What makes a person a great leader
We are merely selecting people with the best PR skills and the most eloquent orators, who may or may not have the integrity, the know-how or the skills to fulfill the responsibilities required of them.
By Jonson Chong
What makes a person a great leader?
Virtually everything our modern culture believes about the type of leadership required to
transform our institutions is wrong. It is also dangerous. There is perhaps no more corrosive
trend to the health of our organizations than the rise of the celebrity CEO, the rock-star leader
whose deepest ambition is first and foremost self-centric.
– Jim Collins (author of Good to Great)
In this day and age of instant coffee, fast food and DIY blogs, we tend to look for quick fixes, including celebrity leaders, whom we believe can lead our organisations into the sunset. And more often than not, when we talk about leadership, we look to statesmen, generals, politicians and the like, to find good examples of great leaders. It is true that there have been many great leaders in the political field, including people like Mohandas K. Gandhi and Abraham Lincoln. However, we should also look to business leaders to learn certain principles of leadership.
Great leadership in politics and business
In politics, it can be very subjective to say whether a leader is successful or not. Although we can say that a political leader that leads his or her party to victory in elections must surely be a good or successful leader, we must remember that the ultimate goal of political warfare is not victory but the peace and prosperity that ensues thereafter. Thus, the gauge of a great political leader is his or her ability to transform the electoral victory into policies and deliver results that truly benefit the people.
Besides, in politics, the game of winning and losing is often determined by those who hold sway over the media and the perception of the people, not by whether one can deliver results or not. In this sense, the political market place is not a free market. There is more than an invisible hand – there are many hidden hands.
In business, it is much simpler to identify great leaders. Two very simple indicators will determine great leadership in companies in the somewhat more free market: outstanding profits and sustainability.
If we have one but not the other, then it’s no more than an entrepreneur riding on a fad and making some money out of it. If the company can endure the challenges of the market place and survive for a long time without earning profit levels above and beyond the rest of the market players, then it is just an average company.
What we’re looking for is a business leader who consistently delivers outstanding profits for a period of time that spans at least 30 years. And although the same business leader may not helm the leadership of the
company for all of those 30 years, he or she would have laid down the solid foundations and planned carefully for his or her succession.
So, if we agree to use the field of business to identify great leadership, let’s take a quick look at Jim Collins’ study of what makes a good company great, particularly on leadership (his book, Good to Great, is a bestseller and often used as a reference book by many top CEOs around the world).
Level 5 Leadership: The antithesis of egocentric celebrity
The term “Level 5” refers to a five-level hierarchy. Level 1 relates to individual capability,
Level 2 to team skills, Level 3 to managerial competence, and Level 4 to leadership as
traditionally conceived. Level 5 leaders possess the skills of levels 1 to 4 but also have an
“extra dimension”: a paradoxical blend of personal humility (“I never stopped trying to
become qualified for the job”) and professional will (“sell the mills”). They are somewhat
self-effacing individuals who deflect adulation, yet who have an almost stoic resolve to do
absolutely whatever it takes to make the company great, channeling their ego needs away
from themselves and into the larger goal of building a great company. It’s not that Level 5
leaders have no ego or self-interest. Indeed, they are incredibly ambitious—
but their ambition is first and foremost for the institution and its greatness, not for themselves.
(Original emphasis by the author.)
The above quote is extracted from an article by Jim Collins entitled The Misguided Mix-up of Celebrity and Leadership, where he addresses a very important problem that seems to plague our culture and society today. When we elect leaders or appoint people to high positions based on their popularity, we are doing ourselves and our future generations a big disfavour. Celebrity CEOs are not known to build or lead great companies. Where is Lee Iacocca today? More importantly, where is Chrysler today? On the opposite end
of the spectrum, we have Jack Welch, and let us ask ourselves where is GE today?
Welch retired as CEO back in 2001 after he carefully planned his succession, and GE not only grew from a market value of $14 billion to more than $410 billion at the end of 2004, but it is now (according to Forbes), in 2010, the second largest corporation in the world.
Jack Welch may seem like a celebrity now, but we must realise that he became a celebrity because of his management capability and leadership philosophy. He was not made CEO of GE because he was popular. He was made CEO because he knew what had to be done to make the company the best in the
world.
Malaysian politics of personality
It doesn’t take much for us to see that Malaysian politics is based on personality and not on ideologies, policies and/or principles. What is wrong with that, you ask?
Well, for starters, have you noticed that every time there is a new education minister, he will start tinkering with the education system, regardless of how inconvenient it is for students, parents, teachers and principals? These education ministers are more interested in leaving their mark on the ministry of education than in the actual education of our children. Is that what we want?
Secondly, if we elect or appoint people to high and powerful positions based on their personalities and not their character and capabilities, then we are merely selecting people with the best PR skills and the most eloquent orators, who may or may not have the integrity, the know-how or the skills to fulfill the responsibilities required of them.
Last but not least, politics are definitely about people but the “people” we should be focusing on here are the people on the street – those who work hard to earn a decent wage to feed their families, those who simply want to be able to provide shelter and security for their loved ones – and not those who are horse-trading positions and power for their own interests.
I have said it before, and I will say it again: the reality of Malaysian politics will not change as long as we, the people, continue to idolise celebrity leaders and put them on a pedestal. If we really want a better Malaysia for all, it’s time we shifted our mindset and support Level 5 leaders who are willing to do what it takes to move the country forward for the people, and not for themselves.
