What is leadership?

“Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them.”

William Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night' (Malvolio Act 2, Scene 5)

In the not-too-distant past, many in management wielded the whip and hired and fired. Today, we demand a more sophisticated approach - one that can get results through people without coercion and threat.

To illustrate this point, I turn to Chris Kerr, a volunteer for the Cranfield Trust, who wrote in his guest blog.....

"Let's say I want to build a house for the homeless. If I put a gun to your head and tell you to build it, you would but you'd stop the second I put the gun down. This isn't leadership. It's exercising power. True leadership would only exist if I told you my vision for the home and you chose to build it with me even though you have the freedom not to. The key emotional response I need to create is not fear but inspiration".

Whether in the public, private or voluntary sector, such an enlightened approach to leadership is now the norm....usually. That said, there are clear contextual and organisational differences in the leadership challenges between the voluntary and other sectors. This point was made recently when Clore Social Leadership asked CEOs and senior leaders of charities and other organisations for their views on this issue. The consensus was that social sector leadership tended to differ from that of other sectors in such areas as:

the management and motivation of volunteers;
the complexities of engaging with a wide range of stakeholders - trustees, staff, service beneficiaries and public;
the emotional challenges of working with those most in need; and
staff who may also be service beneficiaries.

We'll probe such distinctions when considering leadership styles, decision making and motivation but let's start by naming some leaders. I'd be surprised if your list didn't include Maggie Thatcher, Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, and/or Winston Churchill. Those in the charities sector might also mention such game-changers as Sue Ryder, Douglas Macmillan, Marie Curie and Leonard Cheshire. Whoever we choose, our list will differ and reflect our culture, education and experiences. But I'm sure we all agree - effective leaders are those who really make things happen.

As a leading CEO once said ..."leadership is the art of getting more from people than they think they are capable of giving". But we can't ignore the importance of other key aspects, i.e. technical and administrative requirements.

Technical - as a leader, you need sufficient knowhow to judge what to expect from others and that what they're doing is of the right quality. However, you don't need to be more technically competent than others in your group.

Administration - also, as leader, you need to understand 'how things are done' in your organisation and, importantly, 'how to get them done'. You're then better placed to set and maintain standards.

In the early '70s, Jack Dunham introduced me to the following concept. We'd taken over Keble College in Oxford for the summer and were running Industrial Society courses for young people about to enter the world of work.

Jack suggested that as we start our careers, most of our day is spent on routine tasks but, as we climb the slippery pole, some technical knowledge begins to feature and, maybe, an element of supervision.

The higher we progress, the greater becomes the need for technical competence to deal with evermore complex tasks. Typically, we also spend more time managing people, workloads, output, etc.

At mid-management, we have probably reached the peak of our technical prowess and have little or no routine in our day. By this stage of our career, we spend increasing time on the task of managing.

When in senior management, we are likely to devout even less time to technical matters as we look to our immediate subordinates for such technical input. Now our focus is very much on managing and leading the enterprise.

Now ask yourself - why does one person rather than another emerge, or be accepted, as a leader within a group?

Traditionally there have been three different answers:

qualities - you've got what it takes;
situational - you're in the right place at the right time;
functional - you actually do what's needed for success.

We'll look at each of these in detail in the section entitled 'approaches to leadership'.

something2ponder - if you look at Jack's model, do you spend most of your time on routine and technical matters? If yes, perhaps this is another indication of the unending shift from generalist to specialist. I write about this in the managing section where I also revisit Jack's model to explain the changes to the nature of leadership that I experienced when directing NHS hospitals, the very epitome of a multi-functional organisation of specialists.

SA

Our Shared Agenda

What is leadership?

“Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them.”

In the not-too-distant past, many in management wielded the whip and hired and fired. Today, we demand a more sophisticated approach - one that can get results through people without coercion and threat.

