth of emotionless AI and other tech means the role of humans in maintaining ethics and moral integrity is critical. This applies to both you and the leader. For you, as Shakespeare said, “To thine own self be true.” No leader should ever force you to abandon your moral principles. More importantly, though, remind the leader of their own ethical standards, and nudge them when they push the boundaries. It’s ever so easy to slowly slip past those borders. Your prods could be just the reminder to help that leader stay true to their own self.

None of these steps are easy. In the process, though, you may do more than stop a tyrant. You might just carve a path to creating a great leader instead.

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This article was adapted by Dan Mushalko from our podcast episode To Stop a Tyrant: How Five Types of Followers Make (or Brake) a Toxic Leader.

Thank you for reading our newsletter, where we bring you thought leaders and innovative ideas on leadership topics each week.

We strive to elevate the quality of leadership worldwide. Are you ready? If you are looking for help developing your leaders, explore our services.

Here’s a paradox: Your biggest risk is not taking one.

Yet it rings vitally true for leaders, as we learned interviewing two senior execs from seemingly polar opposite divisions of Amazon. Ryan Redington is general manager of Amazon Music, and Kara Hurst heads Amazon’s sustainability unit. Both see risk-taking as the key to success. The reason is simple: you cannot grow in the status quo.

The stakes are existential. Kara points out that the growing effects of climate change confront Amazon in their buildings, supply chains, logistics, and more. The risks of natural disasters only boost if the company doesn’t take risks on innovative solutions in sustainability. Meanwhile, in the entertainment environment, Ryan finds reduced revenue and interest in a music industry that favors old-school practices of innovation as our culture changes.

Both emphasize risk-taking isn’t impulsive, but a careful process.

One risk-assessment framework that serves them well is the One-Way versus Two-Way Door Decision. As the name implies, a one-way door decision means you can’t step back once you commit to this path. The risk is higher; what’s done cannot be undone. These types of decisions should be made sparingly.

Two-way doors represent reversible decisions. If you move ahead with a proposal and it doesn’t work, no worries. You can walk your decision back, and return to the previous policy or SOP, then try a different innovation or solution. Two-way door decisions are ideal for fostering innovation and testing new ideas. They encourage speed and experimentation; the team knows failure won’t be catastrophic. They can regroup and try again.

When you foray into completely new ground, data can be hard to come by. Gut instinct may be your only guide – but understand this makes the risk greater. You may be waltzing through a one-way door without realizing it. Whenever able, gather as much data as possible. The more you have on hand to analyze, the more informed your decision will be, and the more calculated your risk. Failure is less likely to surprise you, so you can plan for it…as well as the hoped-for success.

Succeed or fail, every time you go through a door is a win because you learn, and through that learning, you grow. The door analogy is perfect because it reminds you that there is a way through any barrier. Your team sees this style as a type of support for their ideas; in turn, structured risk-taking enables you to purse your bold ideas as their leader!

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This article was adapted by Dan Mushalko from our podcast episode Delivering the Future: Why Amazon Execs Lead Beyond Retail.

Thank you for reading our newsletter, where we bring you thought leaders and innovative ideas on leadership topics each week.

We strive to elevate the quality of leadership worldwide. Are you ready? If you are looking for help developing your leaders, explore our services.

You are busy. Probably too busy.

Can you change that in the new year? Probably not. But you can change how effective that busyness is.

That’s what’s happening at Boston Consulting Group (BCG). According to our podcast guest Alicia Pittman, BCG’s Global People Chair, the firm is constantly looking at how workplaces are changing, and the most effective ways leaders and their teams can change with it. They’ve become their own laboratory, testing new ways of running the organization, which informs best practices to recommend to clients.

Here are a few of BCG’s findings and the practices she shared.

Let’s start with an admission: your life really is faster-paced and busier than the lives of past leaders. It’s not just a perception issue; it’s been objectively measured. That makes burnout a greater risk than in the past. Obviously, this means taking downtime to recharge is critical, but real vacation time is rarely easy to wrangle. To keep calm and carry on in the meantime, face your emotions. Burying them can build mental pressure, increasing your odds of burnout while also sparking temper and poor decisions. Simply acknowledging what you’re feeling can be a relief in itself. Sharing with your bestie or a trusted advisor helps even more.

It also means you (and your team) must shift to being more motivation-driven. Hierarchical command-and-control styles limit energy, productivity, and engagement. Finding what really motivates you and the people you work with boosts those performance stats instead.

