What makes a leader?

Saturday April 11, 2009
What makes a leader?
By LEE KIAN SEONG from Bali


WITH many economies in the world having turned upside down following the crisis that erupted in the US’ financial industry and as we start to look at doing things differently, the concept of good leadership is also being challenged.

But no single leader is able to carry out the mission alone and as correctly pointed out by renowned authority on problem solving and creativity in organisations, University of California Los Angeles Prof Moshe F. Rubinstein.

People, he says, should realise that leadership is not about investing in a single person or only about the general giving orders. “Great leadership requires partnership collaboration, innovation and creativity from everybody,” he says.

“Leaders should be connected with enough people and create good relationships to have sufficient resources when faced with difficulties in performing tasks,” Rubinstein says, adding that authority should be accorded to people to allow them to realise the importance of taking swift action.


»Great leadership requires partnership collaboration, innovation and creativity from everybody« MOSHE F. RUBINSTEIN
In fact, he says, leadership should be exercised by everyone in an organisation at their own levels and it helps tremendously for leaders to use the “we” more than the “I” to generate passion and energy in an assignment.

“A leader has to energise his team to think about what is needed to achieve a certain purpose,” he says. Uncertainty, he says, is a good thing as it allows for better preparation in the event of a crisis.

He says leaders cannot assume it is all about them in an organisation. They should use the word “we” rather than “I” as they are not able to conduct an orchestra by themselves.

Clarity of purpose and task is another essential that needs to be conveyed by leaders as the staff need to know that they’re not wasting their time doing and undoing tasks with no clear objective.

Rubinstein spoke recently in Bali at the Asian Leadership Development Conference (ALDC) organised by the International Centre for Leadership in Finance (ICLIF) and Lembaga Pengembangan Perbankan Indonesia.

The aim of the conference was to assist leaders steer their organisations through the turbulent business environment, focusing on teamwork, creating an emotionally-intelligent workplace and a future-focused leadership.

ICLIF was established by Bank Negara in October 2003 to provide leadership development programmes for senior executives from financial institutions and business corporations in Malaysia and globally.

Another expert in the field of transformational leadership, Roger Konopasek says organisations need to change and be “open” in their management to attract the right people.

“Nowadays, people do not think of themselves as an employee ... they are working with you but not for you, is how they think. If they don’t like the things that you are doing, they will leave as they too may have their own vision,” he says.


»Create ownership by letting your team members handle projects and explore their potential« ROGER KONOPASEK
With that, he points out that the new work culture is no longer about subservient order taking, and the company who has less innovation will face problems in retaining talent.

“The best employees aren’t the comfortable followers who are submissive and don’t question. Information and knowledge technology are moving so fast nowadays, and a single person is not able to understand all of it, thus leaders need to work with people to get the ideas,” he says.

What makes a good leader? Konopasek says a leader needs to readily admit that he/she is not perfect or insecure about seeking opinions and views in making decisions.

“They have to talk less and ask more. Many managers talk too much and always tell people what to do. Instead of giving too many orders or comments, the good way is to work together with your team,” he says.

“You should make them know that it is their ideas and make them believe that they can make a difference,” he adds. Evidently, that’s the new leadership style — empowering people to be the best they can.

Konopasek says a leader should be involved with people as much as possible to let them understand his or her decision, as communication is crucial.

“Create ownership by letting your team members handle projects and explore their potential. Allow them to fail sometimes. Don’t manage them all the time,” he says.

David Winfield, executive director and chief executive officer of ICLIF says that during these turbulent times, one of the ways to help companies retain people is by training them in a variety of ways.


»Leaders need to understand talent management, talent development and risk management« DAVID WINFIELD
“You need to be able to lead your people and inspire them during difficult times. You need to manage the change and communicate effectively so your members know what the business is, your direction and expectations,” he says.

“Leaders need to understand talent management, talent development and risk management,” he says, adding that the understanding of reputation risk, brand building and marketing is also important.

Winfield says companies should not treat leadership development as a cost factor and they shouldn’t cut back their budget in leadership development during hard times.

Mohamed Ashraf Iqbal, conference chairman for ALDC and director of consulting firm, MindSpring Sdn Bhd, says companies have to find strategies on how to train ordinary people to do extraordinary things.

“Based on the surveys that I have done, 95% of the people tell me that they will not be doing their current jobs if they had absolute choice,” he says.

Ashraf says companies need to get people energised and excited about their work.

“Toyota is successful because they know how to engage the entire talent of the workforce. They know how to get into the minds of their people and get them committed to engage in their work,” he says.

“There shouldn’t be any deadwood in a company. If there is, something must be wrong with the company or leadership to have brought about these deadwoods who are not motivated,” he says.