A Crisis In Leadership

Is there a "leadership crisis" in the world today? Recently I was criticized by an editor for saying that the "leadership crisis" is alive and thriving. James McGregor Burns the Pulitzer Prize winning author of the book Leadership (1978) coined this phrase 30 years ago and according to this expert editor the subject has been discussed thoroughly and is old hat.

Old hat? I am not sure what he meant by this or how he rates today's leaders and the status of leadership in our country and the world. The President of the United States has an approval rating in the high 20s, his Vice President ratings is in the low teens and Congress is even lower. The leaders in the Middle East, Africa, Pakistan and China aren't faring a lot better. Our institutions religious, business, government and even sports, have been shaken by scandals. The US dollar is at an all time low, our national debt is approaching $10 trillion (it has almost doubled in the last 7 years) and the price of oil is breaking records everyday (yesterday it was 6 times higher than when Bush took office). If there isn't a crisis of leadership we certainly have more than our share of bad leadership.

What is the cause?

It doesn’t take a genius to recognize a problem, especially not one as painful as bad leadership (who is not affected by it?). Nor do we have to spend a lot of time discussing leadership especially during this long, drawn out campaign season; we have all those talking heads on TV doing this all day and all night for us. A better question is what is causing so much bad leadership and leaders? Burns offered some insight into the problem 30 years ago when he said most of us including the experts would have a problem knowing what leadership is. He said in his book if a Martian came to earth and asked an earthling to take him to his leader, the earthling would not know where to take him. Thirty years have passed since Burns wrote this and in my opinion very little has changed. In fact we can’t even agree on what leadership is, leadership expert Warren Bennis states that he is aware of at least 860 definitions of leadership.

Is there a solution?

Do we need more books, studies and articles? There are thousands of books, studies and articles written on leadership each year and very little has changed. The popular press is filled with, biographies and autobiographies of effective leaders and even more popular “how to” books offering a magic bullet for being a successful leader. The academic literature is filled with studies, theories and yes definitions. One very significant fact often overlooked is that most of what is written is focused on effective leadership and what it takes to be effective (the magic bullet).

Is there a magic bullet?

I haven’t found one and seriously doubt that there is one. However there are fundamentals and a lot of hard work if you want to be an effective leader. And yet very seldom does anyone address the fundamentals and basics of leadership. One exception is the “Functions of the Executive” written by Chester I. Barnard in 1938 which focuses on the responsibilities of the executives in an organization. The problem that most people find with this book is that Barnard was a CEO (Ma Bell) who wrote a book for CEOs (I am not sure that this was intentional but it reads this way). It is not a book for beginners. What is missing and needed is a model that addresses the basic fundamentals of leadership.

I offered this as a solution to the editor that slammed my evaluation of leadership being in a crisis status. He didn’t like this argument much better than my “crisis” evaluation of leadership. As he eloquently explained to me, "there are countless MBA programs, articles, and books preaching "getting back to basics" and "preparing leaders during a leadership crisis." And therein lies the problem, he hit the nail on the head, thousands of pieces in the literature and not one model dealing with the basic fundamentals of leadership.

Leadership 101 Model

Now there is one, my Leadership 101 Model. This model is one that I developed over time, practiced successfully for many years and formalized as my PhD dissertation. It is based on 35 years of successful leadership, the observation personally and at a distance of very effective leaders, and many years of research and studies on the subject.

Before entering the PhD program and throughout my business career I studied and practiced leadership. During the development of a total quality program in my company during the 80s I realized that successful and effective companies we studied had common best practices although there had been no collaboration between them (we also were doing many of the same practices). In other words we had a lot in common and the amazing point was that we had come to many of the same conclusions and practices without even being aware of what each other were doing. Because of this when I started my research on leadership I was certain that I would find in the academic literature studies, articles and books written specifically about these basic fundamentals. I was convinced that the only reason I hadn’t read about then was I had spent all of my time studying leadership by reading popular literature. It was understood that these “pop” books were not going to get down to the nitty gritty of things like the basics and that I would have to go the academic literature to have a more serious and in depth study of leadership.

In the process I researched over a hundred years of the leadership literature and read countless studies and books about leadership and leaders (in addition to many I read before my formal studies). I was surprised and frustrated because there was very little discussion of the basics of leadership. My leadership model is based both on my personal experience and the practice of effective leaders and the experts that have written classics about the subject i.e. Burns, Barnard, McGregor, McCovey, Bennis to name just a few.

Where do we start?

If we are ever going to put a dent in the “leadership crisis” we must start with the basics (you have to crawl before you can walk). I challenge you to name one profession or trade that doesn’t start their teaching and training with the basics. Equally important is the basics are essential in evaluating leadership. Essential for the experts so that there can be some agreement on just what effective leadership is, and to all of us so that we can recognize good leadership and a good leader from a bad one. The basics are one of the most important factors in building an effective organization according to the late great coach and leader Vince Lombardi (the basics were first in his formula for a successful team and organization, the other two were discipline and love).

What are the basics?

The basics start with a practical definition of leadership, which is "to provide direction, process and coordination to a person(s), a team or organization" for the purpose of attaining his/hers/their stated goals". They include how do we get people to cooperate (contribute their efforts)with leaders? What is the best form of cooperation? Alexander Hamilton believed that people should be governed by fear or self interest whereas Adams and Jefferson believed that people would accept a common purpose. They would accept this common purpose not out of fear but for the common good of our country. Accepting a common purpose would lead to the most effective and enduring cooperation (willing cooperation) which is the basis of democracy. All of which raises the question of what are the basics of professional and personal leadership that will motivate people to cooperate willingly with leaders?

Want to know more?

Read my article Leadership 101: Back To The Basics and use it evaluate the President, Senators Obama, McCain and Clinton. Do any of them fit the model? When you finish doing this use the model to evaluate your boss, your own leadership.