A reflection on leadership
A reflection on leadership
Sunday, 4 October 2009
As the evening photo of the College courtyard above shows, this has been a quiet weekend. Many students are off campus for the Mid-Autumn Festival, while those who remain on campus have been busy with extended essays and finishing ToK essays.
One of the banners in our (currently) almost silent Courtyard is a quote by UWC Founder, Kurt Hahn: “Your disability is your opportunity. There is more in you than you think”. In the quietness of the past few days, I have been reflecting on Hahn’s words and the challenge it poses for everyone to rise to the challenges of that often misunderstood concept – leadership.
Developing explicit qualities of leadership – and developing future leaders – was a fundamentally important goal for Kurt Hahn when he helped establish the first United World Colleges. Some would argue that subsequent decades have seen the sharpness of this goal blunted to some extent, as people from various parts of the word debate the relevance and indeed the nature of leadership in the context of today’s world.
Leadership is a peculiar art. It is also an endangered art, with society crying out for authentic leadership on the one hand, but often rejecting it in the name of egalitarianism on the other.
In our rational moments, we seldom need to be convinced that to be led is preferable to anarchy, even if we are less clear about who should be giving the lead and in what direction. But if we accept that we need leaders, there seem to be three implications. First, in accepting the need for leaders, we acknowledge that we are faced unavoidably with the need to make choices. Second, it matters a great deal what choices are made. And third, we require help in selecting the better choices.
Humanity typically uses four methods to make choices:
•The market – for all practical purposes, this is identical to the ‘democracy is best’ argument, based on the premise that what attracts the greatest support in a state of competitiveness must be the best; in other words, value is to be equated with popularity, or at least judged by popularity.
•Intuition, whim or feeling – a subjective judgment or gut feeling often seems as good as any other basis for decision-making – in any case, feelings make fewer demands and have fewer constraints than careful application of logic.
•Whatever excites or stimulates – the psychedelic, the racy, the politically correct, the Gothic, the eccentric – the conventional is seen to be boring, so break out, flaunt or flout, and try at least to give some colour to life by being different.
•Rely on others to make the choices – acknowledging one’s own limitations, leave the decision to others who are supposedly wiser or more perspicacious; at its worst, this is the fundamentalist, legalist or totalitarian response, and it is certainly the pathway that demands the least engagement with the issues.
In the end, the key question becomes: to what degree are we entirely free to choose? There are certain facts to be observed, we are dependent on others, and in the end, what is, is. The truth does not care greatly what we think of it. We can believe that we can walk on water, or that the world is flat, or that we can experiment with drugs without being affected, but a belief that has not been tested is not much use to anyone, and it certainly does not make it true. Truth is not the same as consensus.
I happen to hold the view that although endangered, leadership is not yet extinct, and that effective leadership can still be found in our society. It’s just that those who are leading are often not necessarily to be found in designated leadership positions, and those found in designated positions are not necessarily leading!
However, that may not be a bad thing.
I would like to suggest that a leader is not always someone with an impressive title, significant responsibilities and a reserved car parking spot. A leader need not even be someone with rank, power or position. Quite simply, a leader is someone who someone else is following. This means that any of us can be a leader. If our words direct and our actions inspire, we are leading. If we cause another to follow our example, or to follow our direction, we are leading. And at times, if our words and actions cause a reaction from those who disagree, then it is more than likely that we are not only leading but probably effecting authentic change! Leaders are change-initiators who often find themselves surrounded by change-resistors, and the art of leadership is to effect authentic and worthwhile change within such a scenario.
The question remains of course – in what direction are leaders leading? A person may have charismatic qualities and the capacity to encourage blind devotion, but they may be leading their acolytes into adopting values and behaviours that are unworthy and perhaps even dangerous. Discernment of vision and a commitment to serving others are crucially important for any leader.
This highlights the huge difference between leadership and management. It was Ian Percy who commented “Managers count seeds in the apple, while leaders envision how many apples there are in one seed”. Another writer, Abraham Zaleznik, wrote: “Leaders have much more in common with artists, scientists, and other creative thinkers than they do with managers”.
In short, the difference between leadership and management is the difference between shaping and controlling. Leaders yearn to create interdependencies; managers create dependencies. Leaders seek to recreate the ways people frame their thoughts; managers seek to restructure organisations.
Relating this to leadership in education, it is probably fair to say that Heads of schools and colleges have leadership positions which are among the most complex anywhere, and none more than those of us in boarding schools and international schools. It is said that to be a successful Head of a school, one must have the friendliness of a child, the enthusiasm of a courting teenager, the assurance of a soccer player, the diplomacy of a wayward husband, the curiosity of a cat, the memory of an elephant, and the good humour of an idiot.
We are expected, not unreasonably, to provide leadership by being committed contributors and exemplars. We are expected to have integrity, be willing to speak out as individuals on behalf of others, whilst being a team member par excellence, fully conversant with precedents in the school while simultaneously being expected also to drive the school in new directions for changing times. We are expected - rightly - to be interventionists, visible around the school, genuinely concerned about students in trouble, or lost, or weaker, or who simply need a listener, and yet we are loaded with mundane and routine tasks that take us out of circulation. We are expected to be fearless in giving considered, balanced and thoroughly researched advice to the Board, respecting the confidentiality of deliberations on policy and about individual members of the school community, even though in being loyal to policy we run the risk of losing intimacy with our colleagues, especially when unpopular stands have to be taken. Nonetheless, it is a necessary and inevitable tension - it would surely be a mistake to court popularity and mistake it for respect.
Most authentic leadership, whether in schools or elsewhere, is covert and unassuming. It is to be found in the gentle word of encouragement, in the helping of another, the steering of a conversation, a suggestion, or some small service. These are tasks that every person in a school community can and should fulfil, meaning that everyone should find themselves in positions as leaders from time to time.
During my career in various schools in several countries, I have usually found that the most effective leaders are those in ANY positions whatsoever who guide, steer and direct others without them necessarily being aware of it. As the Chinese sage, Lao Tzu, wrote in the 6th Century BC: “A leader is best when people barely know he exists. When his work is done, his aim is fulfilled, they will say ‘We did this ourselves’”.
“Your disability is your opportunity.
There is more in you than you think!”
- Kurt Hahn