What is Leadership?
Keith Grint
What is Leadership?
Mapping out the Traits, Competences & Characteristics of
successful leadership
There are almost as many definitions of leadership as there are
persons who have attempted to define the subject
(Stogdill, 1974: 259)
On 14 December 03 there were 14,614 items on Leadership
on Amazon.co.uk:
1 per day = almost 40 years worth of reading
26/4/04: 15,610 – 42.7 years
@ 1,000 new books in 4 months
or annual increase of 21%
14 February 2005: 17,060 – 46.7 years
By 2025 over 1 million books.
Trough of Ignorance (via McKenzie)
Uncertainty
Missile
Scientists
Protesters &
Competitors
Generals
Proximity to knowledge production
‘Management’
Working the Land (especially manuring)
Use of a contrivance to effect some purpose
Administrative skill
Indulgence
Addicted to scheming
Governing body
‘Leadership’
Leadership via Old German ‘Lidan’ to go & Old English
‘Lithan’ to travel.
To show the way, to guide
To cause to act, think, feel or behave in a certain way
To initiate the action
To go at the head
The principal role
Leadership as an Essentially Contested Subject
W.B. Gallie (1955/6)
What is Leadership?
1. RESULTS: is it WHAT you achieve that makes you a
leader?
2. PROCESS: is it HOW you get things done that makes
you a leader?
3. POSITION: is it WHERE & WHEN you operate from that
makes you a leader?
4. PERSON: is it WHO you are that makes you a leader?
Results-based-Leadership
What is Leadership?
1. Results: is it WHAT you achieve that makes you
a leader?
• Are results correlated with or caused by
leadership?
Royle; DW = Dave Watson.
Key: HK = Howard Kendall; CH = Colin Harvey; MW = Mike Walker; JR = Joe
97/8HK18th
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Results-based-Leadership
Figure 1.3: Everton FC: Does Leadership Matter?
Results-based-Leadership
Tolstoy’s Bow Wave
Results-based-Leadership
Nov-00
Sep-00
Jul-00
May-00
Mar-00
Jan-00
Nov-99
Sep-99
Jul-99
May-99
1400
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0
Mar-99
Eidos Share Price: March 99-Nov-00
Results-based-Leadership
Making a Difference to BT
Sir Peter Bonfield (CEO)
2001 Bonus: £481,000 + Salary of £820,000 + Shares
£1.6 M
2002 Bonus: £820,000 + Salary of £600,000 + Shares
£2.1 M
Share Price £15 (Oct. 99) to £5 (May 01)
Corporate debt £30 B; 2001 loss £1 B
Teather, D. and Treavior, J. (2001), ‘Millions for New BT Boss’ (Guardian, 15 May)
Results-based-Leadership
The International Pay Gap: CEO X @ wages
500
400
300
200
100
0
Japan Sw eden Germany France Belgium
Italy
UK
2002 US CEO @ income 400 X @
1982 US CEO @ income 42 X @
Plender, J. (2002), ‘Morals pay dividends’ FT 18 Sept.
USA
Enron has created significantly more shareholder value [than Florida Light
and Power]. Why? Again, we suggest that Enron’s leadership plays a
significant role in achieving the larger multiple for the company’s earning.
Enron provides a prime example of a company whose leadership has
created an organization that can effectively implement a strategy for
meeting shareholder expectations and thus a larger valuation from and for
those shareholders. Enron’s thoughtful leaders deftly balance the many
necessary results levers (Ulrich, Zener and Smallwood, 1999: 155).
Results-Based Leadership Success: Zero Tolerance?
‘(When I arrived in 1994) the NYPD was demoralized and the
ethos was: “Stay low & keep out of trouble”. But by 2003,
according to Howard Saffir (Bratton’s Replacement) New York
was the ‘safest city in the world’.
William Bratton,
NYPD, 1994 This had all been achieved by a judicious combination of focusing on the
results, not the process, of policing using:
• Clear targets
• IT support to track crime
• Local accountability
• Rapid deployment
• Zero-tolerance
• Saturation of crime ‘hot spots’
• Removal of departmental barriers
• Weekly meetings between precinct commanders when anyone of
them may be called upon to explain any problem or anomaly
Results-based-Leadership
Fig 3.1 Zero Tolerance & Crime in New York City, 1989-1998,
per 100,000 pop.
William Bratton,
NYPD, 1994
Burglary
Violent Crime
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
Results-based-Leadership
Fig. 3.2 Violent Crime in US Cities, 1989-1998,
per 100,000 pop.
Los Angeles
New York City
District of Columbia
San Diego
Chicago
3500
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
NYPD Versus San Diego PD:
Individual Responsibility Versus Community Responsibility
Summary: Results-Based Leadership
• Difficult to Relate Results to Leaders – The Role of Negotiating Responsibility
• Results are important but more important is which results & who sets them?
