Do you remember the old American Western movies where the sheriff with the big white hat rode onto the scene to bring law and order to the frontier town? Having grown up with these movies, the image of the heroic leader with the big hat still sticks in my mind. But today we don’t see many big hats around anymore — and it’s not just because 21st Century leaders dress differently.
In many ways, the current financial crisis has been caused, or at least exacerbated, by a lack of leaders with big hats. Instead of thinking about what’s best in the long-term, most politicians have been focusing on how to advance their own parochial agendas. Thus European leaders have been protecting their own currencies, deferring austerity measures, and avoiding some of the deeper structural changes that may ultimately be needed. Similarly, Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. (including the President) have been digging in their heels on their “non-negotiable” positions and seem to spend more time blaming each other for problems than actually offering solutions. Everyone seems to be wearing a small hat, not willing to exchange it for a larger one that encompasses a broader perspective.
Big hat leadership is not just an issue for governments and politicians. It’s also a recurring challenge for managers in all organizations. What’s best for a particular function, geographic unit, or product division will often not be the same — and even may be contrary to what’s needed for the organization as a whole. Getting to the optimum solution, however, requires that all of these managers wear big hats and partially subsume their individual agendas.
Not everyone has the capability or willingness to be a big hat leader. In many ways, it’s far easier to advocate for the people who support you or agree with your positions than to alienate your base or be seen as weak. It’s also easier to be an expert in your own area than to learn how other areas work and how the organizational (or economic) pieces fit together. Most importantly, wearing a big hat takes courage — since it means venturing into new territory, not worrying about popularity, and possibly making decisions that are good for the enterprise but not for you personally.
So yes, it’s tough to put on the big hat. But at the end of the day, our organizations (and our economy) might be better off if more of our leaders learned how to do it.
