BASICS OF LEADERSHIP SKILLS AND QUALITIES, BUSINESS AND EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP EXAMPLES

(Based on author’s site www.geocities.com/ldrsp)

Leadership qualities matter in business, in education. Yet the doctoral student can’t find information on leadership skills. If the discipline isn’t leadership she has to cry for help: What’re leadership qualities?! Others would like to know too what are the personal qualities of leadership! Business leadership is important. Educational leadership is in demand. But, what are leadership skills, qualities?

Reason for Leadership

Interest they have in business or educational leadership. Perhaps also leadership qualities. Knowledge of what is leadership, not. If they see a worker a few times resting who routinely unloads, sorts, stacks, rests, repeats, he is lazy. That’s not good leadership! If leadership qualities or skills are lacking it causes annoyance, loss of production.

Need for Leadership

Leadership in education or business are acquirable skills.

In Britain there is confusion on what is leadership. The Department of Employment has publications on how to train, e.g., supervisors. Yet even supervision are known to have been deemed by the Training & Enterprise Councils to be an inherent quality, by the Employment Tribunals with members from the Trades Union Congress and the Confederation of British Industry not an acquirable skill. In the USA the position is not dissimilar.

Leadership qualities aren’t the same as leadership skills.

There are exceptional ‘born leaders’, extraordinary circumstances calling for inherent leadership qualities for exceptional motivation with no apparent incentives. But routine administration, business leadership or educational leadership demand only professional acquirable skills.

Leadership qualities are different than leadership skills.

Popularity in Leadership

Approaches to administrative leadership differ. Business leadership strategies vary. Educational leadership policies change. So do leadership skills. The value of leadership qualities never change.

Leadership is about people. Good leadership is popularity based. A French emperor called his soldiers his children, after a defeat again raised volunteer armies. A popular Scottish preacher got nominated for the US senate.

Leadership qualities are inherent. But leadership skills often suffice. Both involve popularly interesting people.

Popularity aids leadership qualities. It helps leadership skills. So in business or educational leadership.

What is Leadership?

Charisma alone it isn’t. Nor is it love, care, perseverance that enables popularity in successful leadership. It is also an interest in understanding the human nature, knowing what motivates. That is the basis of leadership.

A car plant boss praises the night shift’s work, the day shift competes for equal pride, production increases.

A congressional medal, the offer to be Education Secretary, a biographical movie for a Chicago school teacher who enabled exam. success for eleven pupils was because she could get from them what an education authorities’ educational leadership skills couldn’t.

Personal Qualities of Leadership

Depending on approaches, business and educational leadership classifications vary. Basically all leadership are of two kinds: leadership and exceptional leadership.

The former is leaderships skills; acquired, ordinarily, routinely at work: e.g., leadership in education, business.

The latter is based on inherent leadership qualities. It enables exceptional motivation with incentives hardly perceptible in extreme inappetence. It is the most rare extraordinary leadership, enhanced by the most exceptional leader’s charisma, communication ability, wit, trustworthiness, with much philosophical, sociological, psychological insight, high logical reasoning ability, the vision, heroic courage, love, care, dedication, passion of rational sensible idealism, sacrifice in time, effort. This ‘moves mountains’; be it leadership in education, culture, religion, politics, business, it reforms: socially and historically visibly, lastingly, memorably changes established culture, life styles, society.

Exceptional leadership, business or educational or other -in one field or more, of historical noteworthiness demands personal qualities, for it begins with popularity that is not coerced but is by virtue of, irrespective of wealth or position, at personal level earned and deserved trust and faith in the genuineness, sincerity of one’s intentions -honesty in intention.

Professional Leadership

What is routinely at work is skills based leadership. Mostly it is leadership in education or in business, of the kind that acquirable skills are adequate for. It does not demand any exceptional leadership qualities. Acquirable are interested behaviour and competence. Proportionately to one’s degree of interest, basic leadership skills often suffice to function as a professional leader, to lead in one’s field.

On professional leadership many have written. There are commonly agreed basic modern leadership principles generally adequate in any field of average competence.