Boost your agility, too. You can’t just stay in your lane your entire career anymore. Workplace changes mean you need to adopt new skill sets to meet them – including how you lead. Neither can your team. Scan ahead to determine what your industry will look like in the next three, five, and ten years, then plan on how you and your staff will upskill to succeed in those futures. That alone will put you ahead of the competition: the typical C-suiter is 6 to 9 months behind!

Are you in the headspace to absorb information? The ability to listen rests at the core of learning and agility; it’s also important in being a good boss. Your team and front-line spot issues long before you typically do, so listen to them. Listening also enables you to understand when they need your help, too. So compare your time spent listening versus talking.

If you’re hyper-busy, you no doubt have a hyper-huge priority list. As with most productivity experts, Pittman advises whittling it down a bit by delegating…but with a different lens than usual. Focus on the things that you are uniquely qualified for. Let your team tackle the things on your list they can do as well (or even nearly as well; not being a perfectionist goes a long way in productivity). This may sound counter-intuitive, but pick up the pace on the items left on your list. We have a habit of sticking to a particular cadence in our work. When you’re able to fire on all cylinders, though, you’re capable of moving faster. Knock more of those items off your now-manageable list, and that vacation may be more realistic than you thought.

Finally, give yourself some grace. We all stumble. It’s inevitable. Agonizing over a mistake or faux pas consumes energy; use that energy to grow agile, learn, and change your priority list instead. You’ll feel better, and your entire team will, too!

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This article was adapted by Dan Mushalko from our podcast episode In It Together: How Boston Consulting Group Combines Strengths from Every Generation.

Thank you for reading our newsletter, where we bring you thought leaders and innovative ideas on leadership topics each week.

We strive to elevate the quality of leadership worldwide. Are you ready? If you are looking for help developing your leaders, explore our services.

You don’t need a DeLorean or TARDIS to travel to the future; the future is coming for you. Ken Moore wants you to be ready for it.

Moore is the Chief Innovation Officer at Mastercard. He sees five essentials you’ll need to succeed as the future unfolds.

First, lean into tomorrow. This is all about mindset. Fighting the future and clinging desperately to the past mean stagnation at best. Instead, organizations must embrace change. In fact, they need to go a step beyond and proactively invest now in emerging technologies and trends. Stagnation is a far bigger risk than taking a chance on the new; staying ahead absolutely requires continuous innovation and a forward-thinking approach.

Commit to ethics and building trust.Trust plays two roles as your future unfolds. As a leader, trust in you becomes your team’s anchor as the tides of change surge around them. Your authenticity keeps them focused and motivated. Trust extends beyond your workplace walls, though; it’s a critical currency for your brand reputation. Even as you build personal trust, your entire organization must nurture its own trust with customers and the public. Defining and holding fast to your ethics ensures this. In practice, this means not rushing the future—strive to implement tech advancements safely and responsibly.

With the ever-increasing pace of change, it’s impossible to tackle everything at once. Instead, focus and prioritize. Strategically select projects and tech that most closely align with your goals and ethics. If those items have a healthy dose of passion behind them, all the better. Be patient with everything else as they await their turn on the priority list.

Let’s revisit this statement from the paragraph above: “It’s impossible to tackle everything at once.” Even after prioritizing, you may not have the time, resources, or in-house knowledge to accomplish a goal. The simplest solution: leverage partnerships. The world is now too complex and fast-paced to succeed alone. Their PR aside, even the individualist entrepreneurs we adulate actually have teams of people making their success possible. Effective partnerships require flexibility, compromise, and innovation. Drop the ego and welcome collaboration, and you’ll co-create value far beyond any individual effort could.

Finally, be agile and digital. We can’t predict the future with complete accuracy. A healthy dose of resilience and agility will keep you on track toward your goals even as inevitable roadblocks disrupt your path. In fact, new digital tools—from automation to AI—can boost your agility and reduce your response time to those bumps in the road. In fact, the calm they provide might even help you see new opportunities as you emerge from each disruption.

These five essentials ultimately stem from three core leadership qualities: adaptability, collaboration, and ethics. Keep them all in mind, and you won’t just be ready for the future—you’ll be making it!

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This article was adapted by Dan Mushalko from our podcast episode Mastercard’s Chief Innovation Officer on Fostering a Culture of Innovation.

Thank you for reading our newsletter, where we bring you thought leaders and innovative ideas on leadership topics each week.

We strive to elevate the quality of leadership worldwide. Are you ready? If you are looking for help developing your leaders, explore our services.