To illustrate this point, I turn to Chris Kerr, a volunteer for the Cranfield Trust, who wrote in his guest blog.....

the management and motivation of volunteers;

the complexities of engaging with a wide range of stakeholders - trustees, staff, service beneficiaries and public;

the emotional challenges of working with those most in need; and

staff who may also be service beneficiaries.

As a leading CEO once said ..."leadership is the art of getting more from people than they think they are capable of giving". But we can't ignore the importance of other key aspects, i.e. technical and administrative requirements.

Technical - as a leader, you need sufficient knowhow to judge what to expect from others and that what they're doing is of the right quality. However, you don't need to be more technically competent than others in your group.

Administration - also, as leader, you need to understand 'how things are done' in your organisation and, importantly, 'how to get them done'. You're then better placed to set and maintain standards.

In the early '70s, Jack Dunham introduced me to the following concept. We'd taken over Keble College in Oxford for the summer and were running Industrial Society courses for young people about to enter the world of work.

Jack suggested that as we start our careers, most of our day is spent on routine tasks but, as we climb the slippery pole, some technical knowledge begins to feature and, maybe, an element of supervision.

The higher we progress, the greater becomes the need for technical competence to deal with evermore complex tasks. Typically, we also spend more time managing people, workloads, output, etc.

At mid-management, we have probably reached the peak of our technical prowess and have little or no routine in our day. By this stage of our career, we spend increasing time on the task of managing.

When in senior management, we are likely to devout even less time to technical matters as we look to our immediate subordinates for such technical input. Now our focus is very much on managing and leading the enterprise.

Now ask yourself - why does one person rather than another emerge, or be accepted, as a leader within a group?

Traditionally there have been three different answers:

qualities - you've got what it takes;

situational - you're in the right place at the right time;

functional - you actually do what's needed for success.

We'll look at each of these in detail in the section entitled 'approaches to leadership'.

SA

What is leadership?

“Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them.”

​

In the not-too-distant past, many in management wielded the whip and hired and fired. Today, we demand a more sophisticated approach - one that can get results through people without coercion and threat.

To illustrate this point, I turn to Chris Kerr, a volunteer for the Cranfield Trust, who wrote in his guest blog.....

​

the management and motivation of volunteers;

the complexities of engaging with a wide range of stakeholders - trustees, staff, service beneficiaries and public;

the emotional challenges of working with those most in need; and

staff who may also be service beneficiaries.

As a leading CEO once said ..."leadership is the art of getting more from people than they think they are capable of giving". But we can't ignore the importance of other key aspects, i.e. technical and administrative requirements.

Technical - as a leader, you need sufficient knowhow to judge what to expect from others and that what they're doing is of the right quality. However, you don't need to be more technically competent than others in your group.

​

Administration - also, as leader, you need to understand 'how things are done' in your organisation and, importantly, 'how to get them done'. You're then better placed to set and maintain standards.

In the early '70s, Jack Dunham introduced me to the following concept. We'd taken over Keble College in Oxford for the summer and were running Industrial Society courses for young people about to enter the world of work.

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Jack suggested that as we start our careers, most of our day is spent on routine tasks but, as we climb the slippery pole, some technical knowledge begins to feature and, maybe, an element of supervision.

The higher we progress, the greater becomes the need for technical competence to deal with evermore complex tasks. Typically, we also spend more time managing people, workloads, output, etc.

​

At mid-management, we have probably reached the peak of our technical prowess and have little or no routine in our day. By this stage of our career, we spend increasing time on the task of managing.

When in senior management, we are likely to devout even less time to technical matters as we look to our immediate subordinates for such technical input. Now our focus is very much on managing and leading the enterprise.

Now ask yourself - why does one person rather than another emerge, or be accepted, as a leader within a group?

Traditionally there have been three different answers:

qualities - you've got what it takes;

situational - you're in the right place at the right time;

functional - you actually do what's needed for success.

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We'll look at each of these in detail in the section entitled 'approaches to leadership'.

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