I would suspect anyone that owns a car has at some point inadvertently driven over a small animal. The real issue becomes how did you feel immediately afterwards. There are researchers who have discovered it says a lot about what type of leader you are.
The July/August edition of Inc. magazine takes a look at a recent study done by doctoral candidate Becky Schaumberg of Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. Becky feels she has discovered a link between guilt and leadership performance. She also feels there is a stark difference between leaders who feel guilt and those who feel shame.
She says, “Guilt-prone individuals are really sensitive to their obligations, so they follow through on those duties.” She adds, “When people experience guilt, they want to fix the bad thing that they did. Shame is very self-focused.”
Researchers did a series of leadership personality assessments and surveys of 139 M.B.A. students. One of the examples was “You are driving down the road and hit a small animal.” The results of their responses was enlightening.
Leaders who gave a guilty response (“You’d feel bad that you hadn’t been more alert while driving”) graded out to be better leaders than those who gave a shameful response (“I’m a terrible person.”).
After completing additional assessments, it was noted that “students’ propensity to feel guilt was highly correlated with how supervisors and peers had ranked their leadership skills.”  Schaumberg goes on, “The way people express themselves when they mess up is an important cue about how they’re going to be in a managerial position.”
So I began to think about this study and leaders. Let’s say you as a leader run over a squirrel or other small animal. What is your reaction?
- Do you think, “Man, I wished that wouldn’t have happened. I wished I could have missed that squirrel. Could I have done more to avoid this?” (Guilt)
- Or do you think, “How could I have done that to a living creature?  Everything I touch turns out wrong.” (Shame)
- Or is there a third response called Disconnectedness? “Oh well, that is the way it goes.”
Each response represents a certain type of leader.
Suppose a difficult decision is about to be made in your organization – Should we shut down a department? Should we lay people off? Should we fire an employee? Should we slash compensation and benefits? – What type of leader do you want to serve under?
I want to serve under a leader who thinks, “Man, I wish that wouldn’t happen. I wish could avoid these decisions. Is there anything more we can do?” I agree with the Stanford study. I want to serve under leaders who have a healthy sense of guilt.
I suspect you do as well.
Leaders, if I were to ask those you have been called to serve what type of leader you are, would they say you were a (Healthy) Guilty Leader, a Shameful Leader, or a Disconnected Leader?
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