Final thoughts on Leadership

Learning Objectives:

 Participants should know what is servant leadership and what are the characteristics of servant
leaders
 Participants should know the role of courage in leading a team and how to develop this trait
 Participants should know the importance of vision especially in making present decisions

Servant leadership

When people lead at a higher level, they make the world a better place, because their goals are
focused on the greater good. This requires a special kind of leader: a servant leader.

Robert Greenleaf first coined the term “servant leadership” in 1970 and published widely on the
concept for the next 20 years. Yet it is an old concept. Two thousand years ago, servant leadership was
central to the philosophy of Jesus, who exemplified the fully committed and effective servant leader.
Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Nelson Mandela are more recent examples of leaders
who have exemplified this philosophy.

When people hear the phrase servant leadership, they are often confused. They immediately
conjure up thoughts of the inmates running the prison or trying to please everyone. Other think servant
leadership is only for church leaders. The problem is that they don’t understand leadership. They think
you can’t lead and serve at the same time. Yet you can if you understand—as we have emphasized a
number of times—that leadership has two parts: vision and implementation. In the visionary role,
leaders define the direction. It’s their responsibility to communicate what the organization stands for
and wants to accomplish.

The responsibility for this visionary role falls to the hierarchical leadership. Kids look to their
parents, players look to their coaches, and people look to their organization leaders for direction. The
visionary role is the leadership aspect of servant leadership.

Once people are clear on where they are going, the leader’s role shifts to a service mindset for
the task of implementation—the second aspect of leadership. “How do you make the dream happen?”
Implementation is where the servant aspect of servant leadership comes into play.

Servant leaders feel their role is to help people achieve their goals. They constantly try to find
out what their people need to perform well and live according to the vision. Rather than wanting people
to please their bosses, servant leaders want to make a difference in the lives of their people and, in the
process, impact the organization.

What servant leaders do (S-E-R-V-E)

S-ee the future. This has to do with the visionary role of leaders. Leadership is about taking
people from one place to another. We can’t say enough about the importance of having a
compelling vision. Once a clear vision is established, goals and strategies can be developed
within the context of the vision.

E-ngage and develop people. As a leader, once the vision and direction are set, you have to turn
the hierarchical pyramid upside down and focus on engaging and developing your people so
 that they can live according to the vision. You must also take care of your customers in a way
that creates customer maniacs and raving fans.

R-einvent continuously. Reinventing continuously has three aspects. First, great leaders
reinvent continuously on a personal level. They are always interested in ways to enhance their
knowledge and skills. The very best leaders are learners. Great leaders find their own approach
to learning—some read, some listen to audiobooks or downloads, some spend time with
mentors. They do whatever it takes to keep learning. If you stop learning, you stop leading.

V-alue Results and Relationships. Great leaders—those who lead at a higher level—value both
results and relationships. Both are critical for long-term survival. Not either/or, but both/and.
For too long, many leaders have felt that they needed to choose. Most corporate leaders have
said it’s all about results. In reality, there are two tests of a leader. First, does he or she get
results? Second, does he or she have followers? If you don’t have followers, it’s very hard to get
long-term results. The way to maximize your results as a leader is to have high expectations for
both results and relationships. If leaders can take care of their customers and create a
motivating environment for their people, profits and financial strength are the applause they get
for a job well done.

E-mbody the values. All genuine leadership is built on trust. Trust can be built in many ways.
One way is to live consistently with the values you profess. If I say customers are important, my
actions had better support that statement. If I choose to live as if customers are unimportant,
people will have reason to question my trustworthiness. In the final analysis, if my people deem
me untrustworthy, I will not be trusted—or followed as a leader. Embody the Values is all about
walking your talk. The leader, above all, has to be a walking example of the vision. Leaders who
say “Do as I say, not as I do” are ineffective in the long run.

The SERVE acronym builds a wonderful picture of how servant leaders operate. But it’s a tough
act to follow. Continually doing a good job in each of these areas is a significant task, but it’s worth it.
Servant leadership is about getting people to a higher level by leading people at a higher level.

Role of courage in leading

Leaders demonstrate courage when they overcome fear to pursue worthy goals. After defining
courage, we’ll see how this dimension is measured and how it relates to other aspects of character.

