WeWork — Leadership lessons from a wounded unicorn
By: Dustyn Burwell
Tags: Learning, Startup, Wework, Leadership, Leadership Development

What can leaders learn?

I guess the question is, would you be any different in his position? Would I? As the quote goes “absolute power corrupts absolutely.” I don’t think that’s fully true though. I think a better statement is, absolute power reveals our own corruption absolutely. That is why we need each other and why we need to focus on holistic leadership. I have three suggestions that could’ve saved Neumann from his ultimate downfall:

Servant leadership — Okay, so you want to have all the power, who doesn’t want more control and more power? This causes trouble though. If you are at the zenith of the spire and have no support, you’ll find yourself in a precarious position indeed. Many times dictatorial personalities load the deck so that they will win whatever decision has to be made. In this case, Mr. Neumann had 20 times the voting power of his board (even now, after cutting his voting power to 3-to-1 he still has the controlling power). With that much power, he could make decisions that weren’t in the best interest of the company or the thousands of people how are employed or work out of WeWork, but instead, he made decisions that were in his best interest. Completely unencumbered. That kind of leadership will eventually catch up to you.

What if he saw his role as servant to the entire WeWork enterprise? If he worked as the base of a spire and used everything he had to push others higher? He would still be CEO. He would still be making millions. He could leave a legacy and ultimately, he would accomplish the huge impact that WeWork wants to have in the world. If he were serving the community instead of using the community, with his charisma, vision, and passion, he really would’ve changed the world.

Greater assessment — Before investors invest or control is given, there should be better assessments to determine all aspects of a leaders capacity. It’s easy to want to bet on a charismatic leader and believe the best, but it’s better to invest in a leader or a leadership team that demonstrates real leadership. This includes many factors - the capacity to lead, develop, and care for those around them, discipline, systemic thinking to build the infrastructure of forward progress to name a few. Often though, awareness of potential internal risks of a leader to a company are overlooked. It’s usually not the external skills that kill a company, it’s the internal character of leaders that can devastate.

Realizing that his primary strengths were wrapped up in the skillset of a charismatic leader (which at the level he demonstrated were absolutely incredible and extremely rare) an organization could put in support roles to move the company forward in a sustained and scalable way for a lasting, impactful company. You must have the driver to forge ahead into the future, but should counterbalance with a strategist to backfill as progress is made.

Vulnerability — This ties in slightly to the first and second points, but needs to be mentioned independently. He wouldn’t be in this spot if he had had people in his life that could’ve pointed out the obvious things that looked corrupt or slanted. The best leaders demonstrate a humility to invite in a team of people that really know them and who genuinely care about the company so that the blindspots of a leader are revealed. Leaders who lead aloof and alone are dangerous both to themselves and to the companies they lead. Either Mr. Neumann ignored or he didn’t have people that were helping him see the real valuation of WeWork and unethical habits that have come to light. Now it’s too late for him to stay CEO and make those changes. Leader, invite people in.

Leadership has to go deeper than charisma. Charismatic leaders tend to be like shooting stars: they fly fast, light up the world, and then are gone, making you wonder if the star was a star at all.