Leadership and Elections | Mike Useem

Professor Mike Useem explains which leadership skills are essential in a president.

Wharton’s Mike Useem discusses the critical qualities needed from leaders, whether they are running the country or running a business. This episode is part of a series on the “Business of Elections.”

The Five Essential Leadership Skills

Dan Loney: We know that leadership is an important component of our society, so what are those qualities we expect to see in a president or a senator or other political leader? It’s a pleasure to be joined by Mike Useem, who is a professor emeritus of management here at the Wharton School. Mike, you talked about this several years ago in your book, The Leader’s Checklist. What are some of the important components?

Mike Useem: I would identify five components of a leader’s checklist. And just to comment on the checklist concept itself, a mission critical leader’s checklist, that’s the modifier I tend to use these days. Mission critical will include all the capabilities that are essential for getting the job done. They’re not additive. Each is necessary, if not sufficient. Among the five necessary but not fully sufficient that are at the top at least of my list — when it comes to politics, political figures, people running companies, those in senior government positions – No. 1 is thinking strategically. That seems like a good idea.

No. 2, acting decisively. That’s a really good idea too, thus, mission critical. No. 3, communicating persuasively. You’re going nowhere with anybody else if you don’t bring them on board and get them moving in the right direction with you. That, too, seems essential. But I think I would add two more to round it out at five.

No. 4, I would say communicate your character. People want to know who exactly are you? What do you bring? What are your values? What’s your inner self? What’s been your experience? No. 5, I would add, very simply, honor the room. It’s a politician’s phrase, very applicable at the moment, during our campaign for the White House. But more generally, honoring the room means a little more than taking a few minutes to remind those who are on your team, or going in the same direction with you, or you’d like to go with you somewhere in common, remind them how good they are and how essential they are to get to the more promised land.

The Challenges of Being a Good Leader in Politics

Loney: The political landscape right now is so divided, and I think that’s a challenge when you’re talking about leadership. Doesn’t it seem like it’s that much more of a challenge to be able to deliver the message when you have very divergent mindsets on so many topics right now?

Useem: You’re absolutely right, Dan. This is why we, at least in the private sector, tend to reward people who lead big companies effectively, we tend to pay them a lot of money — even there, we think of shareholders as the primary stakeholder in a company. But all people in senior corporate positions are concerned about supply chains, about the community where they operate, and pulling those diverse constituencies together in common cause, common purpose. That is a challenge.

Almost by definition, it is a challenge that a political candidate has, because given the great diversity in our voting public, there are great challenges to pull people together who have often very diverse points of view. And the art of leadership, in my humble view, is finding the places where people can find common agreement. We couldn’t find that back in 1861 when the country fell apart over the Civil War. Little tough this year as well to find that. But I think the great leaders of the moment are those who can find common ground, even if it looks like there is none out there.

Loney: Doesn’t that put even a greater emphasis on the communication?

Useem: It does indeed, and that is the art of communicating persuasively to people who otherwise are looking to hear a certain message and disregard others. I’ll make it a rhetorical question here, Dan. Isn’t that what leadership is all about? Nobody has a playing field with a bunch of figures out there that all think like you, and all you have to do is snap your fingers and off we go. Whether it’s the private sector, nonprofit sector, or government, or politics, the art of effective and persuasive communication is appreciating the differences are out there, but finding the common ground therein is indeed what we want in great leaders that we admire.

Loney: It does seem, though, that communication is something that maybe our political leaders don’t emphasize as much now compared to what we’ve seen in years past.

Useem: I think I agree with that. I think words count, just to put the same point in a slightly different phrasing. Words really count. Sentences count. Sometimes we think if we just say it, our job is done. But getting those words right, the phrases nuanced and subtle, and communicating to diverse constituencies is partly what leadership is, whatever the organization or whatever the country may be. It’s a challenge to do that. It’s a learned skill set, and we need a lot of that.

Loney: Does it put more emphasis on the team that you have assembled to help support you in doing all the things that you would like to do to improve the country?

Useem: Dan, I could not agree more. Or to put it in almost a metaphor here, leadership is an individual and a team sport. You’re going to get a long way by exercising your own independent judgment, developing your own strategy, crafting your own words. But at the end of just about everybody’s day, it also depends. Your impact also depends on the quality of the team and the capacity of the team members around you. So. leadership in that regard is an individual and a team sport.