Definition of courage

As with trust, courage is demonstrated in any job and in small moves—less typically by war
heroes or people running into a burning house to save a cat. An employee demonstrates courage by
refusing to work overtime to attend a family event. A manager demonstrates courage by speaking out
against an unfair policy. A client demonstrates courage by questioning an invoice because the product is
defective.

In each of these situations, people “voluntarily pursue a worthy goal in the face of fear or risk,”
as courage is defined in the academic literature. Courageous acts include an expression of the individual
(standing out) and involvement (for the collective). Not everyone is willing or able to stand out, and not
everyone is committed to team goals. Courageous leaders aren’t afraid of confrontation that will bring
about positive change for others.

According to the Courage Institute, an international training consortium based in Western

Galilee, Israel specializing in building the inner strength of teams and leaders, the definition for courage
has five parts:

 Purpose: everyone clearly understanding the goals of the company

 Will: confidence, enthusiasm and determination
 Rigor: constantly improving and learning new skills
 Candor: always being honest
 Risks: the ability to relinquish control for the interest of the team

Meanwhile, for leadership character, we’re focusing on moral courage instead of physical
courage, such as facing physical pain. In his book Moral Courage, Rushworth Kidder identifies three
elements of moral courage: “a commitment to moral principles, an awareness of the danger involved in
supporting those principles, and a willing endurance of that danger.”

Mary Crossan and her colleagues define behaviors of the courageous leader: “Does the right
thing even though it may be unpopular, actively discouraged, and/or result in a negative outcome for
him/her. Shows an unrelenting determination, confidence, and perseverance in confronting difficult
situations. Rebounds quickly from setbacks.” Descriptors include brave, determined, tenacious, resilient
and confident.

Embedded in this definition is the concept of grit. Angela Duckworth and her colleagues found
that grit—“perseverance and passion for long-term goals”—is one predictor of academic success. In
their definition, we see courage: “Grit entails working strenuously toward challengers, maintaining
effort and interest over years despite failure, adversity and plateaus in progress.”

We also see courage in commonly used words. To encourage means to fill with courage, spirit or
confidence. We get discouraged when we’re deprived of these qualities. It takes courage to plow
through when we feel discouraged and when someone else is actively discouraging us.

Courage and other aspects of character

Courage has connections to other character dimensions discussed so far. In a study of military
soldiers during a training program, researchers found that what links authentic leadership to followers’
ethical and prosocial behavior is moral courage. In other words, leaders who demonstrate a moral
perspective are open, transparent and self-aware may promote moral courage in their followers. These
leaders inspired others to demonstrate moral reasoning and to put the group’s interests above their
own.

Taking measured risks improves outcomes

When leaders demonstrate moral courage, they take risks, but they aren’t foolish. Accurately
assessing risk helps ensure a good outcome.

Leaders at all levels in an organization make decisions by assessing risk. Without some measure
of risk, courage is excessive. Jumping off a bridge or driving your car into a wall will likely get you killed.
Creating a product without doing market research is a bold move—and it’s probably foolish. A daredevil
may be courageous, or he may be reckless.

Rushworth Kidder suggests assessing potential risks in demonstrating moral courage. First, we
must be willing to face ambiguity and confusion. Situations that require courage are rarely
straightforward. Can we handle conflicting, complex points of view without having one “right” answer?
Second, are we willing to face exposure? By taking action, we make ourselves vulnerable. Are we ready
for the leadership role that’s required? Third, can we accept the loss? We may lose our reputation, our
relationships, or our job.

This quandary raises the ultimate question when deciding whether to take action: Is it worth it?
Do the benefits of demonstrating courage outweigh the risks? Who will be hurt, and are the casualties
worth the positive outcomes for the greater good? These are some of the difficult questions a leader
asks before choosing a courageous path. Whatever we choose, having people in your life to help weigh
options and to support your decision is important.

Facing our fears

To take risks, we must face our fears. Vulnerability is essential to courage.

Fear is useful; without it, human beings would not survive. Fear warns us of physical danger to
our lives and livelihood. Panic warns us of emotional danger of losing key relationships. Both help us
protect ourselves.

