Perhaps the biggest issue for leaders is the paucity of
education at this level; education in the sense of teaching and training
leaders the art of leadership as such.
There was a report on the failings in a United Kingdom prison recently
where the situation had become so bad that the governor was removed the
following day. The new incumbent, when
interviewed, said gently that there seemed to have been a breakdown in
relations between senior management and the staff.
Try searching online for “leadership” and you will be
inundated with information, books, presentations and articles, all of which
have tried to define the traits which go to make up a successful leader. Relationships are at the heart of it.
It all starts with the perennial question as to whether
leaders are born or made, is it a matter of nature or nurture. In all probability it is a mixture of both in
some way.
Some years ago I was at a company conference with around 60 of
us holed up in a hotel for a long (very long) weekend. We were told that one of
the sessions would be on problem solving.
We went into break out groups of about 10 and were given an
intractable problem to discuss and solve.
Each group was instructed to elect a Chairman and an observer was
allocated to each group to report back at the end.
When the observers reported back it transpired that the
session was not about problem solving but rather about leadership. In every case – every case please note – the
group had elected a Chairman and then proceeded to ignore them as another
member of each group took over the role of de facto leader.
We have all been at meetings where someone with a strong
personality and probably a loud voice dominated the proceedings and, in some
cases, effectively took over the meeting.
In these cases the tendency is for the strong personality to
be aggressive and force his/her own opinions on the group rather than the ideal
of being assertive. Discussions round
the water cooler afterwards are seldom positive.
And where is the training for active or prospective
leaders? There is a great deal of
management education available at very high levels as well, but it seems to me
that there is a shortage of help for people at the top of a business where the
demands are totally different from functional management.
So what are those
inborn traits which make someone into a leader?
Force of personality is certainly one as well as a measure of self-confidence
which doesn’t overflow into arrogance.
It is that ability to engender trust in followers that also gives them
confidence. It is perhaps the ability to
engender belief in followers as well. It is the ability to build satisfactory
and productive relationships.
All of these attributes are inborn; a consequence of nature
and perhaps upbringing in some cases. On
the other hand, it is possible to assist leaders to hone their skills through a
measure of training and learning, an understanding of which requires humility.
The problem is that as we move upwards through the business
there will be fewer and fewer people to tell us that we are doing well and that
requires emotional stamina.
We all need praise in some ways and the leader will have to
learn to exist on little or no praise, for who is there to praise the
leader? Very seldom will it be one of
the followers.
A peer group and/or a mentor does help in this respect and
many leaders are beginning to realise that the isolation of the position can
bring with it stresses that other people in the business don’t experience or
even know exist and if they did know of them they would run a mile.
There are some really great books out there to help the
leader to develop an ethos which is right for the people and the business.
What is always needed in the leader is a desire to learn, to
go on learning and to accept that learning is forever. It really never stops..
Visit www.vistage.co.uk
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