Published in the San Diego Union-Tribune, April 13, 2026
by Neil Senturia
My idea of leadership got thawed out in a sea of ice at a recent conference. Courtesy of Martin Gutmann, I am going to share some ideas from his book, “The Unseen Leader.” Gutmann is currently a professor of management at the Lucerne School of Business in Switzerland.
Gutmann’s thesis is that “We celebrate the wrong leaders. We have the mistaken belief that the best leaders are those who generate the most noise and sensational activity in the most dramatic circumstances.”
Before I make his case, take a moment to consider current events and our current leaders. Enough said.
Gutmann focuses a lot of his book on the difference between Roald Amundsen and Sir Ernest Shackleton. Pause. Which of those two men have you heard of, and which is associated with great leadership and courage?
In fact, Amundsen got to the South Pole first and also was the first to cross Antarctica. A modest fellow, he won multiple medals and died while flying on a rescue mission in the Arctic.
By contrast, Sir Ernest Shackleton never reached the South Pole. His ship, The Endurance, was trapped in ice, his men nearly starved to death, the ship eventually sank, and finally he and his crew were rescued by a Chilean boat captained by Luis Pardo, who became a national hero in Chile.
Essentially Shackleton became famous for failing — which does seem to be a somewhat curious American cultural persuasion.
So how should we pick a leader? Gutmann says, “We see leadership potential in people who speak more (regardless of what they say). We see leadership potential in people who appear confident (regardless of competence). And we see leadership potential in people who are perpetually busy (regardless of what they are doing).”
Now this leads to classic unintended consequences stuff. “Since we reward people who are good in crises (and ignore people who are such good managers that there are very few crises), people soon learn to seek out (or reframe situations) as crises.”
This is grist for the psychoanalytic mill. If you thrive in chaos, and there isn’t any at the moment, well, it is time to gin some up. Pick a fight with someone or something, and then you can rise to the occasion and slay the dragon.
Anybody come to mind?
Look at your current work environment. Is it quiet and calm when you walk in or is it a two-alarm fire just waiting for someone to break the glass and get the axe? Think about the role of CEO in your startup. Who did the founders pick, either by choice or by default? And can that leader evolve and morph over time, hopefully becoming more skillful?
Gutmann is clear about a few key characteristics of a good boss, particularly listening to the employee and clearing away any hurdles that get in the way of doing the work.
That kind of behavior touches on the puzzle of charisma and the infamous “larger than life” aspect of great leaders. They give speeches with those wonderful calls to a higher purpose, to inflame the passions and to sacrifice for the greater cause.
However, more often than not, those leaders are also the ones who watch from afar, as “into the valley of Death / Rode the six hundred” — the famous line from Sir Alfred Lord Tennyson’s 1854 poem, “The Charge of the Light Brigade.”
Gutmann says that great leaders balance their “vision with a pragmatic focus on the mundane, coupled to their deeply held values.” The measure of their success is the outcomes from their leadership. Not words, but outcomes.
He often looks toward sports figures because it is easy to measure results. A bit of Phil Jackson with a pinch of Bill Belichick and a light cream sauce of Connie Mack. All different styles, all with similar results. The king of kings for Gutmann is John Wooden — “make each day your masterpiece.”
Gutmann says that there are a few clear superpowers that great leaders exhibit. Humility tops his list, followed closely by emotional intelligence and situational awareness.
Amundsen worked with what the ice gave him and triumphed. Get a warm jacket and embrace your own floe.
Rule No. 824: A regular cadence of self-reflection.