But our fears can stymie us. You have probably heard the expression “analysis paralysis.”
Sometimes people in organizations get stuck—they can’t make a decision because they want it to be
perfect, or they choose analysis over action because it’s safe. They dread a negative outcome. If a
decision doesn’t turn out well, particularly in risk-averse organizations, senior management looks
around for someone to blame. That dread causes people to get stuck, and it takes courage to manage
through it.

In addition to authenticity and integrity, courage and vulnerability are closely related. Courage is
the ability to manage our anxiety even if difficult and potentially dangerous situations. We tend to avoid
situations that make us uncomfortable, but we can choose to sit with discomfort and work through it
instead.

Tackling difficult conversations

Although it’s tempting to hide during tough times, courageous leaders don’t shy away from
difficult conversations. Few of us enjoy difficult conversations. Ending a relationship, firing an employee,
quitting a job—many of us would rather send a text message. Although people prefer to give bad news
later in a discussion—to ease into it—research tells us that receivers prefer to hear it first and get it over
with. Scholars have identified good reasons for delivering bad news in person, such as the ability to use
and detect body language and to convey respect and sensitivity. At the same time, research shows some
advantages of communicating bad news via email, for example, delivering a clear, consistent message to
multiple employees at the same time.

Communication researchers at Griffith University in Queensland identified more ways to tackle

difficult conversations. They argue that these discussions typically involve “disagreement, defensiveness
and resistance,” which can be mitigated with supportive behaviors, such as “empathy, equality and
description.” Demonstrating our understanding, relating to people as equals, and explaining issues
clearly and objectively helps smooth these tough talks.

Radical Candor and Radical Transparency

Radical candor and radical transparency are tools for addressing difficult situations head on and
for practicing openness. Both require vulnerability and courage.

Radical candor. A direct approach to difficult conversations is best and takes courage. We want
to avoid discomfort, but the better strategy is to work through it. Being uncomfortable is a sign that
we’re engaged in something important and difficult. Discomfort can inspire us to forge ahead—to take
the opportunity to improve a relationship, even if the conversation is difficult.

People get emotional at work, and that’s not a reason to avoid tough conversations. Instead, it is
recommended to acknowledge emotions instead of ignoring them and taking a break in the
conversation if necessary. You might also prepare to be engaged viscerally. It’s okay to feel physically
tense, and you may want to close the conversation with a handshake or hug.

Radical transparency. Another approach that takes courage is practicing radical transparency,
which means “putting openness above all other competing values.” To some leaders, radical
transparency means everyone in the organization knows everything. Proponents of radical transparency
argue that such openness removes worry about mistakes and false comparisons to colleagues.

Self-righteousness

We discussed the problem of excess courage in the form of recklessness. Other extremes of
courage may be considered self-righteousness or terror, and both should be avoided. We need
perspective to make sure we’re helping others, not hurting them.

Courage has been called the “difficult virtue” because it involves confrontation and is potentially
destructive. Let’s be clear: having courage doesn’t mean you’re right. Courageous leaders have to keep
themselves in check with others around them. Otherwise, they may be considered self-righteous—smug
and moralistic—as though only their view is the “right” one, and others’ views are wrong.

Courageous leaders have to watch how they use force. Courage doesn’t mean coercion; it
involves making an offer you can refuse. If leaders resort to using force, maybe they aren’t as confident
as they think they are, or maybe the idea or solution isn’t the right one after all. Radical candor means
caring for others, not steamrolling them.

As leaders, we should watch our own indignation. Is our view the only right one? Courage
includes managing through ambiguity. A courageous leader considers nuance and can discern what’s
right from many perspectives. One test for self-righteousness may be to ask whether we can receive
negative feedback without being defensive. Can we accurately assess feedback and—if it’s accurate—
change our stance? Or do we just keep pounding our fists?

Having the confidence to live and lead by our conviction is good, but not if we don’t consider
others and not if we use them to justify our courage: “I know I’m right, so I will continue down this path
regardless of those left behind.” Passion is good; fanaticism is not.
Strategic thinking by seeing the big picture

Surveys show that strategic thinking is one of the top three capabilities that are valued and
looked for in senior leaders. Most management competency frameworks include strategic thinking, so
this is something that interviewers try to identify during the job selection process. However, it is one of
the things that interview candidates have most difficult understanding, discussing and giving practical
examples that demonstrate their capability.

