How Do Leaders Impact the System?

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Company cultures are like country cultures. Never try to change one. Try, instead, to work with what you've got.

Peter Drucker

Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.

Warren Buffet

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Radically differing views, right? Who is right, the Oracle of Omaha or the evergreen Management Guru? Wait, are both right?

?Peter Drucker said what he did probably 70 years ago. Buffet, a few years ago. Times have changed. Change is the operative word. Compared to where we are now, the speed of change in Drucker’s time, perhaps intolerable even then, was at a bullock cart speed as compared to a jet plane now.

Change is not the first option when things are stable. Our grandmothers taught us to stay with what we have. So did Drucker. Nothing is stable now. When caught in a whirlwind, either find its centre which too moves, or wear wings to fly with it.

In any ship, company, or country, leadership defines its culture. As leadership changes cultures do. As external environments change, leadership changes, and often cultures do too. What’s required to captain a boat in a race would be different from saving a sinking ship. However, certain traits of leadership seem eternal. Sounds strange when we speak of rapid change, but leadership can be the calm centre of the storm and at the same time the wings of which one can fly with the storm. Here are some, one can think of.

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·?????Equality, Emotional Intelligence, Empathy, and Empowerment to ensure that all are treated equally, in appreciation and empathetic emotional understanding, with respect and compassion, always ensuring that another leader or leaders are standing by to take charge as needed. A leader’s role is to inspire and influence, not do everything oneself. True leaders would like to hear others say that they did it themselves.

·?????Authentic and Open Communication comes from the heart to reach the hearts, no matter what the situation is, authentic and grounded in core moral and ethical values as mentioned above. Leaders listen more than they speak, humbly, curiously, and generatively.

·?????Building a safe, trusted, wellness Space that enhances performance and engagement, individually and collectively, built upon the foundation of values and communication as described above.

·?????Resilience, Flexibility, Adaptability, and Grit, which allow the institution to move with change, being the change, leading the change with a focus on the growth of the institution and its stakeholders.

·?????Long-term, Selfless, Systemic Vision that benefits all stakeholders within and outside the system, in the past present and future, in diversity, inclusivity and equality.

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At the other end of the spectrum are leaders, whom followers would love to get rid of. Though, mostly in the political arena, and less often now even in family-owned businesses, such leaders manage to survive through manipulation, in the process destroying the system. Such leaders

·?????Cling to power, controlling others, regardless of age, ability and competence

·?????Think and act selfishly, for the short-term results, always in personal interest, pretending it’s to benefit others.

·?????Are closed, intolerant of diversity, autocratic and toxic

·?????Manipulate any situation to their advantage surviving at all costs

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80% of all political leaders in the world fall into this category or descend to this state in order to survive. None of our political governance principles and systems have been able to change this.

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Fortunately, most corporate systems have tended to be more self-governing in this respect. Do the share market and investors play a corrective role? Do they lead the leaders?

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For all the criticism corporate leaders are subjected to, my experience, with systems political, spiritual and not-for-profit shows that corporate leaders have greater integrity and purpose. At the very least, they are authentic, not being hypocritical as leaders in other spaces are, masking selfishness with altruism, hoping no one sees the naked emperor. Unfortunately, corporate leaders seem to make good targets to be blamed for whatever goes wrong.

I would love to have your views on this. You may have had different experiences one can learn from.

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Ram is a co-founder and mentor at Coacharya?https://coacharya.com . Ram's focus is the integration of Eastern wisdom with modern science, spiritually, systemically and sustainably. Visit Coacharya.

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