Canadian Government Executive - Volume 23 - Issue 09

D id your high school valedictorian go on to achieve greatness? High schools select their valedictorians because they show promise and exempli- fy the best the school has to offer. So it’s not unrea- sonable for us to expect them to achieve great things. Many achieve success in their future careers. But greatness tends to be rare. And that’s why screen- writer and blogger Eric Barker features them in his quirky, eclectic, science-based book on achievement, Barking up the Wrong Tree. Boston College’s Karen Arnold followed 87 high school valedictorians, finding their future marks at university were high, many went on to graduate de- grees and nearly 90 per cent ended up in professional careers. Impressive, but not impressive enough, she concluded: “Valedictorians aren’t likely to be the fu- ture’s visionaries … they typically settle into the sys- tem rather than shake it up.” That’s likely because they were too conformist and were generalists, more inclined to shore up weak parts in their academic studies than spectacularly excel at anything. Compare that, Barker says, to Winston Churchill, a maverick with many flaws but who proved the right man for the Hitler era, or Abraham Lincoln, whose strengths overwhelmed his glaring weaknesses and allowed him to win the Civil War and keep the Unit- ed States one nation. Barker believes the research of Harvard Business School Professor Gautam Mu- kunda helps to explain their success. Mukunda dif- ferentiates between “filtered” leaders, who rise up through the ranks, and “unfiltered,” who barge in from left field, unexpectedly. Filtered leaders are like those valedictorians: Solid and traditional in their approach, effective but indistinguishable from each other. The unfiltered folks can’t be relied on to make the standard decisions and are often unpredictable. “Yet they bring change and make a difference,” Barker observes. “Often that difference is negative. Since they don’t play by the rules, they often break the institutions they are guiding. A minority of un- filtered leaders are transformative, though, shedding organizations of their misguided beliefs and foolish consistencies, and running them toward better ho- rizons. These are the leaders that the research said have enormous impact.” He tested this notion on U.S. presidents, albeit be- fore the current unfiltered one took office. He evaluat- ed which were filtered and unfiltered, and whether or not they were great leaders. His theory predicted presi- dential impact with a statistical confidence of 99 per cent, Barker notes, adding, “The filtered leaders didn’t rock the boat. The unfiltered leaders couldn’t help but rock it. Often they broke things, but sometimes they broke things like slavery, as Abraham Lincoln did.” Often we have attributes associated with leadership success, and we figure the more of those a person has, the the greater the chance of success. But Mukunda says the difference between good and great leaders is not an issue of “more.” Great leaders are fundamen- tally different people. A better Neville Chamberlain would not have saved the day for Britain. “They didn’t need a more filtered leader; they needed someone the systemwould have never let in the door. The old ways didn’t work, and doubling down on them would have been disastrous. To fight a menace like Hitler, they needed a maverick like Churchill,” he says. Mukunda focuses on “intensifiers,” attributes that are considered negative but in the context become posi- tives, like Churchill’s defence of the British state, which at one time seemed paranoid but became powerful. Mr. Barker points to Glenn Gould, who went beyond eccentric but was a magnificent pianist. “That nut is a genius,” the Cleveland Orchestra’s George Szell said. Steve Jobs understood this. When he took over Pix- ar, he wanted to overcome a creativity crisis and de- clared: “Give us the black sheep. I want artists who are frustrated. I want the ones who have another way of doing things that nobody’s listening to. Give us all the guys who are probably headed out the door.” What does this mean if you’re not Glenn Gould or a high school valedictorian? Mr. Barker says we spend too much time trying to be “good” when that only makes us average. “To be great we must be different. And that doesn’t come from trying to follow society’s vision of what is best, because society doesn’t always know what it needs. More often being the best means just being the best version of you…. In the right envi- ronment, bad can be good and odd can be beautiful,” he writes. This applies to colleagues as well. “The same traits that make people a nightmare to work with can also make them people who change the world. Research shows that very creative people are more arrogant, dishonest, and disorganized. They also get lower grades in school,” he says, noting they are disliked be- cause they don’t do what teachers or bosses expect. “So it’s no surprise that creativity is inversely corre- lated with employee performance reviews.” How do you become successful? Mukunda says first you need to know and accept yourself. If you’re a fil- tered leader, double down on that, finding a good path. If you have significant intensifiers, don’t dampen them as you’ll only be at odds with who you are and close off your key advantages. Find out your signature strengths, and accept them. Then Mukunda advises you to pick the right pond: The Leader’s Bookshelf Harvey Schachter Barking up the Wrong Tree By Eric Barker HarperCollins, 307 pages, $33.50 24 / Canadian Government Executive // December 2017 How do you become successful? Mukunda says first you need to know and accept yourself. If you’re a filtered leader, double down on that, finding a good path.