Organizations cannot survive by just aimlessly repeating what they did last year, or even last
month. You need to be able to respond to changing circumstances, take advantage of emerging trends
and constantly find new ways of delighting your customers with new levels of service and products that
were previously unimaginable.

To this end, a fundamental capability for all managers is the ability to initiate and bring about
change. But an organization needs its change initiatives to be aligned towards a common purpose. That
purpose is articulated in the business strategy and managers need to be able to internalize that strategy
to the extent that it provides a guiding framework for all their decision-making.

You may have seen organizations being torn apart by parochial decision-making that puts the
narrow needs of a function above the broad goals of the organization. All too often, you probably
witness local decision-making that can only hope to serve the end of local leadership.

Strategic thinkers are people who can think holistically and see beyond the limits of the current
issue. They take a broad perspective on how a proposed course of actions can contribute to the
achievement of the long-term goals of an organization as a whole, as well as resolving the immediate
local problem.

When you are busy and stressed, and faced with a critical problem, it is difficult to find either
the time or the perspective to see beyond the bounds of the immediate, but the strategic thinker always
takes the broader perspective and the longer-term view.

The way you demonstrate strategic thinking is to focus on things that can contribute to bringing
about long-term objectives. You should always use this perspective as the basis for your decision-
making.

When you fix things with an eye to the long-term impacts or consequences they tend to stay
fixed. On the other hand, if you make your decisions based solely on the impact in the here and now,
the problems have a nasty habit of coming right back again.

Strategic thinking is not just the preserve of the leaders at the very top of the organization.
Organizations need all managers and leaders at all levels to think and act strategically; that means
understanding how what you are doing contributes to the achievement of the long-term goals of your
organization. It means making connections between the ideas, initiatives and desired outcomes that
your organization is pursuing and ultimately having different sorts of conversations with the people who
are involved in delivering elements of the strategy.

An important skill of strategic thought is the ability to take a different view of a situation. But
not just any different view; what you need is a view that allows you clear sight of your objective, where
you are trying to get to, while at the same time letting you see the terrain that stands between you and
your objective.

A good way to understand the nature of strategic thinking is to visualize the experience of
walking a maze. As you enter a maze, you do so with no clear view of where you are trying to get to. You
know you want to get to the middle, but you cannot see the middle and you have no idea where it is or
how to get there. So, each time you come to a junction you are faced with having to make a choice;
without any plan or overall route you can only make random choices. Each choice has the effect or
opening or closing options but without any feedback on the success of the previous choice.

If, on the other hand, you were provided with a plan view of the maze taken from above, you
would have no difficulty in seeing the most direct route to the center. It seems obvious, but when you
know what your objective is, and when you can see that objective in a broader context, decision-making
becomes much easier and your route to success more sure and direct.

This is a great metaphor for strategic thinking. Sadly, though, many managers behave as if they
are in a maze with no overall plan of what the maze or their objective looks like. Far too much
organization decision-making appears to be random, with no guidance from a consistent objective or set
of guiding principles.

Many of the managers get so wrapped up in dealing with the day-to-day stuff that lands on their
desk and conscientiously dealing with every e-mail they receive and attending every meeting they are
invited to that “they can’t see the wood for the trees.” As a consequence, the business has moved on
and IT ends up delivering yesterday’s need rather than the needs of tomorrow.

Most of the time, most of our thinking is what might be termed analytical and forward pass. You
start with the problem and work forwards through logical steps until you find a potential solution. This
form of thinking is so deeply ingrained in all of us through our education and experience that many
people think that it is the only valid way to think, and that any other process is not real thinking.

Backward-pass thinking

But there is another way to think. Stephen Covey calls it “backwards thinking” or “beginning
with the end in mind”; he sets this out in his The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (2004). Others call it
systems thinking, backward-pass thinking, intuition or synthesis. The process is as follows:
 You make an intuitive leap from “a” to an attractive, but as yet unrealized, outcome “d.” You
then work backwards, asking yourselves, “What do you need to put in place now to make this outcome
more likely to come about in the future?”

The important thing to realize is that the future state “d” does not yet exist, nor is there any
certainty that it will ever exist. The leap you make is not about predicting a future that will happen, but
of imagining a future that you would find beneficial and then taking purposeful action now that you
believe will increase the probability that your desired future will come about.

