Leadership

Another Fast Company interview

Robert L. Joss
Stanford Graduate School of Business
Stanford, California
Q: What matters most to you, and why?

A: I have one word for you: leadership. By leadership, I mean taking complete responsibility for an organization's well-being and growth and changing it for the better. Real leadership is not about prestige, power, or status. It's about responsibility.

Over my lifetime and in my four years as dean, I've become more aware of and impressed by how much of leadership is about emotional intelligence. The more you lead, the more you understand just how much of it is about motivation -- and motivation is about emotions. Most universities operate in the world of the intellect: The person with the best idea is the brightest. But to lead, being smart isn't sufficient. You have to connect with people, so that they want to help you move the organization forward.

I learned that lesson when I took over a division at Wells Fargo and tried to turn it around. I had the passion to make it better, but the old management balked and quit en masse. I hadn't realized that they were afraid of change and that it was my role to help them understand my reasons for it.

Traditionally, we didn't do enough to help prepare our students to take on leadership roles. We helped them confront problems of analysis, finance, strategy, and so forth. But the way you learn leadership is by leading. So today, part of our role is to help make students more aware of what leadership means, to get them excited about it, to inspire them to try leadership jobs, and to really understand themselves. Leadership is a performing art. Intellectually, it's simple. But behaviorally, it's complex and difficult work.

At first, I thought it was a little pompous. The previous interview was with Dipak Jain, who said "I have no power. So I try to give everybody a chance to have a say." I thought that sounded weak. So in response, I thought Joss sounded pompous. But as I read on, he nailed Leadership on the head -- "emotional intelligence" and "Leadership is a performing art. Intellectually, it's simple. But behaviorally, it's complex and difficult work."

So many think that leadership is being in charge or getting to make the decisions. Those are the easy parts. Motivating, building consensus, being trusted, communicating value to the idea and to the followers -- that is leadership.