As anyone who is, works closely with or has been an executive knows, the shadow of the leader is long. According to Senn Delaney Chairman Dr. Larry Senn and Jim Hart, Heidrick & Struggles senior advisor and former Senn Delaney president and CEO, “The shadow phenomenon exists to greater or lesser degrees for anyone who is a leader of any group, including a parent in a family. That is because people tend to take on the characteristics of those who have some power or influence over them.” They go on to assert, “The role of the leader… requires modeling the desired behavior and letting others see the desired values in action.” Therefore, according to Senn and Hart, “To become effective leaders, we must become aware of our shadows and then learn to have our actions match our message.”
In a similar vein, the Center for Creative Leadership describes “owners” as those who “take responsibility for their team and organization, signaling to colleagues and stakeholders their commitment.” Moreover, according to leadership scholar Brindusa Maria Popa, “an organization will always reflect the values and beliefs of its founder(s) since they are the ones shaping the cultural traits of the organization.” In the context of a presidential campaign, the leader is the candidate him- or herself. It seems self-evident, then, that the candidate is responsible for the culture they foster as a leader and the actions that follow from the organizational culture of their campaign.
During election seasons, many types of leadership shadows are cast and challenged by the various campaigns. On the Democratic debate stage in Las Vegas on Wednesday, Mayor Pete Buttigieg went on the offensive against Senator Sanders by implying that the senator failed as a leader because he didn’t bring out the best in the people working on his campaign. I posit that a second leadership gap evidenced in that exchange was the senator’s refusal to take ownership for the intimidating tactics done in his name by some of the people affiliated with his campaign. The mayor lost an opportunity to complete his assertion by contrasting his own leadership shadow as a military officer and city executive with the senator’s leadership of his campaign.
That display of a lack of ownership during the most-watched Democratic primary debate in history passed quickly. By contrast, a portion of the debate that went viral was Senator Warren laying into former mayor Michael Bloomberg for fostering a culture of sexual harassment at his company. In that exchange, Senator Warren challenged Mayor Bloomberg to take ownership for his leadership shadow at his eponymous business. Mayor Bloomberg’s subsequent lack of ownership for his own behavior or the tone he set for his organization fit the narrative of the “arrogant billionaire” that Senator Warren has created for the mayor. To recover from that blow, Mayor Bloomberg will need to shape his own narrative about his leadership in the context of damning data points with which his competitors are sure to arm themselves ahead of the next debate.
As candidates vie for the position with arguably the longest leadership shadow in the world, I’ll be watching for what type of shadow they cast.