WARREN Bennis said, “the most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born — that there is a genetic factor to leadership. That’s nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born”.
Bennis was an American scholar, organisational consultant and writer. He was widely respected in the field of leadership studies and advised four United States presidents.
Perhaps a good start point is to reflect on what leadership actually is. There is an abundance of literature by experts, researchers and psychologists on this subject.
In essence, I reckon leadership is about inspiring and engaging others to get results, which are beneficial to themselves and their organisation.
Going by Bennis’s notion, if you have the requisite desire and will power, you can learn to be an effective leader. Of course, it requires effort, and it will only happen if you are driven by purpose that fuels an appropriate attitude. Once you have made the decision to be a leader, you will need to start the experiential learning process.
As esoteric as this may sound, you need to first “be”; then “do”; and finally “tell”.
The identity of a leader comes from the strength of their character. You need to “be”, or live a particular lifestyle which is inspirational.
Once you do this, you will habitually “do”, or take actions that are in harmony with your values. Only then, do you have the credibility to “tell”, or influence others to act in particular ways. I am fortunate to find lessons and exemplars of this type of leadership around me.
My neighbour is a case in point. We live in a fairly quiet and leafy neighbourhood in Kuala Lumpur. But over the past three months, we have lost three of our cats to speeding cars, just outside our home. So, my wife and I decided to take matters into our own hands, and we started parking our cars obtrusively outside our front gate. We did this to slow traffic down. Of course, this caused some discomfort to the people living on our street. Some of the residents were irate about us partially blocking it.
But our neighbour from across the street, a distinguished gentleman whom I had only known as “J” for a long time because that’s how he introduced himself, popped over to congratulate us for taking the initiative to do something about the potential dangers of speeding cars on our residential street.
Not only did he commend us for doing this, he offered to help with getting City Hall to take action. And, he spoke to other neighbours, and asked them to support our effort to make the street safe again.
But while doing all this, he also had a quiet word with me to suggest that almost blocking the street would upset people. And that we would lose the initiative if the very people we were trying to protect deemed our actions a nuisance.
I found myself in total agreement with him. This learned man, using just his compassion, managed to lead me out of being emotionally driven, to being thoughtfully strategic. Suffice to say, we managed to convince City Hall to erect a speed-bump to slow cars down.
The first step in developing your leadership strength is to have an honest understanding of yourself, and what you can do.
This will help you convince your followers that you are a worthy leader. Their opinion is most important. What you think of yourself, or what your superiors think of you, is secondary.
And you need to be sure that you understand your followers. People of different generations need diverse modes of engagement. People have varying degrees of motivation and your approach needs to factor that in. You must know your team or the people you want to influence.
How you communicate also has tremendous impact on your success as a leader. Your effectiveness is determined by your consideration on communication styles with your people. It can either build your team or damage it.
The situation you find yourself in also plays a huge role in your effectiveness as a leader. You need to measure your responses according to a given set of circumstances. What you may do in one situation, may not necessarily work in another.
For example, if you have to reprimand someone, doing it too late or too early has ramifications. Therefore, leadership requires a lot judgment calls on timing and style of governance.
My neighbour, “J”, exhibits all the traits of an effective leader. He is aware of who he is, but never leveraged on the fact that he was a former senior government official. His approach was aimed at influencing by connecting with us.
He understood both my wife and I. And employed different communication modalities with us. My wife was deeply distraught by the loss of our cats, and his communication with her was sympathetic, founded on empathy for her feelings.
With me, his communication was action-oriented. We had to get cracking to sort the problem out.
And he offered situational leadership by immediately speaking with our other neighbours and getting everyone to sign an appeal letter to City Hall, yet quietly advised me to be a responsible citizen by being considerate and moving my car.
Incidentally, “J” is Tan Sri Jalaludin Bahaudin, a former journalist who was the press secretary to four Malaysian prime ministers, and retired as the media adviser to the Prime Minister’s Office.
He would not have risen through the ranks to become a senior government official if he did not possess the necessary leadership and influencing skills.
Do you have leadership potential?
Shankar R. Santhiram is managing consultant and executive leadership coach at EQTD Consulting. He is also the author of the national bestseller “So, You Want To Get Promoted?”