Ownership is critical – the case of children
• Measurement systems do work – but they often become the goal rather than
the means to the goal
• Short term results or long term results may be the necessary choice
• Rewarding Results or Visibility?
• Results & Responsibility: Windows & Mirrors
• What Generates Results: Stars or Communities?
Process-Based Leadership
What is Leadership?
2. Process: Is it HOW you get things done that makes you a leader?
Modelling Leadership: Walk the Walk V DAISNAID
The Role of Individuals & Groups in the Process of Leadership
Latane and Darley: The Bystander Problem (1968)
Room 1 has an individual staging an epileptic fit
Adjoining room has:
1 person = helps 85% of the time
5 people + = help only 31% of the time
Smoke emerging from room reported
75% of the time by lone passers by
38% of the time by groups passing by
Groups diffuse responsibility
Process-Based Leadership
The Good Samaritan (Darley & Batson, 1973)
Man robbed & beaten, priest and Levite ignore him
Samaritan – despised minority – tended his wounds
Princeton Theological Seminary
1. Theological students questioned: here to help others or to learn?
2. Asked to prepare short talk: professional clergy or good Samaritan
3. Cross street to give it
4. Group A: ‘hurry up your late’
5. Group B: ‘no rush but start walking now’
6. Each student came across man slumped and coughing in street
Results:
Helpers or Learners – no difference
Professional Clergy or Samaritan talk – no difference
10% in a rush stopped
63% not in a rush stopped
Summary: Process-Based Leadership
• The Limits of Logic in Leadership & the Role of Emotion
• The importance of Context
• Milgram: Leading People is Easy, proving you take
responsibility, provide a rationale and get followers to
engage incrementally – but irresponsible followers are not
what leaders need
• Focus on the System & Context not the Individuals?
Vertical hierarchy: leadership-in-charge
Omniscient Leaders
Ignorant Followers
19 Minutes
17 Minutes
No response
No response
You’re chasing rabbits
No response
No response
You’re riding a bike
Hit the Deck!
14 Minutes
13 Minutes
9 Minutes
2.5 Minutes
1 Minute
HMS Sheffield 4 May 1982 hit by Exocet, 20 dead, 24 wounded.
Destructive Consent
‘The Sheffield was a sitting duck. It never had a chance to
change course, fire its chaff (anti-radar foil) or even its
missiles… I should have stood up and shouted: “There is a
f...ing contact, there’s something coming in, believe me alert the fleet” I'll always punish myself in my conscience
for not having done that. But you’re trained to obey the chain
of command regardless. It had been drummed into me’
David Forster, Radar Operator, HMS Invincible
(quoted in The Guardian, 26/9/00)
Destructive Consent
Air Florida 90 (‘Palm 90’) (737), January 13 1982, due out14.15 to
Fort Lauderdale. Captain Larry Wheaton; 1st Officer Roger Pettit
Take-off check list commences
Pettit: Air conditioning & pressurization?
Wheaton: Set
Pettit: Engine anti-ice?
Wheaton: Off
15.59: cleared for take off & throttles open
Pettit: ‘It’s real cold, real cold’
Wheaton: It’s spooled. Real cold, real cold.
Pettit: God, look at that thing. That doesn’t seem right, does it?
Uh, that’s not right.
16.00 Wheaton: Yes, there’s 80
Pettit: Naw, I don’t think that’s right. Ah, maybe it is.
Wheaton: 120
Pettit: I don’t know
Wheaton: V1. (Lift off, but nose rises too quickly) Easy. V2
16.01 Crashes into bridge over Potomac: 6 survivors
Destructive Consent
Position Leadership
Richard Greenbury
‘The thing about Rick is that he never understood the impact
he had on people – people were just too scared to say what
they thought. I remember one meeting we had to discuss a
new policy and two or three directors got me on one side
beforehand and said they were really unhappy about it. Then
Rick made his presentation and asked for views. There was
total silence until one said, “Chairman we are all 100%
behind you on this one.” And that was the end of the meeting’
(Bevan, 2002: 3).
Position Leadership
Vincristine: Intravenous only
Destructive Consent
Wayne Jowett
Thursday, 19 April, 2001, 16:06 GMT
17:06 UK
Catalogue of blunders that led to
death
Dr Mulhem – Specialist Registrar; Dr Morton – Senior House Officer
Dr Morton asked whether the Vincristine should be given spinally
Dr Mulhem had told him yes.
Dr Morton said he was surprised by this, but had not felt he could
challenge a superior.
Position Leadership
Destructive Consent
RAF: laying out aircraft drop markers 1
Omniscient Leaders
RAF: laying out aircraft drop markers 2
Ignorant Followers
Constructive Dissent
Sloan’s Dilemma
‘Gentlemen, I take it we are all in complete agreement on
the decision here?’
Consensus of nodding heads.
‘Then I propose we postpone further discussion of this
matter until our next meeting to give ourselves time to
develop disagreement and perhaps gain some
understanding of what the decision is all about.’