When you start to work backwards from “d” you are not doing detailed planning of the steps
you need to close the gap, but rather putting in place capabilities that make the realizations of this
future more probably than the possible alternatives.

Strategic thinkers take steps to create the future rather than waiting for someone else’s future
to happen and then having to react to it. Key to this sort of thinking is the recognition that you operate
within complex, adaptive, self-organizing systems and that a fundamental property of such systems is
“emergence.” New and unpredictable properties emerge as self-organizing systems adapt to their
environment.

So, the actions you put in place will have both intended and unintended consequences. A key
skill is, therefore, to be alert to the emergence of new trends and to intelligently and opportunistically
grasp these possibilities for the overall benefit of your organizations as a whole.

Strategy is not about blindly implementing some grand plan; it is about being aware of your
environment. Looking for trends and unexpected or outlying readings that indicate that something
fundamental may have changed. Things are constantly in flux and you need to be ready to recognize and
exploit opportunities that emerge. You also need to do so in a way that is consistent with the overall
aims of your business. If you accept this definition of strategic thinking, then the core skills that you
need to develop are as follows:

 Outcome-focused thinking: being able to project yourself into the future and imagine a set of
circumstances that would be beneficial for you or your organization. You then need to craft a
series of statements that describe the characteristics of that future’s state in terms of the
capabilities you would need to create it and what it would feel like once you got there. Key to
this is the ability to see every situation in its wider context.
 Backward-pass thinking: having imagined a desirable future, constantly ask questions such as:
What would you need to put in place to make this happen?
 Intelligent opportunism: being alert to emerging trends and taking advantage of them.

To complete the process of strategic thinking, ultimate decision-making needs to be grounded in

a set of core principles that place a higher value on promoting action to realize the desired outcomes
than on merely taking action to resolve the symptoms of the problem that you are faced with.

The Level 5 Leadership

A Level 5 Leader (L5L) is an individual who blends extreme personal humility with intense
professional will. The characteristics and success of these leaders were first identified by Jim Collins in
2001 and formed a central plank in his best-selling book, From Good to Great.
 The Level 5 discovery derived from a research project that Collins began in 1996, when he set
out to answer one question: Can a good company become a great company and, if so, how? The answer
was the concept of a Level 5 Leader:

Particularly in 1971, the concept of Level 5 leadership was (and probably still is) counterintuitive,
even countercultural. People generally assumed that transforming companies from good to great
required larger-than-life leaders with big personalities like Lee Iacocca, and Jack Welch, who made
headlines and become celebrities. And whilst Level 5 leadership is not the only requirement for
transforming a good company into a great one, other factors included getting the right people ‘on the
bus’ (and the wrong people ‘off the bus’) and creating a culture of discipline; Collins’ research showed
L5L to be essential.

Project managers run “small temporary organizations”; and rather than focusing on being the
“project management hero” applying the lessons of Level 5 leadership can take you project from good
to great.

Some of the key traits of a L5L are:

 Humility; whenever your team has success, make sure that credit goes to them for their hard
work. But a leader, you need to take responsibility for your team's efforts, particularly when
things go wrong.
 Ask for help when you need it. Knowing how to ask for help lets you call upon the expertise of
someone stronger in an area than you are. The result? The entire team or organization wins; not
just you.
 Take responsibility for your team's mistakes or failings.
 Be disciplined in your work. When you commit to a course of action, no matter how difficult it
is, stick to your resolve. It's always important to listen to differing opinions, but don't let fear be
your driving motivator when you make, or change, a decision.
  Take the time to finding the right people, and then help them reach their full potential.
 Lead with Passion. When you demonstrate to your team that you love and believe in what
you're doing, they will too.

Striving to be a Level 5 leader is not easy, but rather than being a “hero” fighting to make your
project a success, shifting to “Level 5” allows you to be successful and your organization and your team
will benefit.

REFERENCES

https://mosaicprojects.com.au/Mag_Articles/SA1030_Level_5_Leadership.pdf

Delivering benefit: Technical leadership capabilities by Brian Sutton and Robina Chatham

https://uk.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/93591_Chapter_7__Courage.pdf

Leading at a higher level by Ken Blanchard

Management 11th ed by Robert Kreitner