Leadership re-invented

Lionel Wijesiri

Change is in the air - in our economy, our nation, and our world. The use of technology, a desire for authentic community, and a hunger to communicate and live good lives are challenging the present leaders to rethink the way they lead.

Defence and Urban Development Ministry Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa

Since late 90s, the job descriptions of leaders, whether political, social or business, have begun to shift keeping abreast with the changing expectations and needs of the society. This was particularly true when it came to next generation leaders within the society.

Under-30s already form the majority of our population, and they are critical to deciding the future of the country and to tackling complicated issues like violence, corruption and Climate Change - issues that need long-term commitment and long-term strategic thinking! We therefore need to recognise the vast importance of leadership education to help them develop the skills and knowledge they may need to turn their dreams into realities. It is in this context we must view the suggestion made by Defence and Urban Development Ministry Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa recently that Leadership training should be made compulsory for youths to build self-confidence and earn victories in the international sphere as well as locally. As the Defence Secretary points out, making leaders of our younger generation is a task of the highest importance because it would be in the national interest to have resourceful and dynamic youths among us. Essentially, we need to have persons, who are productive, far-thinking and energetic.

Leadership qualities

The idea is that leadership - like scientific disciplines, for example - consists of a set of skills, methodologies, and ideas that can be taught. The difference is that unlike, say, biology, leadership should inform all aspects of life. Leadership programmes teach important life skills, such as introspection, cultural sensitivity, moral acuity, people skills, and decision-making acumen.

Part of the problem was its name; 'leadership' is an amorphous term. Truth be told, most leadership books - or what are called leadership books - are nothing more than ego exercises for the author. It was and remains easy to dismiss a field that seems to include every chief executive, politician, government servant, and self-employed boss. And then there is the notion that true leaders are born, not made, and therefore leadership isn't worthy of academic study. Others worry that such programmes offer a false promise to students - after all, not everyone can become a leader. Nevertheless we are witnessing a growth in, and a new respect for, what we now call leadership studies. This is occurring in part because of the perception, at least, that Sri Lanka is suffering a crisis of leadership. Our social pundits are bemoaning the loss of visionaries. One might ask, where have all the leaders gone?

It is time that our universities and all other higher education institutes incorporate leadership training into their programmes, or even create stand-alone business-leadership programmes. At the same time, schools also could incorporate civic engagement or service learning, which is enveloped in a language of leadership development.

Basis

If these are been done, the task before us would be twofold if we are going to embrace this trend. First, each higher education institution needs to define leadership in a meaningful way before it can develop a meaningful curriculum for its students. A leadership programme should be based on the values and mission of the institute. If those values are not defined, or if the programme does not follow them, students will be left with a mash-up of courses with conflicting purposes and nothing tying them together. We should not rush to slap the 'leadership' label on programmes that are not really grounded in leadership studies.

Second, we cannot just provide the next generation with the pragmatic tools that this generation of leaders seems to lack, and call it a day. The skills students will need can't be so narrowly defined because by the time a student graduates, those tools may well be obsolete. Rather, students should learn how to recognize and develop such skills in themselves, what we refer to as lifelong learning.

Once they recognize the importance of leadership in ways that older generations may not, students will be flocking to these programmes.

Today's students are graduating into a world that is much riskier than the one we knew. We are beginning to recognize that our current economic crisis goes much deeper than the recent drop in the stock market. Our students will find themselves in what I call a micro-entrepreneurial age. They will have multiple jobs and even multiple careers during their lifetimes. Many will work for small firms, and a growing percentage will be consultants and freelancers for most of their working lives. In short, they will need to be equipped to make their own opportunities. They need the skills, knowledge, and qualities that leadership programmes cultivate: self-reliance, social and cultural capital, appreciation for lifelong learning, creativity, conflict-resolution and team-building skills, ethics, understanding of economics, and more. Leadership programmes recognize that the career ladder of old is broken. In the past, companies could be counted on to develop leaders by ushering bright employees into management-training programmes. Today such programmes are few and far between. Colleges and universities must do the job.

Model

We should stop snickering every time we hear the word 'leadership' on campus and start recognizing the desire of many students to hone and professionalize skills that will serve them long after graduation. Perhaps those skills were once instilled by corporate America or families. Now higher education is stepping up. Graduates of leadership programmes may not be crowned leaders as soon as they get their diplomas, but ideally they will have the skills to lead tomorrow's generation and to thrive in the new economy.

Leadership training is an experiential process necessary in preparing students to lead. In 'Bringing Leadership Experiences to Inner-City Youth,' Boyd (2000) investigated a service-learning model of leadership brought to at-risk youth. The processing steps used to create experiential based activities included: Experience, do the activity; Sharing, describe or reflect on the activity; Process, find themes in the activity; Generalize, what was learned in completing the activity; and, Apply, what is learned to another experience or activity (p. 1). I would combine the words 'process' and 'generalize', and use the word 'reflect'.

Essentially the model Boyd studied created leadership experiences that were then learned from in a systematic way. In order to guide experiential based leadership activities, Boyd enlisted the 12 principles that make effective leadership programmes by Woyach and Cox. These twelve principles are very well thought out and go beyond many other guiding principles since they address both the outcomes and the process of a leadership programme.

* Help youth learn specific knowledge and skills related to leadership.
*Enable youth to understand the history, values and beliefs of their society.
*Facilitate the development of individual strengths and leadership styles.
*Facilitate the development of ethics, values and ethical reasoning.
*Promote awareness, understanding, and tolerance of other people, cultures and societies.
*Embody high expectations of, confidence in, and respect for the teens served.
*Emphasize experiential learning and provide opportunities for genuine leadership.
*Involve young people in service to others, to their community, their country.
*Facilitate self-reflection and processing of learning both individually and cooperatively.
*Involve youth in collaborative experiences, teamwork and networking with peers.
*Involve youth in significant relationships with mentors, positive role models.
*Be developed around stated purposes and goals.

All Leadership Development and Training programmes push each and every participant to gain a rigorous personal insight into what makes them tick and then, with that understanding of themselves, to stretch their 'comfort zones' into new and challenging territory. This is the one essential quality that anyone in any position of leadership must develop. Whether the youth is running a company, running a service organisation or running a home, he/she cannot excel unless thing are seen from all points of view.

Once these 'seeing' skills are developed then the skills that make things happen can be developed and finally get things unstuck, move things forward. He/she can look at creating a vision, motivating and inspiring others, setting clear agendas and supporting those who need to help make the vision become a reality.