Dilemmas of Leadership

By A. Abeku Haywood-Dadzie

In one of her works, "The Dilemma of a Ghost," Ama Ata Aidoo, a renowned Ghanaian dramatist, penned the following play song

"Once early morning: When the moon was up: Shining as the sun: I went to Elmina junction: And there and there: I saw a wretched ghost: Going up and down: Singing to himself: Shall I go to cape coast or to Elmina: I don’t know, I can tell. " This song reminds me of what a leader should not do.

One of the critical tasks of leadership is to solve core dilemmas within their ecosystem?with the precision of a surgeon. To do this effectively, leaders must be able to stay cool and confident under pressure, think out of the box on their feet, and make excellent decisions. The challenge, however, is that today's leaders can no longer count on strategies that worked yesterday, or those that are working today, or those that will even work tomorrow. To survive in this technologically volatile environment, they must learn to manage today, but to succeed, they must learn to manage tomorrow today; by continuously and constantly scanning their environment and positioning their teams to solve tomorrow’s problems today. "When this is done well, it brings meaning, coherence, and alignment to the organisation they lead. On the other hand, when this is not done well, it opens the door to confusion, aimlessness, and self-doubt that eventually derails most organisations and renders them ineffective. "

It has been said that, leadership defines what the future should look like, provides the context in which?a group?should operate, aligns people to a vision and inspires them to achieve the outcome desired, irrespective of the obstacles. This calls for leaders to craft a vision statement that inspires people to dream and a mission statement that explains the fundamental outcomes of what?has to be?achieved. To this end, the achievement of organisational goals, objectives, and missions rests on influencing others to do what they otherwise would not do, and this?rests on?the ability of the leader to move people in a proper direction to achieve the desired outcomes. When all is said and done, "Leadership is all about having the vision to build a "strategy focused", "quality-driven", "lean and agile", "team-based" and "customer-focused" organization."?

The above points to the fact that the collective behaviour of leaders within an?ecosystem defines the culture of the ecosystem. This is because leaders everywhere craft the culture of their ecosystem?by formulating policies and strategies. Culture then defines the environment and assists the?ecosystem to prepare itself to respond to real and emerging forces by birthing new cultures and leaders within the ecosystem. The challenge, however, is that the rate of change in today’s ecosystem is occurring at a faster pace than previously thought and it is creating leadership dilemmas.

It is imperative to note that the leadership dilemmas of today differ from those of yesteryear. Today, most leaders face the challenge of how to build an empowered and adaptive organisation without losing control, in an environment where shareholders’ and stakeholders’ value has become an obsession. An obsession which has metamorphosed into aggressive targets and is encouraging?unethical behaviors.

To this end the question then becomes, how does one lead in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environment where regulation and risk management is failing, trust is declining and employees are neither engaged nor empowered. That is not all. Some leaders today are implementing?third generation strategies in?second generation organisations with?first generation managers. They are stretched to rethink outdated leadership approaches to better align with the demands of the environment in order to increase performance and profitability.

In the face of all these dilemmas, how do leaders excel? It is important to note at this point that, what separates great leaders from average leaders is character. "Character is who we are. It is specific traits, behaviors, or qualities that determine how we respond and react to the events, situations, and circumstances of life.

In one of the Julius Caesar movies by Uli Edel, Caesar is quoted as saying, "Some men are ruled by circumstance." But men of character bend circumstances to their will. They make nature behave in such a way that their will is carried out on this earth, they defy the elements, and sometimes even they defy their own basic nature, in order to see that their ideals come alive before their eyes."

"Again, in the words of one of the greatest leadership coaches of all time, John Maxwell: adversity is the crossroad that makes a leader choose one of two paths, character or compromise. Every time the leader chooses a character, the leader becomes stronger, even if that choice brings negative consequences and makes the leader unpopular. Every time the leader chooses a compromise, the leader becomes less assertive and, though the leader's choice may be popular with his/her followers in the short term, in the long-term the leader’s name will be blotted out of the leadership hall of fame.

What are your dilemmas?