The Art of Leadership

The Art of Leadership

It was a cavernous conference hall filled with 2,000 of South Africa’s top business leaders. I was the opening speaker of the day-long leadership conference and as I walked out to the lectern in front of the supersize video monitors and the large audience, I knew that I had to be on my game. Coming up after me was best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell, and after him was founder of Virgin, Sir Richard Branson. It was a quite a line-up of speakers, designed to give the opener like me a few butterflies.

I clearly remember my opening remark: “The fundamental role of a leader is to inspire” and with that opening salvo I was on my way. Leadership and inspiration have always fascinated me – how one person, through sheer force of will and internal psychic energy can change the world, change a corporation, change a culture or change a family. I eventually went back to university to do a Masters degree specifically to investigate leadership – what it is, what makes a good leader, whether it can be learned, and how to train others to be leaders themselves. Here are some of the interesting aspects of leadership:

Leadership is more art than science and its definition is as elusive as capturing a shadow. We all know the effects of good and bad leadership but trying to define exactly what it is, or what it should be, is close to impossible. Peter Northouse a leading leadership scholar commented that “Scholars and practitioners have attempted to define leadership for more than a century without universal consensus.” He defines leadership as a process of influence between a leader and a group in pursuit of a common goal. The leader influences the follower and the follower influences the leader in a transactional process in pursuit of the goal. I believe that any definition should also include an ethical and moral dimension otherwise successful leaders would include dictators and mass murderers like Stalin, Hitler, Mao Tse-tung and Osama Bin Laden. My simple definition is that leadership is a learned set of moral-based behaviors, used by a leader to inspire, serve and transform his followers to achieve a common purpose.

Leadership can definitely be learned however early leadership theory revolved around “Great Man” theory – a belief that leaders were born and not made. There seems to be universal agreement as to who are the great leaders of history, those rare moral individuals who have been adjudged at what James MacGregor Burns, the revered leadership philosopher has called, “the bar of history.” These leaders have inspired, motivated, influenced and transformed their followers in times of conflict and change through an evolving and reciprocal relationship based on shared values in pursuit of a common goal. These great leaders include Nehru, Churchill, Gandhi, King, Lincoln, Roosevelt, Mandela, Kennedy, Reagan, De Klerk, Sadat and Begin. Leaders who have led with similar characteristics of courage, commitment, empathy, vision, drive, perseverance, integrity and honor through tumultuous and dangerous times, often paying with their lives for the privilege of leading.  All these leaders had essential character traits including intelligence, self-confidence, determination, integrity and sociability. In contrast to the great men are other leaders who have also been judged at the bar of history, and have been found wanting – Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Bin Laden, Hussein and Gadaffi. While all these leaders have also influenced, inspired and transformed their followers in pursuit of a common goal they have shown that the core component, the absolute essential value that defines leadership is a moral focus, a leadership style based on ethics. Morality is a compass that guides a leader and follower in the fulfillment of their goal. Northouse defines ethical theory as “a system of rules or principles that guide us in making decisions about what is right or wrong. In regard to leadership, “ethics has to do with what leaders do and who leaders are. …their conduct and their character” Without an ethical structure leadership becomes what Burns calls “manipulation,” people become “things” rather than “individuals with whom one has empathy” and the process between leader and follower devolves into the world of Machiavelli in which “the means will always be considered honest.”

There are so many theories of leadership: Transformational Theory, Transactional, Y Theory, Path Goal, Servant Theory, Great Man, Authentic, Situational Leadership, LMX theory and the Skills Approach – the list goes on and on. While seemingly conflicting they all have at their core three principles – leadership is moral, leadership can be learned, leadership is inspirational and transformative.

My favorite theories are Transformational Leadership developed by Burns, and Servant Leadership developed by Robert Greenleaf: “The servant-leader is servant first.” Just like the names describe, one leadership theory is based around transforming followers and the other is built around being of service to followers. In his opus “Leadership” Burns commented “leadership is a process of morality to the degree that leaders engage with followers on the basis of shared motives and values and goals. The result of transforming leadership is a relationship of mutual stimulation and elevation that converts followers into leaders and may convert leaders into moral agents.” Transformational leadership theory emphasizes the leader’s role in motivating, inspiring, and showing a path of moral development to his followers. There is also a transformational aspect to the relationship. While a leader meets the needs of a follower and vice versa, it is the responsibility of the leader to raise the follower to higher level of existence based on moral values such as liberty, justice and equality. Burns states “Transforming leaders “raise” their followers up though levels of morality.”

Greenleaf’s servant leadership theory advocates nurturing and serving the follower in order make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being met as a way to achieve the common purpose of a better community. Greenleaf described the central goal of servant leadership is to create healthy organizations that nurture individual growth, strengthen individual performance and in the end produce a positive impact on society. Servant leadership begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve first. Servant leaders put followers first and create a service orientation towards all stakeholders, a leadership strategy based on serving employees which empowers them to reach their full potential, to become self-actualized. Greenleaf’s theory, supported by a strong Christian conviction and adherence to the “Golden Rule” also describes a leader as envisioning the ultimate purpose of the organization - he calls the visionary process “conceptualization,” the ability of a leader to focus on the big picture and provide a vision, a clear sense of the organization’s goals and direction.

While the array, construction and complexity of leadership theories are daunting for the scholar and leader, on close investigation it is evident that all theories are based around leader behavior, and a reciprocal relationship between leader and follower through which both influence each other to a greater or lesser degree in pursuit of a common goal. Leaders cannot exist without followers and according to Burns, in his attempt to create a general theory of leadership; the true role of a top leader is not to be mythical “great man” possessing superhuman power, but a leader whose primary goal is to make followers into leaders. “Only by standing on their shoulders can greatness be achieved.” This reciprocal relationship is the foundation of modern leadership with the ultimate purpose of the truly inspirational leader being to serve and turn his followers into the leaders of the future.

While good leadership is complex it is also simple in its execution. Envision a noble mission, and inspire good people to help execute the mission for their own good, the good of others, and for the good of their community. Good leadership is all about doing good work; serving, inspiring and transforming others first, and by doing so, inspiring and transforming oneself.