Genuine leadership vs. paradox management strategies

Transformational leaders act as role models and display a charismatic personality that influences others to want to become more like the leader

We are dreaming of having a genuine leader to lead our respective organisations to achieve desired results. When competent leaders lead from the front it is a pleasure to work in such organisations. The subordinates feel much secured within their parameters when working under a competent leader. They feel that they are being protected by the core competencies of the leader. They know that they are not exposed to undue risks. 

However, suddenly paradox moves take place within organisations to eliminate able leaders. The policymakers of organisations, mainly the boards who work with inferior motives resort to decisions of this nature. In sports bodies, it is the administrators who create these situations. When the leader is detached, the followers get confused. The focus is lost and the final outcome can be easily influenced.

Recently, I watched a documentary related to wolves in North America. When there is a scarcity of food, wolf packs which consist of around 20 wolves, team up with another similar size pack of wolves and form a larger pack which is called a super pack. These super packs sometimes attack villages in search of food. The gunmen are trained to identify the leader of the pack and to kill it. Once the leader is killed the rest back down and vanish. The regrouping process is cumbersome, takes time and as a result, the focus of the pack is lost.

Leadership styles and how they work

The genuine leaders need two types of skills namely intellectual skills and people skills. The intellectual skills are needed to develop a vision, give directions and to make strategic decisions. The people skills are needed to influence others and interacting with stakeholders such as peer groups, employees, clients and superiors. 

When I think of a great business leader, Sir Richard Branson comes to my mind inevitably, most of the time. It is not because he is a great business tycoon but because of his belief in looking after his employees before his customers. It is not the customer is a king concept but the employee is king attitude. He believes the employees should be looked after first as it stimulates their minds to look after their customers in a more friendly and effective manner. What a great theory! Customers have choices. They come and go. But when you have a loyal team of employees they ensure that customers will only come and not leave. They will remain in your business.

Transformational leadership

It occurs when leaders recognise the interests of their employees, when leaders are aware and accept the purpose and mission of the group, when leaders stimulate their employees to look beyond their self-interest for the betterment of the group and finally when exceeding beyond self-interest for the betterment of the group, organisation, and finally the society.

Have you ever been in a group where someone took control of the situation by conveying a clear vision of the group’s goals, a marked passion for the work, and an ability to make the rest of the group feel recharged and energised? This person just might be the ideal transformational leader.

Transformational leadership is a leadership style that can inspire positive changes in those who follow. Transformational leaders are generally energetic, enthusiastic, and passionate. Not only are these leaders concerned and involved in the process; they are also focused on helping every member of the group succeed as well.

Transformational leaders act as role models and display a charismatic personality that influences others to want to become more like the leader. They are admired, respected, and matched. They maintain a high degree of trust, integrity in the form of ethical and moral conduct. They are great communicators. They value creativity among their followers. They support their followers by involving them in the decision-making process and stimulating their efforts to be as creative and innovative as possible to identify solutions. The transformational leader challenges assumptions and asks ideas from followers without criticising.

Transactional leadership

A transactional leader is someone who values order and structure. They are likely to command military operations, manage large corporations, or lead international projects that require rules and regulations to complete objectives on time or move people and supplies in an organised way. Transactional leaders don’t suit the places where creativity and innovative ideas are valued. It is a reward- based leadership style.

Servant leadership

The servant-leader is servant first. This style of leadership is popular amongst non-profit oriented organisations. These leaders are motivated by the desire to serve rather than lead. They mainly conduct facilitation roles in organisations. Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa fit into this category.

Strategies

The strategies are mainly defined as deliberate and emergent strategies. When deliberate strategies are developed and practiced over a period of time a few emergent strategies may surface within. The ‘strategy of narrative’ which is based on the history and past tales of the organisation gets synchronised with these emergent strategies and make a strategy which is unique to the relevant organisation. The narrative strategy is an advance strategy in management. When practiced these unique strategies over a period of time they become traditions. When establishments are getting old, traditions play a major role. Most old establishments run on traditions.

Manipulation of strategies

Petty-minded strategists manipulate these strategies to fulfil their desires. There are a number of reasons for these manipulations. These strategists may be trying to prove a case. They maybe on the payroll of a competitor or maybe earning undue and unethical monetary and other benefits from third parties. It may be due to internal politics or external politics. It can also be an egoistic issue of an individual or a group. It can also be to change the regime and to trade the organisation for a bargain price. 