Effective Leadership

Leaders with leadership qualities or skills know this: The average employee does like to be so directed as presumes that he generally wishes to avoid responsibility with relatively little or no ambition and dislikes work except to the extent essential for survival with basic security. People have an inherent need in an adult way to exercise their understanding, capacities, skills motivated by incentives also non-economic and culturally varying. This appreciation is a must for effective leadership.

Leadership Values

Trustworthiness is one of the personal qualities of leadership that can never be imitated in professional leadership for truly great achievement. But the skilful appearance of trustworthiness succeeds. Usually the only task of professional leadership is obtaining the co-operation of colleagues and employees.

This is best done, by making the organisation’s objects or visions pursued or desired of personal significance to people. That must be based on their values and expectations to generate their energy and enthusiasm. Good leadership on that basis can prepare people for the various controllable and uncontrollable changes, appreciating that leadership attitudes matter above all and must be ‘trust’ based… In the 1990s’ England an industrial strike over pay continued after Railtrak agreed: the workers had discovered that the government had secretly sought to influence the negotiations.

Leadership Strategies

Trust is the most useful of leadership values. Good leaders’ people feel valued. Job satisfaction enhances performance and productivity and job satisfaction includes feeling valued. This leadership strategy avoids dissatisfaction, increases job satisfaction. Co-operation is based on others feeling valued enough to be trusted.

Information works at two levels: it shows trust and contributes to the leader’s objective others’ valid views.

The value of other’s valid views which free flow of information (or the successful [but risky] appearance of it) enables is not overlooked in good leadership. In, e.g., educational leadership staff’s familiarity with consumer culture, in business leadership workers’ consumer choices reduce the risk of missing the wood for the trees.

In leadership strategies learning from experience by trial & error is unaffordable in the short term. The complexities of long term results necessitate cultured thought.

Leadership Policies

If one looks at some educational leadership policies and business leadership examples one sees these:-

In the 1980s’ UK’s teacher surplus was followed by teacher shortage; in c. 2000 allegations of easy examination questions came to be replaced, with accusations of unanswerable examination questions being set, by allegations of school pupils being deliberately failed.

The British farmers union’s lateness in taking into account the effects of the European Union agreements enabling workers general employment rights in member states as opposed to previous restrictions on the types of employment, in 2007 resulted in loss of profits to many farmers because tons of strawberies could not be picked with less students and holiday workers from member states available for that particular type of employment.

In the 1980s’ USA, People’s Express Airlines folded – cheaper seats but they couldn’t see seat booking preferences. In the 2000s’ UK, Aria Technology Limited, its owner telling of having sold goods at 500% profit, in a matter of refunding about £100 for re-saleable goods estimated only the faxes it received to have cost it about £500. The USA’s regarding failure as experience for businesses meant an average pre-bankruptcy life of 11 years; and by the time it saw and began to adopt the European thought of motivating for pride in the job, Japan and Germany had captured 38% of the car market.

In thought based leadership ~in verse by Orhan Seyfi Ari -translated:

To overtake and win, like horses that race

Compete ideas in a head keen, to make the best choice

Leadership Qualities

In leadership it is generally agreed that personal leadership qualities mater. Success in leadership depends also on the degree of the knowledge, understanding and appreciation of the needs and the expectations of those who are to be led, and of how the group is structured -especially as to the relevant situation immediately confronting them in their environment.

What exactly are the personal qualities of exceptional leaders, in leadership of historical noteworthiness, have not been able the psychologists to ascertain in terms of specific character or personality traits. But professional leadership also is people based and it often suffices to ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.’

Leadership Skills

Personal qualities of leadership enhance professional skills. But in no field are called for exceptional personal leadership qualities or even professional skills routinely. In ordinary, e.g., business or educational leadership to envision and enable, to empower and energise routinely basic leadership skills suffice. These comprise simply of the knowledge of, and an honest intention to also cater for, the expectations of those to be lead, any problems faced in terms of their means, abilities, social influences.

In ordinary routine leadership, subject to average competence in one’s field, nothing is basically essential other than this leadership appreciation and reasonable honesty -i.e., simply treating people as people.

