"It's lonely at the top"

As I think I have mentioned in the past in this blog, I really like to read.  I mostly read non-fiction, but I will occasionally pick up a work of fiction to enjoy too.  One of my all-time favorite series is the Aubrey-Maturin series by the English author, Patrick O'Brian.  There are 20 novels in this series, as well as one unfinished novel that O'Brian was working on before he died in 2000, set during the Napoleonic Wars and the "Golden Age of Sail."  The books focus on the friendship and adventures of Jack Aubrey, a Captain in the Royal British Navy, and Stephen Maturin, a half-Irish/half-Catalan physician, naturalist, and intelligence agent.  There was a movie based on a few of the books in 2003 ("Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World") starring Russell Crowe (in the role of Jack Aubrey) and Paul Bettany (in the role of Stephen Maturin). 

The series starts with the book, "Master and Commander" when Jack Aubrey receives his first command.  While thrilled with the opportunity of a promotion, he immediately begins to feel lonely, which leads to the developing friendship with Stephen Maturin that continues throughout the rest of the series.  Aubrey learns that being the one person responsible for an entire crew, a ship, and the mission - indeed, the one person who bears all of the authority and responsibility as the representative of the Royal Navy and of the country of England - can be personally intimidating and particularly lonely.  During Aubrey's first command, he is out in the middle of nowhere in the open sea - no one else is around.  There is no one that he can confide in, no one to ask questions about what to do next, no one to get advice from (eventually, Stephen Maturin plays that role).  The decisions that a sea captain made could mean the life or death of his crew, as well as the success or failure of the Navy and of England.  The decisions that a sea captain made could make or break his reputation - in some cases, Navy captains were tried and executed for making poor decisions that were not in keeping with the English way.  Being a captain, in other words, was lonely.

Leadership is like that - it can be lonely.  Remember that as a leader, you are always "on stage" - people are going to watch you closely to see if you are following all of the rules.  They are going to be watching you to see if you are enthusiastically embracing a particular initiative or project.  They are going to be watching you (and they will critique you) to see if you say "Hello" when you are walking down the hallway or getting on the elevator.  As a leader, everything that you do - every little action, every facial expression, every comment, may (and likely will) be heavily scrutinized.  Leadership is not about popularity.  As a leader, you are going to have to make decisions that many individuals in your organization are not going to like. 

Forbes magazine published an article "Do you feel lonely as a leader? Study says you are not alone" that reported on a survey of CEO's in corporate America - half of all the CEO's who were surveyed reported experiencing feelings of loneliness in their jobs.  More importantly, and perhaps more worrisome, more than 60 percent of those CEO's who reported feeling lonely said that it adversely impacted their job performance! 

There is a famous picture of President John F. Kennedy shortly after he took office -  the picture was taken by the photographer, George Tames, on February 10, 1961.  Tames called the picture, "The loneliest job in the world":



Kennedy was simply reading the newspaper while standing up in the Oval Office - something he often did due to his bad back.  However, the picture portends the loneliness and the great "weight of the world" that Kennedy would feel later in his Presidency during the Cuban Missile Crisis.  Moreover, the picture is an appropriate metaphor for the loneliness that many leaders, including the CEO's in the study mentioned above, feel every day.

So, what can a leader do, especially when he or she is feeling the so-called "loneliness of leadership"?  The Forbes article suggests that leaders should find a peer group, a group of advisors, or a mentor or coach.  All of these make a lot of sense.  We all can benefit from mentorship - I still rely on the same mentors that I have had throughout my career for advice and assistance.  We all can benefit from a peer group - individuals that we can trust and with whom we can bounce our ideas off of and get honest, sincere feedback.  Finally, we all can benefit from developing a group of advisors - individuals who not only are our direct reports, but also the individuals who we are developing to take our place - who we can talk through our decisions and get feedback on how we lead.  To these recommendations, I would also add that leadership doesn't have to be lonely.  As leaders, we should be getting out to talk with and learn from our front-line employees.  Working on the front-lines - empowering our teams - can be invigorating and rewarding.