The Tribune

By ALICIA WALLACE

There are positions of leadership and there are a particular set of skills, competencies and flexibility that, used appropriately make leadership successful. How often do they meet?

We often think of leadership as control and power, centralised in one person, unit, or institution and this leads to practices and expectations of leadership that fail us over and over again.

Those who are paying attention are learning about leadership by observing the events and circumstances surrounding the resignations we have seen over the past few months, happening for various reasons, all linked to power and control.

Leaders have to accept responsibility for mistakes both made by them and under their watch, they need to watch the optics and prioritise the reputation of their institutions.

They also need to be confident, motivated and secure in their positions. When they are not, they need to step down or they put everyone else at risk as they flounder just to appear competent and authoritative.

What we need, however, is transparent, accountable, consistent leaders capable of assembling, strengthening and empowering teams such that they can achieve success.

It is important we understand the role of power. A leader needs power. They need to have access to information, sufficient resources and the ability to make decisions and execute in a timely manner.

While board approval may be required for certain actions, it should not always have to wait until the next board meeting.

Decision-making needs to be efficient, participants in the process must be agile and there has to be a system in place for emergencies and situations requiring rapid response.

Without all of this, leaders are unable to carry out their mandates. There are times people are put in positions we see as leadership, but the power to truly lead is withheld from them.

Another person or group of people maintain control while the visible leader appears foolish, weak, or ignorant.

In worse cases, they are seen as responsible for failures that are not of their own making, but point to the deficiency of the systems within which they operate.

Decentralisation of power

Not only does the leader need to have sufficient power, but they need know how to share it with team members.

A critical component of leadership is team building. Beyond recruiting and hiring the best people, they need to be able to do their work.

This means creating a supportive environment, fostering collaboration and dynamic interaction within and across teams, enabling skill sharing, creating and using feedback processes and recognising the expertise of individuals.

There are far too many people working on teams, in offices, on committees and within coalitions who are not fulfilling their potentials because others refuse to work with their ideas, listen to their interventions, or factor their feedback into the decision-making process.

Too many people in positions of leadership expect their teams, considered beneath them, to do the grunt work and nothing more.

We have created cultures of mediocrity and resentment by ignoring or preventing contributions.

Worse, we have reduced our collective capacity to achieve more and improve systems and lies by limiting teams and team members to the elementary and perfunctory.

A leader sees every person on their team as an asset and should create opportunities for them to contribute to shared outcomes. That involves the decentralisation of power and requires a level of self-confidence many leaders do not possess. Instead, they have arrogance and insecurity, both of which keep them from allowing anyone else to be seen as valuable.

Opposing points of view

Effective leaders consult with other people, both within their teams and from other spaces. They recognise the value of an outsider’s perspective. They build professional relationships with people for this purpose. Having ideas and championing the work of a team is necessary, but leaders have to be prepared to be challenged. They need people who will poke holes in theories, insist on thorough explanations of how a plan will be executed, point to red flags.

Leaders need people who will tell them when they are wrong, recommend other courses of action, and connect them with people who have the know-how they are lacking. Consultants see what people on the inside miss. They can, however, only do so much. It is up to the leader to use the information to improve ideas, plans and execution.

We can all point to examples, particularly over the past few months, of leaders refusing to accept recommendations from consultants.

Ego, arrogance and personal gain often prevents them from making the best decisions for the people they directly impact.

Fulfilment on the job

While direct personal benefit should not be a primary reason for taking positions of leadership, everyone needs fulfilment. We want, not only to do well, but to be seen as doing well. This is not limited to income and lifestyle. Many people want to be sought after, to have opportunities to make more money and to be remembered for something.

People want to have a positive legacy. To be the one to balance the budget. To be at the helm when the largest profit is made. To adeptly steer the country to safety in the midst of the most difficult year in recent history. To have the highest staff retention rate. To have the most innovative solution to a persisting problem.

People want their names to be associated with the first or the best of something. No one wants to be associated with the failures of a brand, company, industry or country. Such an association could be damning to a career and embarrassing to a family for generations.

For a leader who knows their worth and their potential, it does not make sense to keep a job that not only brings little satisfaction, but is not much more than a title. People who are not allowed to do their jobs, yet will suffer the long-lasting consequences of institutional failure, will leave when they have the opportunity to do so.

No one studies and works hard to gain knowledge, experience and insight only to be prevented from implementing necessary systems and practices by people who hold more power and refuse to share it with experts.

The frustration and potential for embarrassment are not worth the pay cheque, especially when other opportunities abound. Leaders need to be personally and professionally fulfilled, making the best possible use of their talent.

Succession planning

Leaders cannot hold their positions forever, no matter how they may behave as though they are invincible. Where the age of retirement fails, human mortality proves inescapable. It is in the best interest of every institution to cross-train employees and actively engage in succession planning. There should be no irreplaceable people on any team. No two people are the same, but there should be shared competencies. People should be able to go on leave without being called in to perform tasks, maintain or repair relationships, or make decisions.

In many organisations, leaders are near or past the age of retirement while younger people have the necessary qualifications, but insufficient experience and institutional learning because they have been systematically kept at a certain level. They need to be given opportunities to learn more, do more and be compensated appropriately. This kind of training and advancements needs to be built into institutional culture.

Every leader has to think about what would happen if they were suddenly unable to do their job, what would need to happen to ensure activities continued as normal or improved in their absence, and what needs to be done to fill that gap.

People have to be trained to take on positions of leadership. It should not wait until someone is transitioning out or unexpectedly leaves. This has to be a normal practice in all sectors.

Leaders, no matter how good they are at their jobs, have to know that they will not be around forever and, if they are good leaders who believe in their own output, they will dedicate resources to preparing new leaders.

In fact, they will not want to hold on to positions until they can no longer do it. Leadership without succession planning will lead to failure.

Leadership is not forever. A leader has a limited amount of time to have impact, inspire others, and excuse themselves so that fresh minds and new ideas — undergirded by the mentoring of past leaders — can propel use toward the shared vision. Once that time is up, the leader becomes a symbol of stagnation, ego, and delusion.

A leader knows when they have given all they have, when it is time to give space and support to someone new.