Relaxed intensity is the leader from behind character trait most useful when facing an urgent leadership challenge or crisis. It is a unique mindset and demeanor that the leader from behind can adopt to collaboratively push through predicaments with other members of the team, rather than pushing through alone.
With relaxed intensity, the leader from behind “engages and enroll” team members to improve their execution intelligence, while freeing up their time and focus to have maximum impact on the tasks over which they have direct control.
Regardless of how much status or power the leader from behind may hold in an organization, they opt to put their focus on preserving the structure of the culture, not the structure of the organizational hierarchy. This is done not by micro-managing others they lead, but by sharing the authority, responsibility and even liability with team members.
Relaxed intensity sounds paradoxical, but it is an effective professional philosophy that the leader from behind infuses confidence and trust into challenging situations.
“Relaxed” means to manage stress effectively in order to get the job done. “Intensity” refers to approaching a task with passion and commitment to effectively accomplish the task before the deadline.
James Burke demonstrated the relaxed intensity mindset as the leader from behind and CEO of Johnson & Johnson in the 1982. In October of that year, he found himself in an unprecedented crisis when seven people in Chicago were reported dead after taking extra-strength Tylenol capsules.
Once the connection was made between the Tylenol capsules and the deaths, Burke maintained his relaxed intensity as the leader from behind and made one of the toughest leadership decisions of his life. Instead of adopting a “command and control” solo leadership style, he chose to share his authority by immediately turning to the company’s Credo as the leader from behind for J&J.
Written by Robert Johnson in 1943, the Credo’s core guideline was protect people first and property second and had preserved the company’s culture and philosophy for decades. As the leader from behind, Burke simply followed the Credo’s guidelines and ordered a massive recall of more than 31 million Tylenol bottles.
He replaced all Tylenol advertisements with paid public service announcements alerting consumers about the product’s potential danger. And he dispatched a research team of scientists to help determine the source of tampering. This move is the epitome of the leader from behind.
As the leader from behind, Burke’s decision cost Johnson & Johnson more than $100 million, and an equal or greater amount in potential revenue. A less intense (and less costly) decision by Burke would have been to pull the product from just the Chicago or statewide stores. But that wouldn’t have been aligned with company’s Credo or Burke’s collaborative leadership style of being the leader from behind.
Burke knew that J&J was not directly responsible for the tampering of the product, but this relaxed intensity his decision for the massive product recall publicly demonstrated his accountability to J&J’s Credo and his responsibility as the leader from behind to “protect people first and property second.”
Tags: Leadership, professional philosophy, Relaxed Intensity, The Leader From Behind
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