PART TWO

ABSENCE

In the first section of the book, we explored how to empower others as a result of your presence. In this section—the chapters on absence—we move on to the second part of our leadership definition: making sure that impact continues in your absence. From our perspective, this is where the leadership path takes its most interesting turn, where you get to change lives and accelerate action at the scale of organizations (and beyond). It’s also the point at which it’s really not about you. Indeed, you’re not even in the room for this part.

Let us explain: up to this point, we’ve explored how to lead individuals and teams who might as well be in the same room with you, or at least in an office or digital workspace nearby. Trust, love, and belonging are all empowering leadership currencies you exchange directly with other people. When you get it right, we’ve argued, the performance of your teammates looks something like figure 1-1. Again, your presence progressively unleashes the potential of other people.

But what happens in this model when you leave the proverbial room? In the most common leadership dynamics, when a leader exits—even temporarily—the performance of others plateaus or even drops. On the one hand, this reinforces the leader’s value (and ego). On the other hand, it limits their influence to the people they interact with on a regular basis. When you’re leading an organization, it turns out, then you’re actually somewhere else most of the time, at least from the perspective of your colleagues. Most of your people are making most of their decisions without you. To unleash their potential in your absence will require additional leadership tools.

The good news is that you have two very powerful leadership levers that do not require you to be anywhere near the action. Strategy and culture are invisible forces that can shape organizations and empower other people—lots of other people—whether or not you happen to be present.a As a result, the most successful leaders spend a disproportionate amount of time getting strategy and culture right—and broadcasting both to every far-flung corner of the company.

Pulling this off allows you to empower anyone, anywhere in the organization, and change your leadership performance curve from the more typical B or C paths in figure A to an A path, where the performance of others improves even in your absence (think “A” for Absence).

“A” leaders create impact that endures days, years, and even decades after they’ve left the room. Their people go out into the world without them and thrive, even when they’re far away from the mother ship. It’s the ultimate measure of empowerment leadership and the focus of our next two chapters.