INTRODUCTION

My wife, Leslie, and I were at the grocery store not long ago, standing in the checkout line behind an elderly woman with six cans of Progresso minestrone soup in her cart-and nothing else.

"I'm sorry," the cashier said. "We have a limit. You can only get four."

Overhearing the conversation, Leslie spoke up: "Don't worry, I'll buy the other two for her."

Immediately, the man behind us said loudly, "Count me in for

four more!"

Leslie pointed to the woman's nearly empty shopping cart. "Are you sure that's all you need? We can help."

As a group of us made our way to the paper goods aisle, another shopper was just taking the last packages of toilet paper.

"Could we have one of those?" Leslie asked.

"I'm sorry," the shopper said. "I need this for my family."

"It's not for us." Leslie pointed to the elderly woman standing at the end of the aisle. "It's for her."

Immediately, the shopper reached into her cart. "Of course. Take both-I have enough at home."

During the COVID-19 pandemic, stories like this played out all over the world-shared interest defeating self-interest.

To foster shared interest, leaders need to create followership. After all, no leader wants to charge up the mountain, only to discover halfway up that no one is following. That requires an emotional connection on a very real and human level in every interaction-and especially in a crisis. To do that, leaders must commit to meeting others where they are. What matters most is not what the leader achieves, but how people are empowered to act.

As we were writing this book, my collaborators, Dan Gugler and Tricia Crisafulli, asked me, "Pretend that a leader is about to enter the arena. What advice would you give?"

Instinctively, I said, "It's not about you. But it starts with you."

Welcome to Leadership U.

Unless you are a sculptor working alone in your studio, chipping marble or molding clay, you aren't a solo performer. Despite all the technological advancements of the past few decades, others stand on the shoulders of leaders to accomplish the goals of the organization.

Knowing how to inspire and motivate people requires emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills. All this and more go into being a leader-starting with you, but never about you.

IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU.

LEADING OTHERS WITH PURPOSE

Leadership is all about others-inspiring them to believe, and then enabling that belief to become reality. The way you do that is with purpose, which is best and most simply defined as why an organization exists.

Knowing the "why" is central to transforming self-interest to shared interest. Purpose must precede the first step.

When people understand the purpose, they want to become part of something bigger than themselves. With a strong sense of purpose, they are more likely to act in concert with the mission and objective of the organization. They'll row in the same direction to reach the destination. And that's exactly what you will need to accelerate through the crisis curve.

THE SHIFT FROM "ME" TO "WE"

Purpose also creates the shift from "me" to "we." The reality is that thousands of employees will make hundreds of decisions every day. You will not be looking over their shoulders, nor could you. Rather, your job is to paint the "bright lines"-the left and right guardrails for making their decisions-and, most importantly, to anchor the organization in purpose. Then others must take it from there.

The endpoint is the organization's vision: what it will look like when the purpose is realized. Together, purpose and vision form the basis of leadership.

As the leader you must embody purpose. It is no less than the basis of everything you do. Others must see purpose in your words and actions.

With purpose as your guide, you can lead others forward: from "what we've been" to "what we will be."

LEADERSHIP IN ACTION: THE SIX DEGREES

The leader sets the course toward change and possibility, emotionally and sometimes literally. Leadership is a journey, transporting people from one place to another, and inspiring them to believe in what they can achieve-that they can, indeed, reach a faraway destination.

To make that happen, in good times and in challenging ones, takes a framework: the Six Degrees of Leadership, which are the heart of this book.

1. ANTICIPATE - predicting what lies ahead
2. NAVIGATE - course correcting in real time
3. COMMUNICATE - continually
4. LISTEN - to what you don't want to hear
5. LEARN - fail fast, learn faster
6. LEAD - be all in, all the time

The Six Degrees of Leadership are the core curriculum of Leadership U-a name that has several meanings. The most obvious is U as shorthand for you-that now-familiar saying about leadership starting with "U" but not being about "U."

The U also traces the path of recovery from a downturn or crisis. This speaks to the importance of the Six Degrees of Leadership as the skills you need the most during challenges, massive disruption, and rapid change.

And, there is U for "university" and its association with learning. The best leaders, no matter how experienced and accomplished, are lifelong learners.

In the following chapters, you'll learn about each of the six. Don't think of them as a plug-and-play framework that tells you what to do. Far more important, these Six Degrees guide you on what to think about.

Although these six are dealt with separately, they are intertwined and interconnected-like four wheels, an axle, and a steering wheel. Each is a separate part, but to get anywhere, you need all six in motion.

COMFORTABLE WITH BEING UNCOMFORTABLE

The world has gone through a pandemic. First and foremost, this was a global health crisis, which meant the top priority was keeping people safe. Leaders everywhere also had to find a way to protect their businesses and their brands for the future. Often, that involved making the "least worst" of gut-wrenching decisions in real time as the crisis deepened.

Today, ambiguity and uncertainty are throttled up, bigtime. To lead you must become comfortable with being uncomfortable. When a door closes, you cannot afford to stand there, staring at it. You have a choice: get up or give up. When you're the leader, however, there is no choice: open another door.

Over the next two years, we will see more change than we've seen in the last 20. And that change must "bubble up" from within the organization-not cascade down. It's another reminder: it's not about you.

.BUT IT STARTS WITH YOU

WHAT MAKES A GREAT LEADER?

At Korn Ferry, we have done 69 million assessments of executives, so we know what makes a great leader-the best-in-class who are among the top 20 percent. Our research shows that three of the four qualities of a great CEO are largely intuitive: (1) sets vision and strategy; (2) drives growth; and (3) displays financial acumen. The fourth, which most of the time no one mentions, is managing crises. It's underappreciated, overlooked, and often not even one of the top requirements-that is, until a crisis hits.

Within any business or organization, the distance between No. 1 and No. 2 is not constant. To improve an organization and others, you must first improve yourself. This starts with humility and self-awareness.

If you aren't humble, you're probably not self-aware, and if you aren't self-aware, you'll never learn, grow, or improve. You'll overestimate your strengths and ignore your blind spots. The cost of such self-delusion is high. People who overstate their abilities are 6.2 times more likely to derail than those who are self-aware. You can only inspire and motivate others if you're willing to honestly look in the mirror.

WHAT DO YOU SEE?

You can't go through life thinking you're this when you're really that. You can't pretend to be a lion when you're.well, really something else.

YOUR STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES

As you look at your strengths and weaknesses (and there are assessments that can help you at www.KornFerry.com/LeadershipU), it's helpful to look at four dimensions. Korn Ferry defines the Four Dimensions of Talent as:

TRAITS

your behaviors, natural tendencies, and abilities

COMPETENCIES

what you're proficient at

DRIVERS

your motivations, values, and what's important to you

EXPERIENCES

the sum total of your accomplishments

The Four Dimensions reveal not only what you're good at, but also those blinds spots that can derail you.

The first dimension...