Great Leaders in Short Supply

Why great leaders are in short supply

04:45 AM Apr 05, 2012 (with thanks to TODAY )

by James S Rosebush

Leadership is in something of an odd position right now. On one hand, the topic has never been more studied and written about. On the other hand, we're experiencing a dearth of leadership in society. We see fewer prominent leaders who seem genuine and highly capable, and many who have been compromised, deposed or defeated. Even more seem to have run out of ideas or are simply unable to craft the necessary consensus to lead.

Perhaps this inverse relationship isn't so surprising - the deeper we sink into a leadership crisis, the more it shows up on the agendas of think- tanks and conferences.

From my own perspective as someone who's worked closely with leaders for decades, it isn't so much that today's leaders fall short in terms of their capabilities and character - it isn't so much that the visionary, principled, courageous types we would all prefer to follow were once common and are now a rarity.

Rather, it's that the context of leadership has changed.

Leaders with just as much capability as their predecessors simply find it much harder to do their jobs. We could probably cite many factors that have contributed to this shift, but three stand out in particular.

Leaders in the past had the great advantages of:

Privileged Access To Information
People naturally look for direction from someone they perceive to be in possession of privileged information about an evolving situation.It used to be that leaders were in a unique position to acquire that information and to dole it out on a need-to-know basis. But now, the world is awash in instantly accessible information on all subjects. Whether they're walking down a city street or through a remote jungle, people making ground-level observations can communicate them directly to other like-minded citizens around the globe. Is it any wonder that the Web has become every dictator's greatest fear? In almost any realm, an impassioned nobody can be in greater possession of the facts than a leader in that same realm, information has de-coupled from leadership. In fact, information flows now actively undercut leadership - both its practice and our perceived need for it.

The Reflected Glory Of Their Institutions
Twenty years ago, a citizen might not know the name of a Fortune 500 CEO or non-government organisation director, but they were familiar with the institution's reputation, and they made an assumption that the person chosen to lead such an organisation must personify its positive qualities. Two things have changed all this: It is now much easier to view a leader and his institution separately, and there has been a significant decline in respect for the institutions themselves. Whether we're talking about multinational corporations, churches or public treasuries, Pew and Gallup constantly remind us that these institutions' reputations have never been lower. There is an increasing belief in the growth of incompetence, greed and frivolity at the expense of the governed, the taxed and the managed.Are institutions truly less noble, or is it that they, as well as their leaders, are subjected to more relentless scrutiny? I vividly recall the media's clamouring for details about presidential habits in my years in the White House of President Ronald Reagan - only to find them all too ordinary and boring to report. Today, the media churns out every minor indiscretion and then, in a rare act of community, the public blogs about it. Social media platforms give motivated critics the chance to be heard. Whether it's a matter of perception or reality, we can only hope that respect for our institutions rises again. Institutions are where we join together, worship together, debate and celebrate - places where preachers preach and leaders lead. When these institutions lose our respect, we lose a platform for concerted action. And potentially great leaders lose a platform for leadership.

Broadly Shared Foundational Principles
There's one other foundation of leadership that seems badly shaken today: A common understanding of the age-tested principles, religious or moral, that should guide our lives. Leaders may be yet another victim of the move away from the teaching and practice of moral values and their integration in early family life. Patterns in inter-personal relations start early and are almost impossible to change; taking a graduate school class in ethics may be far too late for someone who has never had good character required of them. The Meridian International Center, which offers leadership training for diplomats and internationalists in Washington, has studied this problem. Its conclusion: ''Trust in public and private sector leaders can only be restored when leaders align value-based decisions, not rhetoric, with basic aspirations such as security and economic opportunity.''

Leadership has never been easy. But I suspect it was simpler in an era when leaders could count on superior access to information, reverence for their institutions and strong moral bearings to assemble greater followership. Conditions have changed to make leadership harder. Mr Tom Neff, chairman of the executive search firm Spencer Stuart, puts it boldly: ''We are experiencing a demand for new types of skills and sacrifices in C-level executives that many are not prepared to bring to the table.''

Of course, the corollary is that great leadership capability has never been more valuable. Even as the accessibility of information makes it less necessary for a group to have a leader to inform, organise and mobilise its action, the sheer glut of information makes it more vital for a leader to show how all that data add up to a meaningful narrative - to interpret and inspire.

If institutional reverence cannot be assumed, it only means that leaders have a greater responsibility to engage hearts and minds. In an era when character is not a given, the leader who consistently displays integrity will have a real impact.


© 2012 Harvard Business School Distributed by The New York Times Syndicate James S Rosebush is CEO of GrowthStrategy and The Wealth and Family Management Group, both based in Washington.