Frances Frei and Anne Morriss: The dynamics of empowering leader/follower relationships

Purpose Frances Frei and Anne Morriss, the authors of Unleashed: The Unapologetic Leader’s Guide to Empowering Everyone Around You, are interviewed by veteran Strategy & Leadership contributor, Brian Leavy. Design/methodology/approach In this book, the authors propose that leadership, at its core, is about how effective you are at empowering other people and unleashing their full potential. Unleashing others is the fundamental mandate of leadership. Findings Trust is the coin of the leader’s realm. The basic formula for building trust: people tend to trust leaders when they think they are interacting with the real person (authenticity), when they have faith in the leader’s judgment and competence (logic), and when they believe that the leader cares about them (empathy). Practical implications Strategy is a primary way that leaders embed who they are, their core values and beliefs, into their organization’s behavior. Originality/value The authors’ advice to to executives: Your job as a leader is to create the conditions for the people around you to become increasingly effective, to help them fully realize their own capacity and power. They explain how to effectively and authentically manage the leader/follower relationship.