May interest -he ‘moved mountains’ Teacher’s Leadership

Sun Tzu’s The Art of War is known as one of the most respected treatises on military strategy in history. But the Art of War deals with more than just military strategy; it also addresses issues of leadership, management skills, decision making and team building which the modern Project Manager would do well to study.

Let’s take a look at what Sun Tzu says are the five essentials for victory:

“Thus we may know that there are five essentials for victory:

He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight. He will win who knows how to handle both superior and inferior forces. He will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks. He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared. He will win who has military capacity and is not interfered with by the sovereign.”

I am sure many Project Managers are chuckling over that last one, but let’s just look at these in turn and what they mean for today’s Project Manager.

He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight. And how relevant to managing a project, when many things vie for your attention. One of the most critical skills a Project Manager possesses is the ability to prioritise and focus on what is important. Issues may be brought to your attention by team members which they feel need to be addressed urgently. But as Sun Tzu says, we need to know when to fight and when not to fight – some things need to be put on the back burner as they are just not as critical as other items impacting the project.

He will win who knows how to handle both superior and inferior forces. What a dream it is to manage a project with a strong project team. It happens rarely, but when it does, it is an experience to savour. More likely, you will have a team with a range of skills, from great to not so great. Rarely, you will get a team with very little relevant experience – and these are the greatest challenge. But what a sweet victory pulling off a project that no-one thought you could!

He will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks. Sun Tzu touches several times throughout his book on the concepts of team building and team spirit. In any endeavour, whether it be in business, military or sports, the team that is cohesive, that has the same goal, and who are all positively striving and doing their best to achieve that goal usually win. Especially on a more challenging project, having a team that is motivated to successfully complete that project, against all odds, is worth more than getting extra budget or staff to bolster your team. A cohesive team, with a strong leader, can achieve things beyond what they could all achieve individually, due to their team spirit.

He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared. Effective preparation is the key to a successful project. Whilst we don’t have an enemy on a project (well, not usually anyway), the project that is well prepared from the outset is better equipped to weather any storms that come their way during the project (and the storms always come)!

He will win who has military capacity and is not interfered with by the sovereign. I must admit I did have a chuckle at this one. There is nothing worse than managing a project with a “hands on” Project Owner or Sponsor who means well, but really just gets in the way. That’s not to say they shouldn’t be involved – that’s absolutely essential, but each to his skills, and the Project Manager is hired for their project management skills.

Sun Tzu goes on to say “He wins his battles by making no mistakes. Making no mistakes is what establishes the certainty of victory, for it means conquering an enemy that is already defeated”. Again, the theme of preparation, but also now introducing the concept of discipline,

Discipline, or lack thereof, in my view is responsible for the majority of project failures. Whether that lack of discipline relate to managing costs or schedule, or managing the scope of the project, or managing the team members effectively. The Project Manager who has the discipline to hold fast to the project scope, budget and timeline whilst effectively managing their team will always deliver a successful project.

Sun Tzu also gives us sage advice on how we, as Project Managers, can fail our teams. “There are five dangerous faults which may affect a general:

(1)                Recklessness, which leads to destruction;

(2)                cowardice, which leads to capture;

(3)                a hasty temper, which can be provoked by insults;

(4)                a delicacy of honour which is sensitive to shame;

(5)                over-solicitude for his men, which exposes him to worry and trouble”

Again, let’s look at these in turn.

Recklessness, which leads to destruction. Recklessness equals poor discipline. All decisions made by a Project Manager should be sound and based on facts and experience. There is no room for recklessness in projects, as there is no room during war.

Cowardice, which leads to capture. I liken this statement to poor decision making. Sometimes a decision has to be made which is unpalatable either to you or to your team or Project Sponsor. But a brave (and effective) Project Manager makes a decision based on what needs to be done, not on what people want to be done.

A hasty temper, which can be provoked by insults. A workplace is not the place for anger or losing control of your emotions. As a leader, we have an extra responsibility to demonstrate to our team what constitutes acceptable behaviour. Losing your temper at work is never acceptable behaviour. If something rouses you to anger, count to ten under your breath, and then deal with the matter reasonably.

A delicacy of honour which is sensitive to shame. The Project Manager must put the project above personal feelings and emotions. They must always do what is right for the project, regardless of how that might make them feel or look to others.

