In my mind I have asked myself
the question as to what kind of leadership would allow a situation to continue
that does not allow all forms of talent to thrive simply because people to
continue with discrimination. On the other side, I have asked myself why would
those who were historic victims of apartheid, and have a chance to be in senior
management positions, do not do more to confront and change these historic
tendencies. Noting the nature of corporate organisations, and the difficulties
that come with going against the grain, I have been thinking more about the
kind of leadership traits that would be necessary for the change that is so
necessary.
I do not want to write a long
treatise on leadership as there are too many texts on this. Mine is really a
call to action for those of us in this generation who have been blessed with
this responsibility. Contemporary leadership studies pioneer Warren Bennis
(1925 – 2014), whose essays are a joy to read, summarised what he saw as four
essential competencies of leadership in his famous paper The Alchemy of Leadership. He listed these as adaptive capacity,
engaging others by creating shared meaning, voice and integrity. He found that
leaders who had these qualities had a winning combination.
What struck me when I read this
essay, however, was Bennis’ observation that an individual may have the
requisite qualities for leadership and little or no opportunity to use them. He
also makes this very interesting statement: “who knows how many people with the necessary gifts for extraordinary
leadership are stifled by class, racism, and other forms of discrimination…”. He
concluded that great leaders emerge only when they can find “a forum that allows them to exercise their
gifts and skills”.
I have always felt that there was
some characteristic of leadership Bennis identified in this paper was not
explicit about it. In my view, buried in his essay is the important question of
courage. Courage sounds simple, but is very difficult to practice. It is
difficult because one always runs the risk of being unpopular and creating
enemies if you go against a dominant practice. However, I know of no leader who
was critical in a process of change but never had courage. It is actually the
lack of courage that makes many of us not to do the obvious things we know need
to be done.
Courage is not about being
reckless. It needs to be exercised with tact; demands of you to engage others by creating shared meaning;
wants you to have a voice which shows
your purpose and character; requires of you to draw on your integrity; needs you to have the adaptive capacity which includes
resilience, being a noticer (especially of talent!!!), learning, creatively and
always seizing opportunities. If we become such leaders, it means we refuse to
surround ourselves with Yes-Men (gender specificity deliberate). Courage means
we should be comfortable with contrary opinions and be obsessed with creating
diversity which enriches the work organisations do. Courage means we should be
comfortable in saying no to people in our closest social circles if they do not
meet criteria that are required for an opportunity. Courage is in being able to
offer a contrary opinion to your senior if you believe their course of action
is to the detriment of the organisation (you only do this if you voice and
integrity). Courage is in being able to give opportunities to young people and
not being imprisoned by fear of failure. Courage is in being able to think less
of self and more of other.
Those of us, who have some
leadership responsibility, should ask ourselves whether we have the courage to
pursue and do the things we know are necessary. To cause the change that
impacts on the many whose hopes and dreams are in our hands.
We need to lead with courage to cause change.
