In Ronald Heifetz’s chapter three of Leadership Without Easy Answers, he delves into the concept of authority, and on this episode of On the Balcony, Michael Koehler is joined by Professor Kim Leary to talk about just that.
As a chief Harvard psychologist, a Senior VP for the Urban Institute, a Professor at three Harvard Schools, and an advisor to two White House administrations, she is well versed in the ways of leadership, authority, and those who use and abuse those positions.
Leadership Vs. Authority
Studying authority, both in theory and practice, Leary has learned just how different authority and leadership are. After reading this chapter, we’ve come to understand that authority is a role, whereas leadership is a practice.
Being in a position of authority, for example, doesn’t necessarily mean you are leading. However, as Leary points out, authority work is an important practice, providing direction, protection, order, coordination—work that is often referred to as management.
Authority happens in relationships. And as Ronald Heifetz puts it: “We attribute charisma to people who voice our pains and provide us with promise.” Working in politics, Professor Leary is all too familiar with the empty promises made by those in positions of authority. Conversely, she’s also acquainted with authority as it intersects with leadership in the most positive ways.
We’ve shared a few more thoughts on Authority and Leadership here.
Working as a part of Biden’s White House, she remembers fondly the sensation of getting a goal achieved with her team. Professor Leary argues that good authority work isn’t supposed to dominate and limit the capacity of the team’s individuals; it’s supposed to unleash their potential, pull from different strengths and lived experiences, and boost morale.
The Authority Binary
In their class on Authority at Harvard Kennedy School, she and Ron Heifetz noticed how people often fall into the binary way of relating to authority: those who accept or even admire authority figures and those who reject and rebel against them. In their class, Professor Leary and Heifetz invited their students to explore further options to work with authority and her students’ measured reactions to authority on a gradient, and, like Heifetz, came to conclusions about different ways of relating to authority.
This conversation grounds itself strongly in our current political climate. As candidates for public office vie for power by playing on the emotions of the general public, it’s easy to see how positions of authority are manipulated and abused; it’s what makes Professor Leary and Michael’s discussion on episode three of the On the Balcony podcast so relevant.