Redefining Leadership for the 21st Century

Leadership Wisdom

What appears needed for leadership in the future is a deeper more fundamental
wisdom. Wisdom is seldom spoken of in leadership research studies and texts yet it
has been the foundation upon which most great cultures, philosophies and societies
have developed. Athens, the Florentine Renaissance, the golden era of the Indian
culture, and the great Chinese and Japanes empires all had great philosophies such as
Vedanta, Taoism, Zen Buddhism and the Bible as great sources of wisdom. Great
indirect and direct leader/philosophers such as Socrates, Sankara, Buddha, Marcus
Aurelius, Marcilio Ficino and many others have contributed great wisdom and insight
which has uplifted and steered these cultures for centuries. While it would take a
considerable number of pages to adequately distil the key properties of this wisdom,
the following three points are put forward as key essentials that relevant for the
leaders of the future.

1. Ability to be in the present, to see clearly what is happening in the moment

Most people spend a great deal of time involved with inner self-talk: images, feelings,
thoughts and judgements of other people and external events. Much of the time they
are automatically caught in this ‘self talk’ commenting, judging, liking or disliking the
people or situation around them “Why couldn’t he have done it better?” “I am the
one that will have to fix this up now?” Much of this dialogue is centred around the
ego – the image they have of themselves and what the ego wants to hold onto – my
job, my idea, my status, being right or liked, etc.. This ‘voice in the head’ divides,
evaluates and compares things to internal ego expectations even when this process is
not needed at the time. When someone begins to talk to them their internal self-talk
often automatically responds so they stop listening, even though they are pretending
to hear what is being said, “Yes, uh, huh! I see.”. Eyes are wide open but no one is
home!
A wise leader therefore, must be in the present because if she/he isn’t they will be
operating from their past ideas or some imagined future in their mind. This means
that the leader goes back into their store of experience, judgements and ideas and tries
to solve a current problem based on these. While information and experience from
the past may be useful at times, it is important for a leader look at the situation freshly
and free from bias so that he or she can see the best course of action, especially in a
world that is rapidly changing and different from the past. A key skill of a wise leader
is to let go of ego attachments and to see what is actually occurring in the moment.

2. Serving the Need of the Present

Robert Greenleaf has described servant based leadership as the ability of a true leader
to serve workers so that they are free to do the best job possible for their customers.
This can be described more specifically as the ability to find the need of the moment
and direct the attention and efforts of the team to serve that need. Meeting the need of
the moment occurs by bringing the attention and energy to the situation free from
internal self-talk and emotional biases and acting in a way that reconnects all the
associated elements and people to provide what is needed at that time. This has been
called ‘moments of truth’ by leaders such as Jan Carlzon, ex-CEO of Scandinavian
Airlines.
In many cases we see or hear of a leader that imposes their view on the people in the
situation rather than actually listening to or seeing what is really needed at the time.
While serving the need of the moment may sound rather simplistic, it has
extraordinary implications for customer service, interpersonal and team dynamics as
well as strategic management in an organisation. If leaders based their strategic plans
on fulfilling the genuine needs of society and their customers for example (Argenti
calls these ‘strategic elephants’), they would find the success of the organisation and
commitment of their employees would be much easier to attain. In team meetings
were focused on fulfilling genuine customer and staff needs the value and efficiency
of meetings would increase substantially.

3. Connects the Part with the Whole, the Self with the Other

Very closely linked to meeting the need of the moment is the ability to connect the
parts with the whole. This can be needed on an individual, team and/or organisational
level. The leaders must balance and integrate the needs of the individual with that of
the team, organisation and society. This linking fulfils the need that was referred to
above. The effective leader is able to see the individual, the team and organisational
needs and align them with customer needs. A truly great leader also aligns these
needs up with the economic, social and spiritual needs of the nation and international
community.
A definition of ‘wise leadership’ based on this perspective is:
The ability to influence and develop individuals, teams and organisations to achieve a
worthwhile vision that meets the present needs of everyone and everything affected by
their work.
This involves a very high level of self-development and awareness of business, social
and environmental issues. At the foundation of every leader is their sense of self,
how they feel about themselves and who they think they are. The future will require
an increased level of awareness and self-development. Goleman in his book,
Emotional Intelligence (1994), provides research that shows that individuals who have
greater awareness of their own emotions and are able to understand and work with the
emotion of others. These people, according to Goleman are more likely to become
effective leaders.
In the turbulent, high pressure organisations of the future, leaders will have to first be
able to recognise and manage their own stress. Based on this self-knowledge they
will need to see the warning signs of employee stress and burnout and help workers
have access to a wide variety of techniques to deal with high stress. Every leader will
be misunderstood, disliked, and have to deal with conflict among the people they
manage. Communication and conflict resolution skills are vital in dealing with
various team members.
A model of the skills and competencies of wise leaders would involve self, leadership
and management as well as strategic skills needed by a leader to fulfill the
organisation’s change directions at that time.
A model and 360 profile has been developed by Cacioppe and Albrecht that has 52
questions that covers these domains and the eight key roles of leadership and
management. The eight roles are:
Visioning Directing Facilitating Brokering
Stewarding Achieving Coaching Monitoring

These competencies have been well researched as good indicators of effective
leadership behaviour (Albrecht and Cacioppe, 1999). They have been based on the
work of Quin et al (1996) and Wilber (1996) have been developed into a ‘Holon
Model of Leadership and Management’ which links established leadership research
into an integrated perspective.

by Dr Ron Cacioppe Graduate School of Management, University of Western Australia