Over-solicitude for his men, which exposes him to worry and trouble. Now Sun Tzu is not saying here not to have respect and empathy for your team. However, he is saying that as a leader you should not be so close to your team that it clouds your judgement. If you have ever managed a project where you had a good friend working on it, you will understand how uncomfortable this can become. Not only can you seem to favour this person in the eyes of others, but it can be very difficult to counsel good friends for poor performance without affecting the relationship outside of work. By all means be friends with your team, but keep the friendship professional, and never let it stand in the way of making the right decision.

This final point leads me to authority and respect for you as Project Manager. Without your team’s respect, you have no real authority over them (except in name). As Sun Tzu says “When the general is weak and without authority; when his orders are not clear and distinct; when there are no fixed duties assigned to officers and men, and the ranks are formed in a slovenly haphazard manner, the result is utter disorganization”. This is true in projects as it is in the military.

The Art of War has much to teach us as Project Managers. Sun Tzu has a great deal more to say about managing staff and effective team building which I will cover in a later article. Suffice to say, the basics of leadership and management haven’t changed much over the millenia!

The big buzz in the Learning and Development community is about Leadership development. “If only we could train good leaders,” goes the argument, “we could be beat the world”

This belief is so well ingrained that hardly anyone stops to question it. But when you step back for a second, there are a number of huge questions. For example:

1. If leaders need training, who trained Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin?

2. If leaders can be easily trained, why are there any followers (which begs the question

3. What is so great about being a leader anyway?

4. If everyone understands how to lead, doesn’t that cause a problem when followers are led badly?

We all know good leaders. We knew them when we were in the playground; and when they conceived a mischief, we followed. We probably tried our first clandestine cigarette at the behest of a leader and pursued our childhood interests at their bidding too. So it is clear that leadership qualities are not only apparent from a young age but are an important part of our development.

So why do we think that we need to train leaders? Well for several reasons. Firstly, although leadership may be an innate talent, like all natural gifts, if it is not channelled correctly, bad habits develop and blossoming potential can go unrealized. Secondly, there is more need for leadership than there are candidates. Playground leaders may go on to military careers or become high flyers in the world of big business, but they are not likely to end up running a small social services unit in an out of the way provincial town.

Finally, leaders need to be part of a team, and for the team to function efficiently, the led need to know the ground rules so that they can serve effectively. So having concluded that leadership training is both necessary and desirable, how can it be organized?

The jumping off point for any training course is, and has to be, formal instruction in the theory and principles of leadership. There are just three ways of doing this.

1. Books. There are literally hundred of texts on leadership. Most of the business schools also provide free podcasts and webinars. The eager student can soak up any number of treatises on various leadership systems and processes but be cautious.

Some of the best writing is outdated and doesn’t meet with modern management ideas. Many of the academic pieces are useful but based on case studies at the very peak of leadership experience and thus divorced from practical reality. While books are an essential resource, they are only satisfactory as a reference and as part of more focussed study.

2. Courses. There may not be as many courses as there are books but it feels that way. Regardless of your discipline, geography academic background or vocational sector, there willbe a leadership course bespoked to your needs and packaged to meet your requirements. Although many of these courses will be tailored to your industry by an experienced practitioner; in the end, the leadership system, process or methodology taught will be as much a matter of personal preference of the trainer as it will be reflective of any best practice. In reality there are hundreds of leadership models.

All will be based on observation and research and will have some applicability, but there is no “right” or “wrong” system. All a course does is highlight one particular approach and provide the basis for consistency amongst those that attend.

3. Practical Experience. The sure fire way of developing leadership skills is to practice. If under the leader’s leadership, the outcome is “success” then he or she needs to capture the behaviours that led to that success. And if it was failure, then behaviours need to be modified and tried again. Which is why coaching and mentoring are so effective.

But of course, while practical experience may be very desirable, it can also be expensive and risky. So how can organizations who want to imbue leadership qualities provide the opportunity to practice in a safe environment which allows emerging leaders to make their mistakes and learn from them?

Although I tire of hearing clients say that their business is “different”, the truth is that no enterprise is identical to any other. Just as every person is an individual, so every organization reflects the individuals in it in terms of history, culture, systems, processes and resources. There may be common characteristics that may mark out a leader in a company but there is no absolute answer.

Organizations have to develop training regimes that suit their own purpose. Regardless of how this is achieved, the starting point will nearly always be a process, model or philosophy that expresses the culture of “how ‘leadership’ gets done around here.”

Whilst there is no doubt that formal courses have an important role to play in defining a common understanding of, and approach to leadership, in the final analysis, the practical element of developing leadership skills must be an internal process. Although not necessarily universally recognized or accepted, many leadership approaches are based on a six stage model:

1. History: How did we get to where we are?

2. Situation: What’s going on right now?

3. Forecast: What will happen if we don’t change?

4. Vision: Where do we want to go?

5. Strategy: How do we use our resources to meet our objectives?

6. Implementation: Timetable, actions & responsibilities

This model suggests that in order to be successful, the leader has to ask six basic questions:

A. Where do we want to be?

B. Where are we coming from?

C. Where are we heading if we keep going as now?

D. Where are we now?

E. By when do we want to be there?

F. How will we get there and what do we need?

By following this approach the leader can structure his team, deploy his resources and provide support, guidance and information that will get the team there.

Although the model itself is fairly simple, fitting it into a course is slightly more problematic. The content is simple, straightforward and easily understood. With a senior group, a competent trainer can usually get through the theory comfortably in a morning. The issue is with the practical sessions. Most courses have ten to fifteen delegates although six or seven is not uncommon.

To practice leadership skills effectively, the team needs to consist of at least four members. Thus with every delegate getting a chance to lead and assuming that several teams can practice in parallel, this is a full day especially when allowing for quality feedback and consolidation. To provide the practical experience, I use tools such as Super Tanker, Westrek, Viking Attack! and Terra Nova. These are self contained packs which contain everything needed to run a session. For additional “spice” the activities can be run competitively between groups with a prize for the winning team. This puts additional pressure on the leader and can be a useful device for creating tension within the teams.

The following structure is very tight, but by limiting the practice sessions to 45 minutes with 15 minutes for feedback, you could get 16 delegates through the programme in a (very full) day. Ideally of course you would spread the course over two days and allow much more time for the exercises and feedback. This would also allow more time for consolidation and action planning after the delegates return to the workplace.

Time(mins) – Topic

10 -Introduction and domestics

35 -Objectives of the course, delegates experiences

15 – Overview of Leadership (Group / Breakout Discussion on characteristics and qualities of outstanding national, political religious leaders etc)

15 -Leadership Plenum

15 -Introduction to the Leadership Model

15 -Coffee

105 -Leadership Model Continued (Breakout sessions & handouts on Asking questions, Vision, Strategy, Objective setting, Providing feedback)

60 -Lunch (Leaders issued with the brief for the exercise they are to run in the afternoon)

30 -Summary: What does leadership mean (Breakouts & Group session )

45 -Super Tanker Exercise (3 or 4 groups in parallel)

15 -Super Tanker feedback to leaders (Followers give feedback)

45 -West Trek exercise(3 or 4 groups in parallel)

15 -West Trek feedback to leaders(Followers give feedback)

45 -Murphy exercise(3 or 4 groups in parallel)

15 -Murphy feedback to leaders(Followers give feedback)

45 -Terra Nova exercise(3 or 4 groups in parallel)

15 -Terra Nova feedback to leaders(Followers give feedback)

45 -Action plans and evaluation

An alternative structure would to be to break the sessions into logical components and then run them in a series of 2 – 3 hour development classes over a three or four week period. For a really successful session it is important that the leadership lessons learned are aligned with the needs of the organization and that the delegates leave the course with a clear action plan for improving their own performance.

The importance of the feedback sessions cannot be overstressed. A non disclosure covenant should be obtained from all participants, and the followers must feedback to the leader how they felt during the exercise. This can be a brutal lesson but it is vital if the delegates are to get full value from the session.

In summary, every enterprise needs leaders at all levels throughout the organization. With some careful planning, a clear learning outcome and the right tools, almost anyone can structure a highly successful programme that will have dramatic and long lasting results.