In the course of leadership coaching, there is a question that takes time for an executive to reflect upon: “Why should others follow you”?  Just like Nelson Mandela famously asked of the captain of the South African rugby team in film Invictus: “Francois, tell me what is your philosophy on leadership”? 

A very common answer we hear in China is that a great leader has strong ‘Qi’, or ‘air around him/her’. What is this puzzling and superstitious ‘Qi’ made of? People give various explanations, such as charisma, character, influence, credibility, etc.

By looking at this puzzle, we arrived at a three-layer framework which we refer to as the Leaders’ Gene model.

LAYER ONE ‘LEADING TO GET RESULTS’. Good leaders are skillful in balancing two sets of driving forces which seem opposite: Visioning vs. Execution, and Resilience vs. Agility. We call it VERA. By managing these forces in balance, leaders are effective in the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of leadership, and can “fly the aircraft and fix an engine in flight” by being both agile and resilient. 

According to Chinese classic Yin-Yang logic, Visioning (seeing through one’s goals and direction in life) is viewed as Yang; while Execution (being down to earth and realizing one’s goals step by step) is Yin. Similarly, Resilience (being bold and persistent on a defined direction) is viewed as Yang, while Agility, (being flexible to new people and quickly adjusting to new challenges) is viewed as Yin.

Based on these two dimensions, leaders can be categorized into four different leadership types to describe their formula for achieving results: 

1.	 “Visioning-Resilience” type leaders display a glorious “spiritual leader” image.  They are the sunshine, heroic, legendary and odyssey-like. Often not well understood at first, abandoned by undetermined team members from time to time, these leaders eventually bring about unbelievable change. 

2.	“Execution- Resilience” type leaders are most often seen among first line management. They are not “fancy”, may even be seen as dull, since they focus firmly on action.  When business faces a well-defined yet tough challenge, you can rely on these leaders more than any other.   

3.	Execution – Agility” type leaders are like the Moon which reflects sunlight from changing angles to the Earth. They are white water kayakers, balancing a canoe skillfully when facing unpredictable challenges. They live in the moment, enjoying the process of adventure. This is a rare and precious type that helps organizations thrive in today’s VUCA world.  

4.	Visioning – Agility” type leaders are characteristic in that they display a style where leadership becomes a journey full of dreams. Being so much forward thinking, they acutely grasp the trend of an industry/market.  Sometimes they can generate ideas faster than other people can absorb. 

In recent leadership consulting and coaching practices, we have applied the above VERA model among hundreds of managers in Fortune 500 Chinese and Western companies. Awareness of the types and dynamics of the VERA model helps executives realize their blind spots, and build teams with diverse and supplementary types.

LAYER TWO “LEADING PEOPLE”

While the four types of VERA are preferences or tendencies; nevertheless the ability to lead people is a must for leaders today. We believe that there are three fundamental factors in this layer: Relating People, Engaging People, and Developing People, or simply put, RED.

1.	Relating People. 

One of the distinctive characteristics of a top leader is their ability to establish relationships both inside and outside the organization. More so than other cultures, “personal” relationships (“Guanxi”) are vital for business success in China. Ironically, we often discover that good Chinese managers (in MNCs) often excel in building external relationship but are less adept  as their expatriate peers in managing internal and cross border relationships. 

2.	Engaging people

In large matrix organizations, a major role executives play is in integrating resources and efforts for a common goal. Mature executives are “people leaders” rather than “action takers”.  While many mid-level managers are good at driving for results, relying on their technically capabilities, these bossy “trailblazer” leaders often have a hard time when promoted to executive positions.

3.	Developing People

The importance of nurturing talent is well known, yet for many managers, it is “important yet not urgent” and may be put aside in favor of other short-term business goals.   Moreover, due to high talent turnover in a fast-growing market like China, managers are concerned that talent they develop will leave for competitors and so are not addressing development as a real priority.

LAYER THREE “LEADING WITH VALUE RESONANCE”

In 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King delivered the famous speech “I have a dream” in Lincoln Memorial. At that time, there was neither twitter nor other web promotion like today, and yet 250,000 people participated in the event. An “I have a dream” speech has that power, whereas an “I have a plan” speech could never attract such follower interest.

This is the resonance of values. People follow the speech because they feel “This is also my dream”. 

This is the root source of leadership. True leadership is the ability to trigger resonance of values. Successful leaders are more capable than mediocre ones in creating the resonance in different ways, such as setting role models, or living their values by actions.  Especially when faced with value conflicts, they demonstrate core value to people who then follow them.

The well-received concept of Authentic Leadership points out that profound leadership come from the inside out by aligning all efforts with core purpose. We would argue that while such alignment can make oneself authentic as a person, it’s not enough to make others follow. Only when resonance among followers is created, does leadership truly occur.  

In Physics, if two or more objects have similar frequencies, when one generates vibration, resonance occurs among others.  Likewise with leadership, it requires two elements to work together.  First, find people with a similar “frequency”, or shared value, and then create the vibration to ignite resonance, or to create followership.

Many leaders realize the significance of values and corporate cultures. They come up with their own corporate culture statement and put them on the company wall. Yet the problem is, are these culture statements imbedded in employees’ hearts and do they create any resonance for followers? Nelson Mandela stated “if you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart” To articulate the culture is simple, but to create the resonance among people, this is what differentiates great leader from others.

If we don’t dig deeper to this layer, all the efforts we make to understand leaders’ personality, and develop their competencies etc. merely become managerial skill development. Though needed, none is enough to ensure core talents will follow with you because these are not the origin of true leadership. 

Leadership development, weather by training, coaching or stretch assignments, needs to go beyond competencies and touch the heart and soul of leaders so that they can better create resonance of common values.