Beyond Effectiveness: A Good Leader Should Actually Be Good

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There is more to being a good leader than being effective.

I mean, Hitler was effective, was he a good leader?

Of course not. A good leader needs to actually be good.

Peter Montoya, Owner at Peter Montoya, Inc and author of The Brand Called You, came on the show today to discuss what that actually looks like in practice.

Our conversation covered:

Why the future doesn’t have to be bleak
What makes a good leader
Why there is an epidemic of loneliness in our culture

Let’s make the future brighter

I have always needed to maintain optimism for a brighter future…

So when Peter asked me if I thought, based on our current trajectory, if the world would be better in the future I said yes.

But I was ignoring the crucial clause: based on our current trajectory. Peter rightly pointed out that the future looks bleak.

Think about the world today and you can’t help but think of its problems.

Now, this isn’t new… humanity has always had problems. But there are a couple of differences.

First, the scale of the problems is enormous — global warming, political polarization and, with the way 2020 is going, alien invasions by December. Second, we lack the leadership to tackle them.

Because leaders solve problems.

That’s what we mean when we say a good leader should be effective.

But if the problem the leader is trying to solve is that they don’t have enough money to hunt people for sport, then their leadership certainly isn’t going to help save us from global warming.

“Good leaders are effective, but they’re also maximizing human wellbeing for as many people as possible.”

PETER MONTOYA at Peter Montoya, Inc.

We don’t need yesterday’s leadership style where the only goal is increased profit. We need leaders who look after all their stakeholders, not just their shareholders.

In fact, the defining purpose of the corporation itself has changed in recent years to acknowledge these stakeholder.

Which are:

Employees
Vendors and suppliers
The community it services
The environment
Shareholders

How many leaders do you know who religiously pursue all 5?

Probably not enough…

What a leader’s job is today

But for those who are, their obviously not the cartoony boss that hands out dictates and cracks the whip.

So what does the 5-factor leader do?

Create more 5-factor leaders.

“The number one job of a leader today is leadership development.”

PETER MONTOYA at Peter Montoya, Inc.

A 5-factor business has a mission. And in order to achieve that mission, it needs to be lived and breathed by everyone in the organization.

The best leaders lead by consensus, not intimidation. They create cohesive values and use them to change the world for the better.

And if the mission is really believed, then its achievement is based on creating more effective leaders who believe in it.

It can only be achieved through wielding power — and we want power in the hands of people with good intentions, right?

What we probably don’t want in their hands is a smartphone…

The loneliness epidemic

Okay, if that segue seemed dramatic to you, let me explain.

See, as Peter puts it, there is a new cancer in our culture: loneliness.

And it’s not because of COVID-10, either. This started well before the pandemic — which, to be fair, really isn’t helping things.

The average person needs 3-4 hours of quality social interaction per day to remain mentally healthy.

Do you know how many an average person gets?

Less than 45 minutes.

Now, how long do you think the average person stares at a screen each day?

Almost 12 hours. Twelve!

“We are facing a huge loneliness epidemic. And the culprit is most likely our attachment to screens.”

PETER MONTOYA at Peter Montoya, Inc.

And repeatedly forgoing a nice dinner conversation, laughter-filled phone call or Zoom hangout isn’t a minor issue — it’s literally killing us.

All diseases of the destitute are on their way up — drug addiction, alcoholism, depression, suicide, divorce, etc. And it’s because we are less connected to one another.

We need to build great leaders who can solve the world’s most pressing problems.

But we’re never going to be able to do that if we lose our connection with each other.

This blogpost includes highlights of our podcast interview with Peter Montoya, Owner at Peter Montoya, Inc and author of The Brand Called You.

Subscribe to hear this episode and many more like it. For the entire interview, you can listen to The B2B Revenue Executive Experience. If you don’t use Apple Podcasts, we suggest this link.

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