The Empirical Leader: The Art of Leading and Being Led

By Anurag Harsh

The Empirical Leader is a sort of how-to for leadership in the 21st century. It covers the three axes of leadership: social, self, and environment. As you work through each chapter, take the time to consider how the anecdotes, insights, and social psychology apply to you and your specific circumstances. The success of any leader is in their ability to learn from the experience of others and apply them creatively, not in merely following footsteps.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Apr 21, 2017
• ISBN: 9781483599656

Book preview

Copyright © 2017 by Anurag Harsh

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, without prior written permission.

Osborne Manhattan Publishing Group

300 Park Avenue

New York, NY 10022

Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and company names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.

The Empirical Leader/ Anurag Harsh. -- 1st ed.

ISBN: 978-1-48359-965-6

For Agustya & Vigyan

Today a reader, tomorrow a leader. Be a Fruit Loop in a world full of Cheerios

For Dad, late B.K Sinha

You inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Leading with Complete Optimism to Achieve Better Results

How to Revitalize Your Company and Give it the Boost It Deserves

The Power of Gratitude in Leadership

Understanding Power & Influence

Leading Up

Persuading People to See Your Way

Leaders Know Which Buttons to Press

Igniting Passion & Motivation in Employees

Bringing Disruptive but Lasting Change

Should Leaders Show Emotion?

The Illusion of Stability Blinds Leaders

The Role of Sleep in Leadership

Building and Leading Effective High Performance Teams

The Best Leadership Literature. Ever.

Are You An Antifragile Leader?

How Leaders Use Comedy to Influence

Good Leadership Calls For Light and Shade

Why Creative Leaders Last Longer

Are You a Leader Who Pays Lip Service?

Leadership and Dealing with Workplace Adversity

Leadership Style that Fosters Creativity or Stifles Innovation

Leadership That Builds Synergy & Harmony in the Team

Pride, Leadership and Business Relationships

Leaders Are Experts At Recycling

What Type of a Leader Will You Be?

How Do Leaders Manage The Room?

The Best Leaders Learn To Bite Their Tongue

Thoughts of a Scared Leader

Leaders Are Born In The Playground

IQ Worth Less Without These Three Qualities

What Sort of Leader Are You?

The Triathlon of Leadership

Predict The Leadership Weather

Do You Know a Machiavellian Leader?

The One Word Leaders Never Use

Soft Play Is Not For Leaders

A Leader’s A-Z of Body Language

Why Simple Ideas Are Often the Best

Leadership Lessons from Music

Acknowledgements

I have been influenced by a number of people in the making of this book. When I look back over the time spent writing this book, I realize the importance of my colleagues, professional network, and friends—without whom this book would simply not have been possible. I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to Ziff Davis CEO Vivek Shah, CXOTalk’s Michael Krigsman, and one of the most insightful people I know in the business world Mr. Murli Buluswar.

And lastly, but most importantly, thanks to Andrew R. Calderon for his exacting and comprehensive editing. He pored over every line of this text, and it is all the better for it.

Introduction

Leadership is a word that gets thrown around a lot. Most people tend to think of leadership as a character trait. A person either is a leader or they aren’t. In practice, nothing could be further from the truth. Leadership is a learned skill. True, some people have leadership advantages. A winning smile, a commanding voice, an impressive title or schooling, but those attributes pale in comparison to true, practical leadership. A winning smile will only take you so far in business.

Empirical leadership is a skill that requires discipline, determination, and diligence. The key to such leadership is trial and error. To become a practical leader, you must be willing to take risks. You must be willing to push boundaries. You must be sensitive to the culture, needs, and wants of those around you. You must know where you are going and have a plan for how to get there. You must be flexible if that plan crumbles—as they often do. You must know what makes you, you (warts and all). You must believe that you can always do better, for yourself and for those around you. You must be curious. You must be bold. You must be balanced.

All this probably sounds fanciful, or impossible. Empirical leadership is neither of those things. It’s a journey, difficult and grueling. You must prepare to fail and feel imperfect. There is nothing fanciful about hard work. The good news is that empirical leadership isn’t impossible. It’s the reason you recognize names like Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos. These are leaders worth emulating. But don’t emulate them. In fact remove them from your mind completely.

The first lesson of empirical leadership is that every person brings unique attributes, competencies, and experiences to the table. By comparing yourself to the people you admire, you are setting yourself up to feel like a failure. From this point forward, turn a critical eye inwards.

The Empirical Leader is a sort of how-to for leadership in the 21st century. It covers the three axes of leadership: social, self, and environment. As you work through each chapter, take the time to consider how the anecdotes, insights, and social psychology apply to you and your specific circumstances. The success of any leader is in their ability to learn from the experience of others and apply them creatively, not in merely following footsteps.

CHAPTER 1

Leading with Complete Optimism to Achieve Better Results

Optimism is an underrated emotion and outlook on life that can often come across as fanciful or unrealistic. For those who describe themselves as optimists, a skeptical glance is usually shot their way. In a sense we expect cynicism verging on pessimism by default. We suspect that anyone who believes in good outcomes, positive outlooks, and rosy dispositions most of the time must not be connected to reality.

