Are You Just a Leader or a Just Leader?

There are so many important traits in making a great leader – character, integrity, honesty, authenticity, vulnerability, trustworthiness, conviction, vision, communication and others I’m sure you can name.  Let’s talk about communication.  It’s not just the right words in the right tone; grammar plays a role.  Where you place certain words has a big implication on what is important, which impacts the culture. So let me ask you – are you Just a Leader or a Just Leader?

It’s just a trivial part of speech, just an ‘a’, no big deal.  But it is! How often do we combine the words justice and leadership, especially in the for-profit sector?  Obviously it’s a big deal in social enterprises; they focus on ‘social justice’. But justice has a huge impact on any organization’s ethos and culture.

Justice comes from the old French justitia meaning righteousness and equity as well as the Latin justus meaning upright.   So how can we apply this virtue in a practical, applicable way as leaders? There are three ways I can think of, and I bet if you try, you can think of more.  I’ll address two: Fair versus Equal and I versus You.  The third, Triple Bottom Line/Corporate Social Responsibility, is better known and discussed, so we will leave that for later.

Fair versus Equal

Many of us have just been through end of the year or are preparing for mid-year performance management.  This is usually not a fun time to be a leader – not all the news is good, requiring honest, forthright discussions that rarely happen.  For many of our people, it’s all about the raise or bonus, not ways to professionally grow.  That’s why many companies treat their people equally – it’s easier! We don’t need those hard, open, straightforward discussions about real performance and contribution.  We just pay everyone at this level this much and move on.  It’s more objective and clear – just like everyone getting a medal for showing up.

Being a leader requires taking the right road, not the easy road.  Treating our people fairly requires judgment, subjectivity, and clear communication of expectations and goals on an ongoing basis since the world around us changes all the time. When we treat our people equally but not fairly, we tell people it’s ok to underperform and under contribute undermining the morale of our dedicated and passionate people and are then surprised when we get mediocre output and outcomes.

What if we modify the culture to recognize people fairly, based on their work, effort, passion, and results – as individuals and teams?  We will be surprised to see the positive difference a just leader will make.

I versus You

The current economic crisis may have exacerbated an extant corporate behavior, climbing the corporate ladder and competing for promotions.  But what have we really accomplished? We may have the wonderful corner office, but at whose expense and with what impact on results?   I often ask my corporate colleagues if focusing on ‘I’, on themselves, has really gotten them the career satisfaction they sought.  As leaders, we need to help our people focus on the “You” – the customer, the recipient of our services and products and you the employee.  If we honestly ask ourselves who matters more, ‘I’, ourselves or ‘You’ our customers and people, what is our answer?

A just leader is a servant who leads.  So, is the business about our needs or the needs of ‘others’?  Are we really focused on delighting our customers (to quote my friend Steve Denning), which means we will delight our people because they are working on meaningful, purposeful solutions to real needs (outcomes) that result in revenues and profit (outputs) that can be reinvested in the delighting our customers? Or, are we doing this for the next perk, the accolades from our peers, the prestige from our position?

I’m not suggesting total altruism (though that’s not a bad idea!), but I am suggesting we ponder why we’re leading and whom we’re leading – is it about ‘I’ or about ‘You’?  Can we really be a just leader if it’s about us? Would we want to be led by someone who was all about himself? Does our leadership truly reflect our why and who? If someone asked one of our people who mattered to us, ‘I’ or ‘You’, what would they answer?

As we approach the middle of year, ask yourself two questions: do you treat people equally or fairly  (or both) and does your leadership, hence your culture, value ‘You’ over ‘I’?

Deborah Mills-Scofield

Deborah Mills-Scofield is a partner at Glengary LLC, an early stage venture capital firm in Cleveland, OH, and an innovation and strategy consultant. Her patent from AT&T Bell Labs was one of the highest-revenue generating patents ever for AT&T & Lucent.