How to Be a Good Leader When You've Never had One

2False Aspirations: Why You Don't Want to Be a “Great” Leader

Have you ever watched those viral motivational videos? There's an epic soundtrack, clips from beloved movies so well‐known that most of us can recite the lines from memory, all interspersed with stock photography of the sort of people and situations many of us can relate to. For example, if you suddenly find yourself in anything like a leadership position and you watch a motivational video on the subject, you might find a role model in motion picture protagonists who raise their voices (and fists), use lots of exciting nonverbals to get their point across, whip out every inspirational cliché we already know, and tell everyone what to do.

This person is the boss, and everyone in the clip has to fall in line—be they athletes on a sports team, soldiers or sailors or aviators in an armed force, students in a classroom, or sales reps in a cubicle farm. And in these motivational clips, they do fall in line. The top dog calls the shots, and all the good little people obey at once, without question. There is a crescendo of enthusiasm toward the close of these videos that pumps you up so much you have to jump up and do likewise.

Except it doesn't work.

Even worse, this leadership style—if you can even call it that—doesn't just not work for you, it works against you. Speak like the heroes or heroines in these movies and shows and speeches, and you'll turn away people who would otherwise have followed your lead. Now your job ...