Loney: One of the other challenges right now also seems to be the level of so-called noise that’s out there. A lot of that comes from digital, and obviously we see it play a role in politics as well.

Useem: You have to deal with the noise, for sure. But isn’t that, yet again, one more art of what we say a great leader has to have, which is cutting through the noise to send an actual signal. Sometimes the signal gets lost if the noise is too intense. Finding the right metaphors, the right lines of thinking, the good thoughts that indeed get to people’s working consciousness in a way that’s compelling is the art of effective and persuasive communication.

Overcoming Challenges as a President

Loney: What’s the secret, then, to get back to the type of leadership that we all remember when you think about some of the great leaders that we’ve had in this country?

Useem: I think I go back to where we began, and that is, they brought the right character, above all, to the setting. And character has got many sub-pieces to it. They had character and they communicated it. It’s two separate statements there. We want to follow people, whatever the setting, who have authenticity, credibility, integrity, and well beyond. And we don’t know about that unless they are very effective at communicating that. So, communicating your character above all.

And then I think — kind of back to the checklist here — the fifth item I had mentioned a few minutes ago is honoring the room. That was the phrase I use. It’s a politician’s phrase. Because we’re asking people for a vote, or asking them to work hard if it’s a company, or asking them to invest in us if they’re an institutional owner, it is helping people to remember that they’re part of the story. They’re where you’re going together. Thus, making certain that you honor them in ways that speak to who they are, what they bring to the table with an authenticity to it is part of the formula. Honor the room.

Loney: You mentioned the components of character. What are those in your mind?

Useem: It usually breaks down into four or five terrains that we already tend to use as almost a byword, or at least a capturing phrase for somebody’s character. Are they authentic? Which usually connotes, do they have the values that we admire? Do they stay with the values that they have espoused when they do disclose those values? We want people with integrity. What they say is what they mean and what they will do. We want people who are able to absorb and learn about the values and concerns of all the followers that you’re responsible for leading. It’s a multi-faceted, many piece object. But I will say, I think we know it when we see it.

Loney: In this landscape, values and integrity become even more important, not only for who you are as a politician, but who you are as a human being. You’re being reviewed not only about your political history, but your history as an individual. If you spent time in the military, or if you were an excellent student, or you were a leader in your community — there are so many elements that really come into play for that.

Useem: You’re absolutely right. A different way to put the same point is that, in politics and business and the nonprofit world, part of your great challenge in communicating your character is to communicate who are you exactly. For that, I think there’s no better vehicle to carry the story than to tell a story in which you’re featured. Here’s what I did when I faced a challenge. Here’s what I did when I was faced with a takeover, here’s what I did when I had a bad stretch. The art of storytelling is an absolutely essential quality to communicate your character. That’s how we look to learn about it. It’s what we remember about a candidate or a politician or a business leader.

Loney: How much correlation do you see between being a leader of a country or a community to being the leader as a CEO of a company?

Useem: I think they’re different, but not different at root. It’s a different landscape, different rules at play. But at root, the underlying concepts of leadership and what people look for, I actually think are not all that much different. They look for character. They look for integrity. They look to see, are you a strategic thinker, or are you a purely tactical? They look to see, do you equivocate, or do you make a timely decision? They look to see, are you a persuasive communicator, or can you have trouble getting out the ideas? I think those concepts — strategic thinking, persuasive communication, decisive action — are common to all. They’re common across life, whatever it may be.

Loney: If you are in politics, you win a race, you get into office, it’s really kind of “go” from day one to deliver on the things you talked about during the campaign.

Useem: Yeah, a different way to put the same point. My phrasing here is a leadership is not for the faint of heart. There’s no day that’s not hard. You’ve got the constituencies that disagree. You make mistakes. You’re constantly under the scrutiny of your constituents. Even if it’s the private sector. Everything a chief executive does is observed, recorded, and ends up on the web. Quick summary on that point: Strong self-confidence moving forward is a platform to get going.

It’s not what we look for in a candidate or in a company CEO or a CEO’s successor, but it is part of the storyline — let’s call it the checklist, going back to that phrase. It should be on the checklist. A determination to get the job. Remembering that what you’re doing is making a difference, hopefully in a more promising direction than others, of taking people to a more promised land.