Whatever the issue they are not interested in the good fortune of the establishment for which they work. Most these situations take place in well-established organisations as the system runs on its own and strategist have ample time to play around. The small and new organisations mostly don’t have issues of such nature as they have much more important things to concentrate on. The boards of such organisations can’t afford to allow their bottom-line to get deteriorated. Thus they work as a team from top to bottom.

The large establishments can run on their own without applying any deliberate strategies to increase their profits or brand reputation for a considerable time. Their predecessors have spent many years of hard labour on trial and error basis in order to bring such organisations to the present-day standards. The strategies such as Blue Ocean, Transient, Institutional and Ambidexterity have been tried and tested during their testing periods. The egotistic strategists enjoy the stability created by their predecessors to manipulate the system while enjoying all the perks. 

The potential of establishments are overshadowed as a result of these short-lived deeds. When these strategists become powerful in the management grid they avoid placing genuine profit-making employees of the organisation in the frontline. In some instances, even the CEO is marked when he doesn’t obey their deliberately planned infertile instructions. They keep them behind the screen and don’t allow them to get highlighted. They make them frustrated, frame them for an offense or find them employment elsewhere. That is how they get rid of them to distract the system. 

The strategists make sure that these stars will not be shined even in the gloomiest nights. Because if they are given an opportunity they will turn around the results for the betterment of the organisation. In most aged establishments, fractions within the boards exist. On the face of it, these fractions are not visible. When sensitive matters surfaced these fractions come into play and those could be easily recognised in the board room. The stronger fraction manipulates and interprets the circumstances in their favour. The weaker fractions have no choice rather than accepting it. If they don’t, they will be bulldozed. Such situations take place not only in corporates but in sports bodies as well.

Even though it is not acceptable under most management ethics this autocratic leadership style pays dividends in some instances when same is done in good faith and for the betterment of the organisation. Such circumstances surface when establishments fight against odds to accomplish a certain task which is not being understood by the other fractions.

But in most circumstances, it is done deliberately with an inferior motive. Like killing the leader of the wolf super pack, a well-set CEOs are removed to distract the mission of the team. He is being replaced with a fake leader who runs the operation according to the wishes of the manipulators. The new leader hardly has any leadership qualities. He is only a dummy figure. They headhunt and appoint such leaders from nowhere. He operates on a remote device controlled by the manipulators. If he tries to be smart he will be ousted. Thus for his survival, he obeys the instructions given by the manipulators as had not been for them he wouldn’t have been in that position at all. 

This how most impoverished leaders of Blake and Mouton’s Leadership Grid are made. They are not interested in improving the performance of the organisation because they are not supposed to do so or they are not capable of doing so. Likewise, they are not interested in looking after the well-being of their employees. They are neither performance-oriented nor people-oriented leaders. They are just egoistic dummies.

Transformational, Team, Authentic and Servants leadership styles are considered as best leadership styles in management. However, it is petty that most genuine leaders are not allowed to practice them because once these styles are applied, the leaders become heroes. Some boards don’t want their CEOs to become heroes due to various reasons. One of the main visible reasons is the day that the CEO leaves the organisation, a considerable number of the team members will leave with him. Sir Richard Branson is a Transformational leader. Nevertheless, he possesses servant leadership qualities too. Sir Richard Branson can afford to apply them as he is the owner of his business. But, most of the CEOs are stranded in this aspect as they are working for someone else. And that someone else doesn’t like his CEO to be popular among his staff. 

Conclusion 

We see potential leaders over a period of time who have been tapping on the doors of leadership. We see their capabilities and core competencies for a considerable time. But, suddenly we see strategically they are being removed and replaced the slot with an incompetent candidate. We also see when a mission is about to be accomplished the leader is detached from the task. Also, we see in some instances the elimination process takes places long before the potential candidate is nominated. When potential candidates are seen, they are being strategically pushed out from the path. That is to avoid future threats to the agendas of manipulators or so-called policy makers. 

However, when powerful leaders emerged they outclass these plotters. When leadership synergised with proper strategies organisations flourish. Hence, to achieve desired goals the plotters who camouflaged themselves as top policymakers should be identified, stripped and tossed out from board rooms for the betterment of establishments.    

(The writer is the founder of Infornets, an organisation which is formed to share credit-related information and financial knowledge to less informed people, locally and internationally. He counts 35 years of experience in the Non-Banking Financial Industry of Sri Lanka. He is a former CEO/General Manager of a non-bank financial institution. He is a board member of the National Science and Technology Commission (NASTEC). He holds a Master Degree in Business Administration from the UK. He is a member of Institute of Management of Sri Lanka and an associate member of Sri Lanka Association of Advancement of Science. He can be reached via [email protected].)