Commentary

The Changing Game of Leadership

Richard Farson

There was a time, not so long ago, when leaders felt that they could succeed by observing what were regarded as the fundamental principles of management—e.g., "Praise in public, reprimand in private." Not only have such principles been largely discredited (e.g., praise has been shown not to be a motivator), but the idea that one could rely on simplistic principles in an infinitely complicated and dynamic situation now seems quaint.

In recent years, therefore, leadership development programs have shifted emphasis to the acquisition of management skills and techniques. But just when managers thought they had a skilled approach to handling organizational problems through gaining listening and negotiating skills or new techniques of re-engineering or benchmarking or accountability, the requirements have shifted once again. Indeed, the new demands come at managers so rapidly now that, for all practical purposes, the need to adapt is constant.

This means that leaders must be able to transcend the fads (remember quality circles, TQM, zero defects, management by objective?). Instead of acquiring specific skills and techniques, which are never enough to deal with the extraordinary complexities and challenges of organizational life, they must develop a posture based on critical thinking, trust in their intuitions, understanding the paradoxical nature of human affairs, the fundamental importance of design, and that uncommon quality, common sense. In short, they must be able to exercise the one characteristic that is the basis of all effective leadership, wisdom.

The good news is that by and large their experiences in work and in life have already given them that quality. It just needs to be nurtured, encouraged, released, and fine-tuned to meet current requirements.

What are these new requirements? What does this decade, this year, this week call for? How can the manager meet the challenges of the collapse of trust in government and corporations, the conflicting demands of globalization, the contradictions of the war on terrorism? What would characterize a posture that could address those challenges? What does today’s manager need to think about?

First, the paradoxical nature of human affairs. Behavior is seldom rational. That is why so much of it seems absurd. The leader who truly understands this and can practice paradoxical management, therefore, is going to be a step ahead. In human affairs, paradox is the rule, not the exception, therefore leadership is essentially the management of dilemma.

Second, the necessary conditions for achieving innovation. Even in risk-averse times, such as the current economic difficulties, the need for innovation continues, even with respect to inventing better management systems to cope with such difficulties, because innovation in every area is vital for a positive bottom line.

Third, an understanding of the true nature of success and failure, their confusing consequences, their similarity, their interdependence, the management case for increasing risk taking and its inevitably frequent failures, and the need to treat both success and failure the same way, as steps to further achievement. When one’s outdated concept of success and failure changes, everything else about management changes too.

Fourth, an understanding of the changing workforce—the conditions that, today, motivate or fail to motivate employees. The questionable role of morale, the unorthodox working arrangements in high-tech corporations, the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic rewards, the importance of personal engagement.

Fifth, an appreciation of the new context of work. The working environment is increasingly non-geographic, global, electronic, digital and highly communicative. Virtual management is simply different in ways that profoundly affect productivity. Working in the information-based organization, as all are now, calls for fundamentally different attitudes and understanding about hierarchy and organization design, collaboration at a distance, distributed leadership, working in isolation, developing community, involving previously marginal employees, and what constitutes effective online communication.

Sixth, they must see themselves as designers—of situations, environments, organizations, of relationships and experiences. Design is the rubric of the future, not just in management but in every field, because it is such a powerful determinant of human behavior and experience.

Seventh, a commitment to a new ethics of leadership. To regain the trust necessary for public, and even internal, support, today’s leaders must examine the fundamental philosophies that guide their actions, that underlie every management decision.

Finally, the development of a courageous vision, which may be the rarest, but most important of all leadership qualities. Courageous vision comes from what we might call metamangement, transcending the conventional to imagine unprecedented events along a time horizon as much as decades in the future. It is a product not of predicting the future, which is impossible, but of attending to the big picture, understanding larger forces, trends and cycles, increasing a sensitivity to social, political and technological changes, releasing the playfulness to dream and developing the courage to act.

Together these understandings help managers at all levels acquire a stronger posture, one that is nimble, yet rooted in the new fundamentals of management. Gaining these understandings, developing this wisdom, cannot come from skill training, but it can come from education—marrying the personal experience of the manager with powerful ideas about how people actually behave and how organizations can be made to work. That is the new task of leadership development.