Those who leer doubtingly are more likely to receive praise for their perspicacity and wisdom. It’s a predicament in that we preclude optimism as a viable mentality, leaving it little room to flourish where it otherwise might. 

Fortunately, those who strive for optimism possess a resilience that cannot be undone by mere skepticism or cynicism. It’s unsurprising then that optimistic people are far more likely to succeed than their dubious counterparts. Optimists are predisposed to look forward, to new days, new opportunities, favorable prospects, and happiness. The optimist’s mentality grants them the fortitude to cope with life’s hardships and adversity without losing ground. 

I strive to maintain an actively optimistic demeanor and mentality in all situations. I don’t think that distances me from reality. It creates a new reality around me that invigorates my family, friends, and coworkers with positive energy. I am an antidote to their negativity, and in that way, together we create a medicine cabinet of optimism that allows us to counteract unproductive negativity. Both the negative and the positive mindset are self-fulfilling prophecies, and I’d much rather work toward the latter.

Active Optimism Is a Practice 

It isn’t easy to be optimistic: particularly when those around you are the opposite. It can feel like the world is conspiring to bring you down. It isn’t. That’s just pessimistic rhetoric parasitical to your self-narrative. With a few guideposts to follow we can steer clear of the pitfalls of pessimism. 

Remember that your optimism increases the likelihood of good outcomes. It isn’t just because you see things positively but because you seek out opportunities positively.

Break down larger tasks into smaller ones. We can feel overwhelmed by all we have to do because we don’t have a clear sense of what we have to do.

Ask for assistance whenever a task is unmanageable for you.

Encourage the people around you with solution-oriented positivity. It isn’t enough to say positive things. You must follow through with positive actions and provide positive solutions to real problems.

Exercise self-control and be mindful of your habits. We spend years developing habits unwittingly. They can sometimes be the reason for our failure. Be aware of them.

Optimism starts with the individual but can only thrive in a community of optimism. It isn’t to say that such a community would have no place for negativity or pessimism. It would; but not as the baseline.

The list above is meant to cover individual and community aspects of optimism, in addition to common pitfalls. The best way to avoid the pitfalls and ensure the success optimism in your life and the lives of the people around you is to spread it around. 

Inspire Optimism in Others

First, start with the assumption that the best possible realities are attainable. Temper that with the belief that they are only accessible to groups and not individuals. The reason being that we are entrenched in social environments, which means that we affect and are affected by those around us. If you want to live the life of a positive hermit, so be it. If not, to live an optimistic life is inevitably a social activity. 

The three key ingredients to form an optimistic community are purpose, meaningful work, and extraordinary people. The purpose informs our efforts while concurrently community building. When there is purpose, there is meaning. When those are present, specific and perceptible reasons for doing what one does are readily identifiable. When that happens we unlock what’s extraordinary in others and ourselves.

However! Optimism is a potent force that can sometimes bowl us over without notice. Be wary of the signs and outcomes of an excess of optimism. 

When only good news is acknowledged and any bad news is swiped away to avoid conflict or dispirited faces, confusion can ensue. Tackle difficult conversations head on.

The country club effect is when a team grows isolated from the realities of business enough that the detachment generates losses, conflicts, and unfeasible plans. This can happen with any mindset.

Over reliance on advocates who speak on your behalf. Don’t give your voice in a group to someone else, no matter how much you agree with what they say. Your words will differ and shine light on darkened corners.

Inflexible methods that emerge from complacency and comfort. Stirring things up when its necessary isn’t a bad thing. Just make sure you have a purpose—hopefully a noble one. 

Learners Are the Best Optimists

Leaders should be learners, not stewards of established beliefs, norms, and practices. The attitude of a learner is fertile ground for constructive optimism, as in optimism that won’t fall prey to the 4 excesses I listed above. A learner recognizes that their current knowledge is not the end-all-be-all. They recognize the importance of listening to others, of coalescing different modes of thinking, and of the inherent value in all ideas. Value, therefore, becomes a function of perspective rather than power, authority, or verbosity.

We should all endeavor to be learners at all times. There is a certain amount of selflessness that is needed to be a successful learner. You must identify when to put aside your knowledge and experience to just absorb new perspectives and information, as opposed to seeing how to fit the new information into your existing framework—or how to refute the new information. This takes optimism. Fearlessness. A desire to change for the better. And none of that is simple. Nor is it easy off the bat. With practice though, it gets much easier. 

Too many people lack this learner’s disposition, and when the leadership lacks it, then organizations suffer because they stagnate and corrode from the inside out. Inflexibility is a manifestation of negativity. We hold on to what we know for fear of change. But we only fear the change because we don’t know if bad outcomes will accompany it. With an optimistic outlook, we can change with the forethought that even if bad outcomes arise, so too will good outcomes. We change in search of the good, not the bad. Don’t let the fear of possible bad outcomes force you to sacrifice all the good that exists. 

Believe in Self-Improvement

Be self-confident and positive in all that you see and do. Before you can set an example