adminProsper Munyedza Business Correspondent
LEADERSHIP is mainly about doing what is right for the situation and the people involved. In this instalment, I will focus on clusters of key competences which make a great leader. Professor John Adair once said “. . . a person’s position as a manager is confirmed by the organisation, but their role as a leader is ratified in the hearts and minds of those who are led.”
This implies that a person can at times be a manager, while being a dismal leader. Countless research outputs reveal that trustworthiness is a necessary top leader attribute.
Put simply, all leaders need to ask themselves whether their followers regard them a credible leader.
Michael Williams in his book, “Leadership for Leaders”, suggests that the critical indicators of leader credibility and therefore, supporter commitment include strong goal orientation, transparent integrity and close engagement with others among other key competence clusters for leaders.
Strong goal orientation
Leaders are expected to maintain a focus on the accomplishment of critical goals. Leaders must have the ability to effectively mobilise and direct their team in pursuing those goals.
Frequently associated with this group of leader competencies is an active concern to set the right direction.
Leadership is about being the compass bearer. You set the right direction for the team. With the directional coordinates well set, a leader should then establish a clear, aligned achievement ethic, within the functions and teams managed and led.
An achievement ethic once inculcated in the team will act as a default driver towards the accomplishment of the worthwhile goals as set by the leader even in times of crisis.
Transparent integrity
Principally, this amounts to having clear values and principles about work and people and sticking to them in one’s day-to-day activities, especially when under pressure to deliver results.
Transparent integrity is so lucid that it draws attention to itself. Integrity is reinforced by high personal authenticity. Leaders must always “walk the talk”.
Once the team realises that their leader is a man or woman of integrity, they will soon start exhibiting such traits. I draw a lot of wisdom from a Chinese proverb which says: “Habits are cobwebs today and cables tomorrow”.
Once such habits of always dwelling on the integrity path in all dealings are adopted, they will soon be entrenched and before long, the entire organisation may readily be describable as an integrity-driven group of people. Leaders cannot afford not to be people of integrity.
Close engagement with others
This group of social competencies centres upon a marked ability to form and maintain sound relationships, while retaining professional individuality.
This competency cluster includes specific skills such as active listening, influencing, giving feedback, coaching and mentoring.
Leaders must have a sustained positive attitude, particularly in times of adversity or pressure.
Really effective leaders always seem to add something to people — not take anything away — in their dealings with others.
Great leaders always maintain a healthy professional individuality. Leaders do not just follow the crowd.
Blind following of the crowd is what herds do, not leaders. Great leaders do not emerge from the lot that is always keen on copying what others have done.
Usually those who blindly follow are meant to be just followers. Leaders do not sheepishly follow the crowd.
Leaders challenge the unreasonable orthodox approaches of doing business. By closely engaging with others, leaders can readily leverage others’ skills, competencies and experiences in formulating winning strategies.
Once a leader starts challenging the status quo by exhibiting the courage it takes to push frontiers, such a leader will definitely be on the path to greatness.
However, the leader must not move too far ahead of their team.
If a leader finds that there is no-one in sight whenever they turn their heads so to speak, then by definition, that person ceases to be a leader.
A leader has followers. In the face of competition, a leader who cannot get a critical mass of their supposed team to see the vision (buy-in) even if they coercively maintain a sustained pursuance of their vision is akin to a one-man band competing against an orchestra.
Most of the time, such one-man outfits (in spite of how good they are) cannot meaningfully out-compete a well-rehearsed orchestra.
Sometimes, the difficulty of getting a buy-in from your seasoned team is an indication of the unfeasibility of the leader’s desired course of action.
An eagle’s perception
Essentially, a leader must be able to see higher and wider than the immediate problem or situation and be able to put issues quickly into perspective and context.
Among other attributes, I believe, eagles are regarded the leaders of all birds because of their ability to see wider and higher than all birds and then act on what they would have seen promptly before the situation changes.
Great leaders promptly develop the ability to take in a wider view of issues at a time and draw some meaning there-from. Because of the ability to engage in a binocular-cum-microscopic view, great leaders promptly develop the capacity to generate a far greater range of potential solutions.
Resilient resourcefulness
Leaders must be able to find ways around, or through, problems. They must come up with new solutions.
Leaders must desist from becoming a recycling bin for ideas generated elsewhere which are forced on the local problems and challenges without contextualising the solutions.
Great leaders display the ability to catalyse energy and even inspiration, amongst others, to generate new ideas and answers. Leaders sometimes need to throw the rule book out and think through things afresh. In doing all this, they must not lose sight of the vision.
