Developing Leadership Personas that Succeed
I only just recently learned about the history of “The Traitorous Eight” whose ambition and success were arguably the genesis of Silicon Valley [1]. These were eight scientists and engineers who founded Fairchild Semiconductor, a company that built silicon-based semiconductors and integrated circuits. The Eight allegedly became traitors after quitting their jobs at Shockley Semiconductor, a company founded by the Nobel Prize laureate, William Shockley. As an observer, learner and practitioner of leadership, I was very curious about what would drive these eight talented scientists to stop working for such a brilliant person. Shockley was an inventor of the transistor (the basis for microchips, which today are ubiquitous in electronics) but despite having a uniquely accomplished leader in Shockley, these Eight had rejected his micromanagement and mistrustful, erratic approach [2].
At Fairchild Semiconductor, some of The Eight evidently did not retain a lesson from their time at Shockley ꟷ how to avoid damaging relationships. So they frustrated some of their founding group, leading to splits between the eight and departures that ultimately led to the creation of the chipmaker Intel [3]. The author Kim Scott perceives this as a cycle: inventive rebels leave their autocratic leaders and then launch a new company, but then the rebels become autocratic and then are rejected by a new set of inventive rebels, who depart to become founders elsewhere [4]. A detached observer might take the view that this cycle drives innovation. However, from the perspective of leadership, one might ask questions like:
Why do some rebels, after becoming leaders, launch into autocratic behaviour themselves?
What leadership behaviours drive inventive employees to become rebels?
Regarding the latter question, Shockley never understood why The Traitorous Eight left his company [3]. He was apparently incapable of identifying the link between his work persona and their resignations. An individual might have many personal and work personas, but each persona is a constructed identity, meaning that leaders can develop and improve their own personas over time in support of their goals [5]. One could see the personas as part of the genuine whole, much like a single ray of light passes through a prism to produce rays of different colours:
Of course, there are people who create personas as a profession but even they can get stuck in a persona that is detrimental in the long term. The actor Hugh Grant observed that for his role in “Four Weddings and a Funeral”, he created a persona that was so successful in the movie that he decided for many years to be that persona in real life. He reflected on maintaining that persona for so long, judging that “people were, quite rightly, repelled by it in the end” [6]. Bless him.
So, how does a leader assess whether their persona is successfully supporting their goals? Two methods that work well in combination are:
1) Introspection
2) Soliciting feedback
However, both methods have pre-requisites. Effective introspection often starts with coaching to ensure for example, that one’s introspection does not centre upon shallow questions or those with the most comfortable answers. Obtaining timely feedback relies upon having built relationships with one’s nearest observers to the extent that they are truthful and sensitive in describing to you what they see [7].
In conclusion, as we all seek to benefit from presenting and developing successful work personas, leaders especially must frequently assess how well their personas align with their goals. There are structured ways for this assessment, allowing effective persona development in response. Such developed personas achieve more than merely preventing team splits. Developed personas cultivate a work dynamic in which (as many companies like to advertise), people not only come to do their best work ꟷ they thrive in doing that work to feel fulfilled while achieving goals of their leaders.
[1] Philips, A. (2018) The Traitorous Eight & the Start of Something. Available at: https://medium.com/@alan_46156/the-traitorous-eight-the-start-of-something-fd6a5f40a870 (Accessed: October 5, 2024).
[2] Shurkin, J. N. (2006) Broken Genius: The Rise and Fall of William Shockley, Creator of the Electronic Age. Palgrave Macmillan.
Horowitz, M., Plummer, J. and Howe, R. (2017) MOS Transistors, CMOS Logic Circuits, and Cheap, Powerful Computers.
[3] Lojek, B. (2007) History of Semiconductor Engineering. Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
[4] Scott, K. (2024) ‘Guest Essay on Founder Mode’, New York Times, 11 October.
[5] Karwowski, M. and Kaufman, J. C. (2017) The Creative Self: Effect of Beliefs, Self-Efficacy, Mindset, and Identity. doi: 10.1016/C2015-0-07011-3.
[6] Lyall, S. (2024) ‘Is Hugh Grant’s Most Convincing Character “Hugh Grant”?’, New York Times, 17 October.
[7] Scott, K. (2017) Radical Candor: How to Get What You Want by Saying What You Mean. Pan Macmillan.