Summary: Position-Based Leadership
• Power: Possession or Relation, Cause or Consequence?
• Leadership may be vertical or horizontal
• Vertical Position often associated with Omniscience,
Omnipotence & Irresponsible Followers
• Difficult for Vertical Leaders to evaluate Independent &
Objective Advice from Subordinates but Critical that they get
it. Otherwise Destructive Consent Sets In To Galvanize
Constructive Dissent
Try:
• Institutionalizing position of Devil’s Advocate
• Seeking External Advisor
• Appoint an ‘Outsider Within’ – but don’t seek
acquiescence
Person-based-Leadership
Of 52 democratic elections since 1960 in USA, UK, France,
Canada, Germany & Russia, Leaders’ personalities had no
effect on 38.
King, ‘Conclusions’ in King (ed.) Leaders’ Personalities & Outcomes
Leaders' Personalities & Elections, 1960-2000
10
9
8
7
6
No effect
5
Possible effect
4
Significant effect
3
2
1
0
USA
UK
France
Germany
Canada
Russia
Height
Weight
Person Leadership
Intelligence
Confidence
Early Leadership Experience
Stability
Energy
Looks
Glasses/Blond
Gender
Person Leadership
1940s - 1950s; 1990s
Stogdill’s review: Height, Weight, Looks,
Intelligence, Stability, Extroversion,
Confidence, Communication, Energy,
Sociability, Tolerance
Isolating Traits?
Critical Trait?
Insignificant Traits?
Situation?
Person Leadership
The structural problems & supernatural consequence
- minimizing success but maximizing expectations
- the focus on (inevitable) failure
- the search for a scapegoat
- the longing for a saviour
Me: ‘What kind of a leader is
Sven-Goran Erikson?’
(English) MBA student:
‘A God’
Me: ‘What will happen if
England lose against Brazil?’
MBA student:
‘We will crucify him’
Person-based-Leadership
Who Should Rule Us – and Why?
Plato & Omniscient Leaders
The best
The wisest
Those without flaws
Seek perfection through selection
Plato’s Philosopher-Kings: Omnipotent and Omniscient
“Leaders Unlimited”
Thomas Carlyle: Great ‘Man’ (sic) of History
White Elephants:
1. Alleged Deity: Omniscient & Omnipotent
2. Expensive, Unnecessary & Foolhardy Expense
3. Thai Kings & ‘gift’ to unfavoured noble.
Person-based-Leadership
3C. BC Emperor Liu Bang held banquet on consolidation of China
Surrounded by nobles, military & political experts.
Guest asked Chen Cen (military expert) why Liu Bang was Emperor.
Chen Cen: ‘What determines the strength of a wheel?’
Guest: ‘The strength of the spokes’
Chen Cen: ‘2 sets of spokes of identical strength did not necessarily make
wheels of identical strength. The strength was also affected by the spaces
between the spokes, & determining the spaces was the true art of the
wheelwright.
Person-based-Leadership
Leadership as the art of the wheelwright
A leader does not have to be an expert but he or she does have
to be an expert wheelwright: a crafter of people, ideas and
things.
Spokes represent the things, the skills and the resources that
organizations need. But these are insufficient in and of
themselves – what also matters is the spaces between them that
hold everything in place – individuals need space to learn & to
lead - and that requires the distribution of leadership throughout.
Person-based-Leadership
Leadership as the art of the wheelwright
Mission Command as the Wheelwright’s Philosophy
Helmuth Carl Bernhard Graf von Moltke (the elder) (1800-1891)
Prussian Chief of Staff between 1871 and 1888
Auftragstaktik: Mission Command
Goal not Methods
Decentralized Control
Working with not against chaos
Person-based-Leadership
Identity Leadership
The Key Programme
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Person-based-Leadership
Unlimited Leadership, Destructive Consent & Irresponsible Followers?
or
Constructive Dissent & Responsible Followers –
Leadership Ltd.?
Person-based-Leadership
Leadership as the property and consequence of an individual
or
Leadership as the property and consequence of a community
Summary: What is Leadership?
• What Counts as Leadership is Essentially Contested
• You Get what you Reward
• It’s Difficult to Relate Results to Leaders – but that’s also essentially contested
• Results are important but more important is which results & who sets them?
• Measurement systems do work – that’s the problem
• Rewarding Results or Visibility? Windows & Mirrors
• The limits of logic & the role of emotion
• Importance of Context, System & Group Versus Individual Decision-Making
• Individual Leaders Serve a Symbolic & Sacred Role: Scapegoats & Saviours
• Plato’s approach focuses on Selection: just select the White Elephant
• Popper’s approach focuses on Distribution: Wheelwright as facilitators
• Constructive Dissent or Destructive Consent: Responsible or Irresponsible Followers?
• Leadership has to be Collective but Responsibility has to be Individual
• Leadership, like Power, is Relational not a Possession – hence Negotiations
• Stars or Communities generate Results?
• And finally …