The PURPOSE of Leadership: Part III
Welcome to the final Note in the three-part series on the PURPOSE of influential leadership.
Men [people] make history and not the other way around.
In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still.
Progress occurs when courageous, skilful leaders seize the opportunity
to change things
for the better.Harry S. Truman
Truman’s declaration is a truism — it establishes the implacable first principle of influential leadership.
The purpose of influential leadership is to change things for the better.
Those of you who have completed the Alpha Programme will recall that we unzip Truman’s maxim into ten bits, each of which contribute to the substance of his final six-word statement:
- People are at the centre of human history. People create (human) history, which is the history of human’s lived lives as they engage with each other and with all other systems, life forms and inanimate worlds. Human history is thus a function of what people do, which goes beyond their thoughts and intentions. Leadership and human history are social constructs — created by human thoughts, ideas and practices.
- It is individuals (a person) that initiates social change (human history making) — not a collective, even though the individual is always part of social collectives.
- To seize is decisive, energetic, and purposeful.
- The thing that is seized is an opportunity — a circumstance that activates a person’s sequence of thoughts and behaviours. The opportunity is what we call a leadership moment.
- A person must be alert (watchful) to recognise a circumstance as an opportunity (a leadership moment) to exercise their leadership.
- Being systematically alert to leadership opportunities is an acquired skill. Once we identify the leadership moment, we must respond to it with leadership.
- Leading, exercising leadership, is a capability that requires skills, and like all skills, they too are gained through learning, knowledge, and practice.
- People, individuals, who go first are by definition, courageous.
- Progress can only be social progress. Progress that has no social content is worthless for the human condition. Furthermore, social progress must be inclusive of all those who have added value to that incidence of change.
Progress is thus the improvement in people’s lived lives and life prospects, which is inalienably tied to change for the better.
You might wonder what to change things for the better means in our lived lives.
For the full answer, take the Alpha journey. Here is a micro-illustration.
We start at the backend: Our lived lives.
The context for exercising leadership is wherever and whoever we are. The opening infographic pictures our wall-to-wall lived lives; no matter where we are in these circumstances, we are required to lead.
I am a seasoned executive at the head office of one of South Africa’s major financial services companies. I am responsible for managing a highly skilled and diverse team of investment product innovators and developers. It is my responsibility to ensure we have consistent competitive advantage in product design, return for investors and profitable margins for the business. I report to the CEO, who is a tough task mistress.
But — I am also a husband, a father, a grandfather, a neighbour, a member of the local mountain bike club, a citizen commuting to my big office, a shopper at the grocery store on the way home, the chap taking his dog for a walk, the grizzled guy rolling out my refuse bin each Wednesday morning…
All these situations are my lived life.
It is not just while I am the ‘big guy’ at the office that I am called upon to exercise my leadership – to change things for the better – for my team members, for the business, for the investors and for the shareholders. Yes, at the office I have greater scale and scope for leveraging change, but that is not what defines leadership.
Winter has arrived. It is still dark when I trundle the garbage bin onto the driveway. I peer up and down the road. The frosted lawn reflects a friendly sheen from the streetlights.
The waste-pickers are already rummaging through the neighbourhood’s trash. First to a bin is an advantage in this dirty business.
‘My chap’ nods at me from the street corner as he piles plastic and cardboard items into his towering rickety trolley.
His cold gnarled hands busy themselves as I place a mug of steaming tea and a peanut butter sandwich on the kerbstone. We exchange smiles, ‘It’s cold again this morning…’
Make today, this week, a great leadership journey.
See each leadership moment, not just the big public ones, not only the obvious ones, but all of them. Once you have a leadership moment in your sights, what is it that you must achieve?
Change for the better – for you and those who are affected.
Regards,
Colin Donian
Shaping lives for the better
