IT'S a popular belief that those who usually rise to the apex in government, business and other high-profile positions were “born leaders”, but a foremost US speaker on leadership disagrees with that assertion.
Al Gini, Emeritus Professor of business ethics at the Quinlan School of Business at Loyola University, Chicago, believes that innate ability is great but accomplished leaders also require training and guidance to harness and direct skills.
Gini shared insights on leadership issues during a lecture hosted by the Denis Hurley Centre at the St Joseph’s Church in Durban on Thursday.
Local political, business, religious and other leaders listened to Gini, who lectured for more than 50 years, authored 14 books and served as a consultant to some leading organisations..
To begin his talk, Gini used the paradoxical theme in the opening lines of Charles Dickens’ classic novel, A Tale of two Cities, to show how poles apart leaders could be in character, conduct and objectives.
His case in point was Vladimir Putin and his Ukraine counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Regardless of how leaders rub up society, Gini said, people were drawn to them.
“Our desire for leadership is unending; we are intellectually drawn to people in power.”
Gini discovered that leadership was the most written about topic in social and other sciences.
“Recently, an unbelievable statistic showed that since 1989 more than 25 000 books have been published with the word ‘leadership’ in the title.
“There is no one book that can do complete justice to such a complex subject. Leadership is much more than a set of facts or theories; it is a lived process.
“Individuals involved shape the outcome and play a crucial role in achieving success or failure in leadership.
“There is no one leader who embodies perfect temperament and has all the tools and talents to be successful in every arena.”
Ther three characteristics that Gini believes are a must for successful leadership are character, stewardship and experience.
He said character refers to the enduring marks that are etched in a person's life through experience, genes, talents and training.
“These engravings set us apart, an individual's values and ethics.”
Gini said it was essential to examine a leader’s character.
A good steward is a leader who thinks and acts for the benefit of others, and Gini used the example of how bees cannot survive minus a hive and that a hive won't won’t keep without bees.
“Leadership is a symbiotic relationship where leaders and followers are dependent on each other, whose fortunes rise and fall together.”
Gini said learning from our experience was critical.
“Nelson Mandela said if he had not been in prison for 27 years, he would have not been able to achieve the most difficult task in his life. That was changing himself.
“Mandela referred to the Robben Island prison cell as the university that taught him to be a complete human being, self control and discipline,”
Gini is cognisant that some individuals without all the relevant experience still managed to rise to the top.
He cited the examples of Barack Obama and Woodrow Wilson as not being ready to be presidents of the US but who excelled anyhow when they got to the Oval Office.
Both had a certain drive to succeed.
“Obama wasn’t ready for the job, he was an activist. He studied the job, became a constitution scholar, understood the presidency and communities he served.
“Abraham Lincoln made himself a leader by studying; Mandela studied and read every night. He went into prison as a terrorist and communist, but returned as a democrat and capitalist who could also speak Afrikaans.”
Gini said, like an athlete, you have certain natural ability, certain muscular traits and natural co-ordination, but you have to be trained to truly succeed.
“If you didn’t work at it, it will never happen.”
He warned that at times toxic leaders emerge who do great harm to their organisation and followers.
It often happens that when no good alternatives are available, bad leaders get chosen because they satisfy the most basic of human needs of order and stability, which even results in fascist leaders being elected.
“A Republican senator said, given a choice between anarchy and tyranny, most individuals would choose tyranny because anarchy lacks formal structure, cohesion, direction and purpose.
Therefore, if a bad leader has a plan, in desperate times we too often are willing to embrace toxic leaders,” he said.
Ela Gandhi, who attended the lecture, commented that people can also change for the better, depending on the books they read and the people with whom they associate.
“My grandfather (Mahatma Gandhi) said you are what you read and ingested. Having a conscience is an important part of leadership,” she said.
SUNDAY TRIBUNE