Credibility
Leader credibility is achieved quite often through perceived organisational “clout”. Leaders who are able to influence those above them and are listened to by their bosses are generally held in high esteem by their followers.
The fact that a leader is highly regarded by their bosses tends to be taken as a vote of confidence on the leader’s capability.
Effective communication
Leaders who practise resonant communication put a great deal more disciplined thought into what, why, how and when information and “passion” should be optimally transmitted and discussed (and with whom) compared with those who do not.
Leaders must learn to communicate effectively. It is through effective communication that worthwhile goals are accomplished.
The influential findings of the research by Jim Collins and Jane Simms in the US and UK respectively, suggest that the key behaviours of currently successful leaders tend to be strong professional will, but with personal humility, high self-discipline, a preparedness to confront brutal reality, a focused concentration on the business, strong communication and an absence of narcissism and a largely low-key, low-profile approach.
Leaders must guard against letting emotional clutter stand in the way of open and clear communication among team members
Intelligence
It is highly commendable to have a high level of intelligence as a leader. With intelligence comes the ability to think through strategies and solutions to challenges.
Once a strategy is in place, challenges always have a way of bearing in their weight against the accomplishment of the desired outcome. Intelligence is the currency with which leaders will buy their way out of the challenges.
Intolerance of mediocrity
Great leaders are not people of a mediocre disposition. Therefore, they generally do not tolerate mediocrity.
Focused passion for the business
Leaders must always remember that as Michael Williams said: “Misused, or manipulated destructively, facts become distorted or corrupted, positive emotions succumb to cynicism, bigotry or worse.
“Vested interests masquerade as moral principles and the fine line between vision and hallucination disappears, as fantasy assumes control and restrictive stereotyping stultifies creativity, innovation and progress.”
Leaders focus on people’s thoughts and mobilise their contributory energy and activity. Leaders must avoid confusing vision with hallucinations. There are some ideas whose time is yet to come.
These can be pursued with the right time-frame in mind. There are some “Towers of Babel” which leaders must not waste their time on.
Great leaders are able to distinguish between hallucinations and attainable dreams. Lame leaders are not able to do that. Lame leaders quickly go on a hallucinatory roller coaster and they coerce their followers into taking rides with them. Sadly, such leaders abound in industry and commerce to the detriment of their organisations.
Emotional intelligence
Leaders need an awareness of self and others, as well as sensitivity and high empathy.
Michael Williams’ findings appear to be at odds with traditional perceptions of effective leaders who are so often seen as highly egotistical, “charismatic”, high profile, colourful personalities.
More rigorous contemporary research seems to indicate that, some of the narcissistic leaders, who set out to cultivate mythology about themselves, have their “brief gaudy hour” and may achieve short-term successes, while others may bring about the necessary turn-around within their businesses. Yet, not too many of them leave legacies of long-term transformation and enduring success.
Simms weighed in: “The greater focus on corporate governance is curtailing the power of the individual and humility is replacing the pre-Enron megalomania.”
Success in business is usually the consequence of well-led team work, rather than the star performance of one charismatic egomaniac.
Nobody could have summarised this better than Kriss Akabusi, who cited the Greek football team’s triumph in the 2004 World Cup when he said: “Greece demonstrated how teamwork could achieve far more than individual brilliance.
Before the tournament began, the teams with flamboyant players were predicted to win. But as the games progressed, it was clear that those teams who worked for each other were the ones winning the matches.”
Great leaders have the ability to engage, mobilise and focus others’ brain-power, energy and commitment.
Those aspiring for such lofty leadership must work at developing such abilities.
Great leaders provide an environment where failure is acceptable, provided it is accompanied by rapid learning from one’s mistakes and the ability to recover and move forward.
Great leaders are always learning individuals. They are studious people. They are always growing professionally as individuals while facilitating the development of their teams as well.
Key learning areas which are easy picks for leaders may revolve around very simple issues like not “cherry picking” the choicest jobs for themselves and delegating the dull ones to their subordinates.
In addition, not asking people to do what they, as leaders, would not be willing to do, is another area that leaders can easily work on.
Great leaders ensure that their team members receive due acclaim and praise publicly and do not “steal” the resultant kudos for themselves as the leaders as Michael Williams aptly said.
The critical question that must be answered in the assessment of the effectiveness of leadership styles is: Can the individual given the leadership title be trusted enough by followers?
If the answer is “yes”, then the foundation for great leadership is well set!
Prosper Munyedza is the head of the Graduate School of Business at Bindura University of Science Education. The views contained above are his own and those of fellow researchers none of whom is based at BUSE. Hence, the views are by no means those of BUSE.
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