History is witness to one, primal fact of life: that no social endeavour is more difficult, more complex, and equally more awesome than leadership. More so, effective leadership — be it statecraft, or organisational stewardship. If effective leadership is an essential attribute, the key to every responsibility of a leader, learning to lead is not just a matter of style, how-to, some magic potion, or recipe, or even mastering an overused concept, `the vision element.’ In simple terms, leadership is about ideas and values: The understanding of the differing and conflicting needs of followers. It is also about energising followers for the better, and creating a value-based canopy large enough to accommodate them, what with all their different interests and temperaments.
The foremost objective of leadership should focus on creating conditions under which all followers can perform independently and effectively. This is the premise of James O’Toole’s practical and philosophical book, Leading Change, which this writer happened to revisit recently.
The book’s main thrust is not only focused upon where one might expect the pursuit of a common good, but also related to a very important question: why do leaders fail to do the things necessary to overcome their followers’ natural resistance to change, rather than why do followers resist leaders? In so doing, it explores the paradox of why leaders fail to listen to their followers’ true needs, issues, and objectives.
A New Vision
O’Toole’s tome is a definite departure from the prevailing modes of management philosophies which advocate an outmoded Machiavellian approach: that leaders should be tough, manipulative, dictatorial, even paternalistic. He offers a provocative new vision — a vision of leadership rooted in moral values and a consistent display of respect for all followers. Grounded in ideas of moral philosophy, his `tools’ also include factors of morality — on how change affects the parties concerned and, time, or why the desirability of any end must be measured over the long-term.
Writes O’Toole: “…We have a great vision, but we fail to attract followers… Seeking to overcome that rather formidable obstacle to the realisation of our plans, we naturally search for some process, some guidelines, some sure-fire set of rules… including re-engineering, total quality, learning organisations, and the like.” So far, so novel. But, O’Toole does not undermine, at any point of time, the time-tested and rational approaches of such methods. What he says, in the ultimate analysis, is simply this: “The only difficulty with such cookbook procedures is that they do not address the most common underlying cause of failure to bring about successful and meaningful change: ineffective leadership.”
O’Toole admits that creating leaders isn’t an easy task. He writes that it is only ideas that motivate followers: of concepts that are powerful enough to energise people… of concepts that are typically broad, transcendent, even philosophical in nature. “Such ideas are not learned by the mastery of technique, nor are they acquired through the application of psychological instruments… Lincoln never took a Myers-Briggs test; Gandhi never got a 360-degree feedback.” Leadership is so hard to find, elaborates O’Toole, but great leaders are different. They are `idealised images’ of a better tomorrow “based on fundamental moral principles and universal values.”
O’Toole examines leadership as a multidimensional phenomenon. This is in sharp contrast to the prevalent uni-dimensional mode of assessing leaders on the singular measure of effectiveness. And, he asks, “Why did American executives resist for several years the sensible ideas advocated by such thought leaders as W Edwards Deming and Peter Drucker — changes that were in the self-interest of corporate leaders to implement?’’
Value-Based Leadership
Leading Change is a solid argument for value-based leadership. And, O’Toole brings home the point by way of a painting, and its textual content. Here goes: “How can a leader attract followers and command attention in the maelstrom of modern society?’’ O’Toole uses James Ensor’s intriguing painting ‘Christ’s Entry into Brussels in 1889’ as a springboard into his own wide-ranging discussion of leadership and change in today’s complex organisations. Just as Christ, in the painting, must find a radically new means of making contact with the inattentive crowd before He can spread his message, corporate leaders today must overcome deep-seated resistance to change before they can enlist their followers in the process of innovation.
Leadership challenge, writes O’Toole, is to provide the ‘glue’ to cohere independent units, without losing the co-operation, synergy, economics-of-scale, and sense of community that are the central benefits of the corporate form of organisation. He adds: “Only one element has been identified as powerful enough to overcome centripetal forces, and that is trust. And, recent experience shows that such trust emanates from leadership based on shared purpose, shared vision, and especially, shared values.”
Great leaders, he notes, have always shared leadership with their followers. Great leaders, create organisations that encourage change and self-reevaluation. They also foster environs of open-mindedness, accessibility, transparency, and fresh thinking, in which assumptions can be challenged and goals reassessed. Can anyone dispute such a credo?
Value-based leadership is not just fair and full of candour; it is effective in the troubled times we live in, today, too. Because, when leaders truly believe that their prime goal is the welfare of their followers, they get results. O’Toole’s pragmatic, soulful work has that message: A persuasive, argumentative examination which emphasises that growth and change are possible, even necessary, and that they would be ‘effected’ by individuals who have the stature and the courage to lead morally.
A great, interesting read for folks, who are game to putting their heart, mind, and soul into O’Toole’s practical study of leadership as change, what with the rewards being immense.
