The Psychology of Leadership

 

Issue No. 645 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (May 10, 2025) champions the virtues of lifelong learning. Leaders are readers. The book you read last year may not solve this year's challenges. Plus, check out the 20 management buckets (core competencies). LOL…but maybe not? What if you just read Drucker—and never ventured into Blanchard, Collins, and Lencioni (re: my Mount Rushmore of Leadership Legends)? Better to keep reading and keep learning! (Note: per the bylaws of Your Weekly Staff Meeting, we're required to run this cartoon at least once a year.)   Beware of “Goal-Induced Blindness!” Just when I think you’re all in on the SMART goals bandwagon, along comes a contrarian book that cautions: “…like medicine, goals can have side effects.” You and your team members will appreciate this book:   The Psychology of Leadership:  Timeless principles to improve your management  of individuals, teams… and yourself!  by Sébastien Page (April 15, 2025)   Another book on leadership? With 18 (count ‘em) critical principles? Eighteen? Do we really need another 18 must-read leadership lectures? (Wait…forget what I just said. Apparently, there are actually 20 critical core competencies. It’s not just one thing anymore.) So...yes...more learning from these 18 memorable principles in The Psychology of Leadership—a short course in goals, execution, and the power of personality psychology—from (get this) a finance/investment guy! PART I: SETTING LONG-TERM GOALS “You’ve heard that employee engagement, culture, and meaning are important. Start with why! has become a corporate cliché. But practical advice on how to start with why has been lacking.” Principle 1: Don’t Die on Everest—Beware of the Side Effects of Measurable Goals. • Sébastien Page warns that “goal-induced blindness happens when you’re so obsessed with reaching a goal that you don’t see the negative consequences of your actions.” He adds, “like medicine, goals can have side effects.”  • Example: Over the last 30 years, says the author, four of every 100 climbers attempting to reach the summit of Mount Everest have died! Principle 2: Don't Become a Miserable Rich Person—Redefine Success.  • Page recommends an off-site with your team and “…if you’re brave enough to risk a mutiny, ask everyone to shut off their cell phones for the day.” • See page 31 for your agenda—the PERMA model from Martin Seligman, the founder of positive psychology: (P) positive emotions, (E) engagement, (R) relationships, (M) meaning, and (A) accomplishments.  Principle 3: Learn to Enjoy Mowing the Lawn—Set Goals That Maximize Engagement.  • The author is a fan of the SMART goals acronym, “a favorite of old-school corporate leadership trainers.” (What—me? Old school?).  •  “It’s cheesy corporate training stuff, but…it works.” Principle 4: Make Year-End Reviews Useless—Prioritize Relationships.  • Note: Every chapter has a helpful “Takeaways to Improve Your Game” summary.  • Here’s the LOL conclusion of Principle 4: “Now, can I give you some feedback? Stop using the phrase, ‘Can I give you some feedback?’ You’re welcome.” • Read more in HBR, "The Feedback Fallacy," by Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall. Principle 5: Don't Fake It—When You Talk About Meaning, Mean It! • Read the cringy statements from several companies who each claimed: “We’re making the world a better place through…” The CEOs provided “meaning to their goals rather than pursuing goals that had meaning.” (Gut-check: your goals!) • Page notes the story about the three bricklayers and the cathedral—and then admits: “I didn’t spend enough time on this topic in the past. I kept my head down and focused on laying bricks.” • Read the brick story on the "Sacred Structures" website from Jim Baker, a church organizational leadership and management coach. Principle 6: Ignore the Gifted Kids—Don't Focus on Winning.  • Page quotes Malcolm Gladwell who notes in David and Goliath that “high-achieving, but not genius-level, students who attend prestigious Ivy League universities give up on their ambitions more than other students.” • The antidote: “You must get off the goals-accomplishment treadmill and rethink your entire goal-setting process. You must redefine success.” (I would add: move from “success” to “significance” per Bob Buford’s wisdom.) Principle 7: Don't Admire Billionaires—Choose Your Role Models Carefully.  • Bonus! Listen to the first three minutes of Principle 7. • Warning! “Most incredibly successful people are bad at relationships.” The author's message: “It’s not necessary to be a jerk or sacrifice family life in the name of accomplishment.” Principle 8: Build a Bigger Rocket—Unleash the Power of Social Comparison.  • Page discusses the unhealthy aspects of social media, but offers contrarian counsel for your team: “Rally your team against a worthy competitor. Make internal competition friendly and enjoyable.” • “Internal competition should be secondary to collaboration—or even a tool for it.” (Page adds, “And please, please, please, I beg you to hit ‘Like” on my LinkedIn posts.” LOL!) Principle 9: Upgrade Your Operating System—Identify and Manage Your Core Beliefs.  • You’ll love the author’s transparency. “If you give me the choice between manual labor and a root canal, I might ask you to start the drilling.” He adds, “If a lightbulb goes out, I ask, ‘Can we get someone to fix this?’” • You’ll appreciate his approach to disagreements with his team at T. Rowe Price. It’s all about their core beliefs, including “Clients First.” “In all cases, whoever can prove—or convince others—that their proposal is best for our clients wins the argument.” PART II: EXECUTING YOUR GOALS The author highlights the “ivory tower problem” with execution. “It happens when the decision-makers (generals) have no awareness of what’s happening in the trenches (soldiers), but they’re making critical decisions for those soldiers. Lives are at stake. How do you get generals aware of what’s going on?" Principle 10: Tune the Engine—Optimize Stress for Peak Performance.  • Yikes! I’ve never read anything helpful on this—until now. “You must adjust how you manage employees based on their stress tolerance. Organizations, too, have an optimal level of stress.” (Must-read chapter.) • I love his push-backs on certain leadership theories. • Yet, “Like an elite athlete, realize that you can’t operate at your level without a bit of stress. Isn’t that liberating? Now you can stop stressing about stressing.” Principle 11: Think About Death—Work Backwards From Your Goals.  • Need to lose 15 pounds in 15 weeks? Read this chapter. Page appreciates Covey’s “begin with the end in mind” wisdom. •  A big believer in mastering “process,” Page reminds us of the two-pizza rule at Amazon and what Jeff Bezos calls the “Day 1” model. Principle 12: Sit on It—Learn Strategic Patience.  • Of the four social styles, Drivers and Expressives should read this chapter first. Calling for “strategic patience,” the author says the principle is “constantly violated in business.” • “It speaks to the psychology of decision-making under uncertainty. Most organizations suffer from a false sense of urgency and a bias towards action.” (Read more on the psychology of decision-making and a hypothetical example on "deciding when to get married!") Principle 13: Separate Signal From Noise—Focus on What Matters.  • “In addition to planning backward and exercising strategic patience, control theory teaches us to separate signal from noise. As a leader, what issues need your attention (signal), and which ones should you ignore (noise)?” • Bonus: This chapter includes “Top 5 Rules for Corporate Success from Mark” (Mark was a mentor), plus “Sébastien’s Top 3 Additional Rules,” including one page on “Take Care of Yourself” (the importance of sleep, good diet, and exercise). PART III: UNLEASHING THE POWER OF PERSONALITY PSYCHOLOGY  In this section, the author spotlights the “Big Five Traits” of personality—and weaves them into the psychology of leadership. Each principle features a helpful chart. (Note: non-church language alert for this section.) Principle 14: Read the Room—Call on the Introverts. [Extraversion] • Page delivers a short course on Extroverts and Introverts (a good reminder!) and points us to Susan Cain’s TED talk. Why do introverts make good leaders? “…because they’re better than extroverts at empowering others.” • My question for you: what do you still need to learn? Page writes, “In four words, here’s the most critical lesson in leadership I’ve learned over the last few years: talk less, listen more.” Principle 15: Don't Run Your Business Like a Democracy—Be Disagreeable, Sometimes. [Agreeableness] • While the author is extremely well-read and quickly summarizes the big and important ideas in dozens of books—here’s what I really love about Sébastien Page: he’s not afraid to disagree with leadership gurus. • Example: “What you won’t find in Covey’s book is the notion that sometimes it’s necessary to be disagreeable. As a leader, you can’t always agree with everybody.”  • He adds, “…new leaders who break too many eggs fail.” Yikes! Page reminds us that, per The First 90 Days, “senior leaders who take a new job will fail or succeed within their first 90 days. And by the way, about 50% of leadership transitions fail, with the new leader leaving or getting fired. No pressure!” • Would you encourage Pope Leo XIV to read The First 90 Days? (This was my 2010 book-of-the-year.) THERE'S MUCH MORE...but I’m not going to do all your reading and work for you. So…I’ll just tease you with the final three principles—and you’ll need to find the morsels yourself. • Principle 16: Learn to Love Worry—Harness the Positive Side of Neuroticism. [Neuroticism] • Principle 17: Be Like Jim Morrison and the Pope—Balance Openness and Structure. [Openness] • Principle 18: Eat Your Vegetables—Unleash the Power of Good Habits. [Conscientiousness] The final principle spotlights "the power of habits" and time management. (Watch for my blogs.) And speaking of the new Pope and Catholics, read my recent review of Superhabits. Guarantee. If you do the work and read (and study) this book, you’ll be a better leader—and the people you’re coaching and mentoring will also grow in their leadership. Marshall Goldsmith agrees!   TO ORDER FROM AMAZON, click on the title for The Psychology of Leadership: Timeless principles to improve your management of individuals, teams… and yourself! by Sébastien Page. Listen on Libro (9 hours, 37 minutes). And thanks to the publisher for sending me a review copy.   YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS: 1) You’re coaching and mentoring a young leader. What 10 books (or other lifelong learning resources) would you recommend? What’s on your ideal bookshelf? Plus...what are your favorite 10 to 20 "timeless leadership and management principles?" 2) Think back to your first 90 days at your present position. Michael Watkins says you experienced one of four kinds of organizations (or departments) when you arrived. Which one did you inherit in your last transition? His acronym, “STARS,” describes the four: Start-up, Turn-Around, Realignment, or Sustaining Success.  3) Yikes! According to the WSJ, Pope Leo XIV has inherited a “Financial Mess Pope Francis Couldn’t Fix.” Which “STARS” is it: Start-up, Turn-Around, Realignment, or Sustaining Success?        SECOND READS: Fresh Solutions From Classic Books You have changed—and your problems have changed—since you read this the first time! Book #15 of 99: Making Numbers Count For your team meeting this week, inspire a team member to lead your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” session by featuring Book #15 of 99 in our new series, “Second Reads.” The big idea: REREAD TO LEAD! Discover how your favorite books still have more to teach you and the people you’re coaching and mentoring.   Making Numbers Count:  The Art and Science of Communicating Numbers by Chip Heath and Karla Starr   How did I miss this right on page three? “Here’s a quick test of whether you are handling numbers correctly: Go through your letter, document, or PowerPoint deck. Circle each number and then look above and below by one paragraph or bullet point and find the phrase where you translate the number.” (Click here to listen to the first three minutes of pages 3 and 4.)    • Read my review on Amazon (Issue No. 502, Jan. 12, 2022).    • Order from Amazon.    • Management Bucket #15 of 20: The Budget Bucket    • Listen on Libro (4 hours, 35 minutes). Translate Dry Stats Into Emotional Moments!    • The Statistic: “40% of U.S. adults do not always wash their hands after using the bathroom at home.”    • The Story: “2 out of every 5 people you shake hands with may not have washed their hands between using the toilet and touching your hands.” (Yikes!) The authors ask: Are you using examples to better communicate your dry, boring numbers? Examples: “By comparison…” “To put that in context…” “Think of it this way…” When your CFO and board treasurer are talking about the budget—do non-financial staff and board members comprehend? Use stories with your stats. Example:  What’s the difference between a million and a billion? You could give the dry statistics—but where’s the fun in that? (And who would remember?). So the authors create a story. You enter a lottery to win either $1 million or $1 billion—with a catch. If you win, you must spend $50,000 per day. How long will it last? Making Numbers Count is worthy of a second read. Your people (staff, board members, donors, volunteers, etc.) will deeply appreciate the energy you’ve invested in creatively communicating memorable numbers. Guaranteed!   CLICK HERE FOR BOOKS BY JOHN      Note: This is the NEW location for John Pearson's Buckets Blog. Slowly (!), the previous 650+ blogs posted (between 2006 and 2025) will gradually populate this blogsite, along with new book reviews each month. MORE RESOURCES: • BLOG: Pails in Comparison • SUBSCRIBE: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews • JOHN'S BOOK REVIEWS: on Amazon  • WEBSITE: Management Buckets • BLOG: Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations