3 Principles of the Pragmatic Leader

Pragmatic Leadership has been discussed for years in the leadership field. A Google search yields hundreds of pages of relevant content. There are numerous websites and blogs today that have focused their content to this particular subject. The content in this thesis is not associated with any particular website, blog or published work. Published works are footnoted or referenced where appropriate. This perspective has evolved over a 27 year career in manufacturing based operations, - as a follower, an observer, and a leader. The principles and behaviors discussed are currently practiced by the author.

1. Be Authentic

Authentic Leadership has been discussed in the leadership space for more than a decade. The thesis is rather simple – be true to yourself as you execute your responsibilities. The authentic leader builds legitimacy through honest relationships with followers which value their input and are built on an ethical foundation. Generally, authentic leaders are positive people with truthful self-concepts who promote openness. They are self-actualized individuals aware of their strengths, their limitations, and their emotions.

Pause for a moment and visualize a leader that has inspired you. Recall their name. Place them in the workspace where you interacted frequently. Go back to a moment when the circumstances were challenging and this leader did not perform to their typical standards. Describe this leader’s behaviors during and after this event. Authentic behaviors reveal themselves in these times of adversity.

Humility

It’s in these times, true-humility will surface. The authentic leader understands every endeavor has two possible outcomes: win or learn. There is no lose. They strive for excellence but realize each step in the journey may not be forward. There are no backward steps when one learns from their efforts. It’s a step to the side, to pause, to reflect on what occurred – to learn. The authentic leader shares these experiences with their followers, enabling the organization to learn and grow together. Exercising true-humility in these times of adversity further builds their personal brand with followers. These acts of humility are essential to an organization’s capacity to evolve and mature into a team that repeatedly reaches new milestones of performance.

Authenticity Evolves:

In her book; Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader; Herminia Ibarra suggests the authentic leader’s character and convictions evolve over time, authenticity is not a static condition. She challenges traditional thought that experimentation with one’s style is inauthentic and unnatural. I agree with her position. An authentic leader sharpens their skills through experimentation with how to lead. Each experiment alters their leadership DNA, further defining who they are at that moment. Leadership convictions are formed through experiences. One should not leave personal growth simply to chance. The experiment should be deliberate with the intent to learn.

Practice:

Consider how we’ve been taught to develop other skills. Whether it is a sport, academia or the arts – our talents in these areas have been honed through practice. The baseball player practiced pitching, catching, batting and base running. For the ball player, these are skills that must be mastered to excel and be recognized for elite level talent. To be admired for their craft. The painter practices brush strokes, colors, and subject matter. School children have homework for the repetition. The old axiom we grew up on – practice makes perfect, is in play here. Practice will not lead to perfection, but it certainly generates improvement. At practice, each activity has a specific purpose, focused on a particular skill. It is deliberate with the intent to learn.

Practice is essential for skill development. Leadership requires skills. Be deliberate practicing your leadership skills. Have intent as you exercise different styles to see what fits. Keep what works. Discard what does not feel genuine. Continue to Practice!

2. Socialize Ideas:

A pragmatic leader is sensitive to others. They realize change is uncomfortable for most people. To help others avoid this anxiety, the pragmatic leader will socialize their thoughts and ideas with stakeholders before formalizing an approach. This strategy to build acceptance is not overt. When deployed, only the leader is aware. The socializing is done during the normal course of business. The desire is for stakeholders to eventually accept these as their own and simply execute improvements.

The Seed Metaphor:

Consider the idea a seed you must plant to bring to life. Your idea, like that seed, needs proper conditions to sprout. Soil conditions must be precise - temperature, moisture, density, nutrients, pH and depth all matter. The pragmatic leader is responsible to create a work environment that allows the idea under consideration to take root and sprout to life. The idea is the seed. The policies, procedures, values, norms and behaviors of the organization are the conditions.

Socializing an idea requires one to engage stakeholders in dialog, often one individual at a time to plant the seeds. Socializing an idea requires one to be consistent with the messages – consistent with what the individual hears and consistent between individuals. Socializing an idea requires finesse with the frequency of communication. This comes down to intuition. The pragmatic leader will know how often to discuss the topic, in which venues and with whom to further the agenda.

Listening:

Many leaders listen to be understood, not to understand. Pragmatic leaders are skilled listeners, exercising diligence while socializing ideas to listen holistically. Listening does not only involve spoken words and the sense of hearing - it involves emotion and body language. It involves an exchange of thought between the parties to confirm each understands what’s transpired. The leader needs to know if the idea (seed) was successfully planted and has the opportunity to grow. If it has, further conversation will expand on the thought. If it hasn’t, future conversations continue to prepare the soil and plant the seed.

Plant your seeds. Engage associates in dialog. Fertilize and water the seed as it grows to maturity and bears fruit. Pick the fruits of your labor and enjoy.

3. Act First

For many schooled in the quality sciences, this sounds blasphemous. Tradition suggests thoughtful consideration before acting. PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) and DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) are just two improvement disciplines that are well accepted. They each encourage a deliberate approach to one’s actions.

Act and Learn:

The pragmatic leader understands this principle, but is judicious with its use. The pragmatic leader often deploys an Act-Learn-Plan, Repeat operating model. The pragmatic leader possesses a bias toward action, realizing learning occurs and improvements are made. It’s a repetitive cycle of Act and Learn.

In his book, Sometimes You Win, Sometimes You Learn – John C. Maxwell shares a perspective on loss (failure) and learning. He believes a humble person learns from their mistakes through reflection (learning). “Experience isn’t the best teacher; evaluated experience is.”

The Act-Learn-Plan, Repeat model is not inconsistent with industry accepted best practices mentioned above. Where it differs is the bias to action first, the self-awareness that judgment is sound and the humility that one learns from experiences. Learning through thoughtful reflection has the same intent as measurement and analysis in the DMAIC model.

The Guiding Principle:

This is perhaps the guiding principle that distinguishes the pragmatic leader. This bias for action with thoughtful reflection on the experience sets the tone for a learning organization. Observing their leader take action serves as a catalyst for others to act. Witnessing humility from their leader empowers others to take risks as well.

Summary:

There are three common, guiding principles observed with pragmatic leaders. Pragmatic leaders are authentic, they are patient while socializing their ideas for organizational acceptance and they have a bias for action. This list is not exhaustive. It’s intended to describe a new generation of leaders that achieve benchmark-level results with less traditional leadership methods.

The author is practicing the thesis presented here. The LinkedIn articles and other social media are a method to socialize concepts in preparation for a future published work on leadership. Your feedback is appreciated. Please take a moment to comment on what you have read here.