Leadership Quality

Which leadership quality would be at the top of your list? Many might say the ability to see the bigger picture – and rightly so!

The essence of this quality is encapsulated in the classic “stone cutter short-story.” There are several versions of the story, and several ways to interpret its timeless lessons. It powerfully illustrates the importance of perception in our approach to work.

Whether you think you’re just earning a living, doing the best at your job, or you’re leaving a legacy, this story demonstrates that there is great value in thinking positively and in seeing the bigger picture.

A second version of the story, adapted from Peter Drucker, suggests that just seeing the bigger picture is not enough.

Real leadership quality is demonstrated through both seeing that picture, and through ensuring others see it. By building a shared vision.

Our third version of this story graphically illustrates Peter Senge’s ideas on leadership quality – the importance of sharing a vision. We end this article with Charles Handy’s wonderful quote about “cathedral thinkers”…

The Three Stone Cutters

This story beautifully illustrates a key leadership quality – seeing the bigger picture. All three stone cutters were doing the same thing, but each gave a very different answer. Each knew how to do his job but what was it that set the third stone cutter apart? Perhaps:

• Knowing not just how and what to do, but knowing why.
• Viewing the whole and not just its parts.
• Seeing a vision, a sense of the bigger picture.
• Having the ability to see significance in work, beyond the obvious.
• Understanding that a legacy will live on, whether in the stone of a cathedral, or in the impact made on other people.

“I am Building a Cathedral”

Demonstrating his own leadership quality, Peter Drucker told a different version of this story, going beyond the obvious in drawing out its lessons.

As with the earlier version, the first stone cutter knew what he wanted to get from his work, and was doing so. He was giving a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay. The third stone cutter obviously had a positive attitude to his work, perhaps because he saw the bigger picture. But what about the second stone cutter?

Drucker suggested this was a potential problem area, perhaps the opposite of the third stone cutter’s view of the bigger picture. Here was someone focusing on his own narrow view of work, possibly to the detriment of the project as a whole. Having a functional or professional view, at the expense of the overall contribution to the organisation.

Perhaps it’s worth reflecting on how we see ourselves.

• Has work become simply a means of earning a living?
• Are we too focused on our individual performance or achievements?
• Do we have a sense of the bigger picture in what we do?

Answers to these questions will probably change over time and at different periods of our lives. Perhaps we do just see work as a way to earn a living, because we have more important things in our lives. Or perhaps being expert at what we do is sufficient, and we don’t feel the need to engage in the wider picture.

However, we spend much of our lives at work so making that time as fulfilling as possible is worth the effort. There is also considerable evidence that being a rounded, more complex person can make us happier, both at work and in our personal lives. Learning to look beyond the obvious, to see the bigger picture, can be a big step towards that happiness but does leadership require something else?

Did the third stone cutter’s reply demonstrate a leadership quality, or just someone happy in his work? Simply having the vision is not enough. Good leaders need the ability to show that vision, to share it, and to inspire others to understand and work towards it. The third stone cutter becomes a leader when his view of his work is shared by his workmates – when none of them says they’re simply doing their job.

As Peter Senge has put it: the responsibility of a leader is not just to share a vision but tobuild a shared vision.

You can find this story by Peter Drucker in the Practice of Management, or in the excellent Daily Drucker.

“I am Helping Sir Christopher Wren……..”

Our final version of the story illustrates Senge’s idea of leadership quality. This time the stone cutters are building London’s magnificent St Paul’s Cathedral, designed by the great British architect and designer, Sir Christopher Wren. In this story the third stone cutter’s response does illustrate a leadership quality…

A leadership quality might be seeing the bigger picture, but it’s essential to help others share that vision.

We Need Cathedral Thinkers

Leading Insights

If you’re interested in developing your leadership skills, take a look at one of our leadership e-guides. Leading Insights is packed with more leadership stories, and some leading insights into how they can be used! Insights such as:

• Uncommon insights
• Tipping point leadership
• Find the glass
• Leaders need to be cathedral thinkers
• Would you recommend your service/organisation to your friends?
• Putting on a performance
• Would people pay to see your team perform?
• Bricolage leadership
• Resourceful leadership
• Nudging leadership
• Mirror leadership
• Chameleon leadership
• Catalyst leadership
• Chrysalis leadership
• Saliency, sagacity and serendipity
• Infectious leadership
• Infected leadership
• Great work days
• Defining moments
• Conveying what you care about
• The kind of goals leaders set matters
• Motivating leaders

Further Reading

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