My Views on Leadership

Della Bradshaw, The Financial Times Business Education editor.

I think I have found a new best friend in Professor Fernando Bartolome. Like him I have serious problems with the idea of teaching leadership, though perhaps for very different reasons.....

I went to a lunch a couple of weeks ago to hear Jack Welch publicise his new book and the question of leadership arose in the context of Hurricane Katerina. He said there was no leadership in New Orleans because nobody took control of the situation when the tragedy happened - everyone was out of town. So, is turning up and taking responsibility enough to make you a leader?

As journalists we turn up and take responsibility for the things we write on a daily basis. Does this make us great leaders? I suggested this to the people on my team and they just sniggered.

A professor at London Business School once explained the three rules of leadership to me.
1. Know who you are
2. Know the people who work for you
3. Know how to motivate them

I fell at the first hurdle - far too scary. And I know what will motivate the people who work for me - more money. I'm just not authorised to give them any.

Leadership? I think it's a myth.

Comments

[Fernando Jiménez]

Sin duda, estimada Della Bradshaw, el dinero motiva, pero imaginas trabajar con un jefe que paga muy muy bien, pero insulta, rebaja y denigra a la gente que trabaja con él/ella. ¿Crees que estarán motivados sus trabajadores, a pesar de sus abultadas nóminas? Sinceramente yo creo que no. Hay estudios que indican que la subida del salario sólo motiva los 6 primeros meses, los trabajadores cada vez sitúan en ún segundo nivel la retribución, prefieren mejorar su calidad de vida, que incrementar sus ingresos. Los trabajadores no sólo necesitan retribución, necesitan retos, proyectos, que se tengan en cuenta sus ideas, y por supuesto sus necesidades, en definitiva necesitan, y siento disentir contigo, un liderazgo adecuado.

[Akin Sawyerr]

The key to leadership is understanding first what it means to be under authority. A person who understands how to serve under accurate leadership can in turn become a leader if he applies those principles. We also need to be honest with ourselves. Knowing what our strengths and limitations are will go a long way to promoting good leadership traits.

[Vincent H. Dominé]

I actually agree with the description of your LBS professor.

1)Before one can really understand the people who work for them, it is wise that they grasp how they themselves “tick". Know thyself - these two words were inscribed on the oracle-shrine of Apollo at Delphi, Greece (6th century B.C.). So while there may be a lot of noise pollution about leadership these days and not surprisingly many business schools have caught on the hype, the value of education in developing leaders isn’t new. It was Aristotle who wrote “All who have meditated on the art of governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of empires depends on the education of youth”. Scary – it shouldn’t be? I understand some apprehension, but my experience with executives going through a reflective leadership development program has been for them both revealing and an eye opener. Few would want to miss the increase self knowledge they have gained.

2)Increased self awareness helps existing or future leaders understand how their leadership style affects “followers” and, as importantly, vice versa.

3)In turn, the added knowledge helps to understand how to best motivate people. I’d be surprised if you didn’t know of other ways to individually motivate your staff besides the indisputable monetary factor.

Leadership a myth? No. Not when a CEO decides to do an acquisition based on personally motivated and - this time scary - unconscious drivers rather than sound business rational.

Vincent H. Dominé - Clinical Organizational Psychologist INSEAD