Will real leadership please step forward?(Management & Careers)

Whether the topic of water cooler conversation is the local school district, city government, corporate management, or national politics, someone is certain to say, "What's needed here is some real leadership." Invariably, the others nod knowingly and ruefully. Yet, when pressed to explain what is meant by real leadership, the speaker's authoritative air is likely to evaporate as soon as he or she begins to speak. The term is far easier to use than to define.

That leadership is difficult to define isn't as surprising as it seems. In fact, the diligent individual who decides to research the topic will probably come away even more perplexed after scanning the list of books written on the subject in the past few years. Recent titles range from Leadership Secrets" of Attila the Hun and Leadership Is an Art to Authentic Leadership, Enlightened Leadership, Servant Leadership, and even Monday Morning Leadership. All of these slants on the topic beg the pivotal question: "What is real leadership and how do people come to possess it?"

Reduced to its most straightforward, elegant definition, real leadership is that quality that inspires and enables others to achieve results that make a situation better. Too often, behaviors that masquerade as leadership are mistaken for the real thing. Charismatic demagoguery, iron-willed autocracy, and skillful manipulation all qualify as behaviors that can produce results. But they fall far short of the definition of real leadership, because the results may be detrimental or achieved against the will of people who were forced or tricked into producing them. Real leadership isn't practiced by executives who intimidate and threaten or by politicians who play on fears and misrepresent the truth. Nor do the management skills taught by fine business schools sate people's appetite for leadership. Instead, leadership is that intangible asset that gives people the will and the confidence to accomplish good things.

CHARACTERISTICS OF EFFECTIVE LEADERS

Those who are effective at providing real leadership come in all flavors, types, and sizes. The gruff, no-nonsense department head may be just as much a leader as the soft-spoken, beloved rabbi at the local synagogue. The teenager who spearheads a charitable drive in the local high school for a classmate injured in an accident is no less a leader than the mayor who inspires rescuers to persist in the search for people lost in a natural disaster. As different as they are in style, personality, and background, all of these leaders have at least four characteristics in common.

A crucial characteristic of leadership is the ability to credibly articulate a vision of what could be. Author and executive Max DePree says that the only kind of leadership worth following is based on vision. Followers don't expect leaders to know exactly how to reach the vision, but they do expect the leader to have a vision. Indeed, a clear, convincing picture of what is possible helps to encourage and persuade people that there is a light at the end of the tunnel or a new, better way to do something. The front-line supervisor who convinces his staff that the new software system really will make work simpler is articulating a vision of a desirable future state. But effective leaders neither exaggerate the benefits nor downplay the difficulty of achieving the vision; instead, they temper confidence with a sense of reality. While the front-line supervisor communicates his conviction that a new software system will be a huge improvement, he also acknowledges the hard work required to get there. But all the while he expresses unfaltering confidence that the vision is attainable in spite of the difficulties.

Closely related to the ability to articulate a credible vision is the ability to clarify priorities, the second characteristic of leadership. One organizational executive told her senior departmental staff that they had no less than 17 top priorities. As a result, employees toiled for endless, exhausting hours to put out one figurative fire after another, second-guessing all the while about what they should be doing. Ultimately, the executive was forced to resign because her staff, guessing that to conduct a particular event was a sufficiently high priority to justify bypassing budget allocations, ended up not only exceeding budget but also violating a strict organizational spending policy. Real leaders help people discern what is truly important and then provide resources such as time, personnel, materials, training, funding, and procedures that allow people to execute the priorities.

When the vision and priorities are clear, followers are free to do their work, especially if the leader observes a third characteristic of leadership. Real leadership is that which is in the habit of stepping out of the way to allow people to perform, supporting them from the sidelines. When people say they want leadership, they don't expect, in the words of one worker, "to have somebody ride in here like the new sheriff in town who looks over my shoulder to see if I'm following the law." Instead, they look for someone who trusts them to do their jobs well and offers support, not blame, when efforts don't succeed. Respected leaders are "we" people when things go wrong and "you" people when it's time to offer congratulations and rewards.

Finally, real leadership is self-aware and empathetic. Just a few years ago, author Daniel Goleman formulated the term "emotional intelligence" to aptly describe this characteristic. Applied to leadership, it means, first of all, that effective leaders have a realistic sense of their own strengths and weaknesses. They are credible in part because they don't pretend to know all the answers or have ready solutions for every problem. At the same time, they make decisions with measured confidence. Importantly, real leaders are also courageous enough to admit and take responsibility for their own errors.

In addition to self-awareness, real leaders are aware of how they are perceived by others in various situations, and they have the intuitive ability to perceive others' viewpoints. To a large extent, discussions about "situational leadership" essentially refer to the leader's ability to adjust his or her responses and actions to the circumstances and to the personalities involved. For example, a manager may realize that one employee wants to be contacted daily while another employee in a similar position feels micromanaged if she hears from the boss more than once a week. Similarly, the manager who typically prefers collaborative decision making may realize the need for unilateral decisions on certain tough calls about unpopular policy revisions.

THE ACID TEST OF LEADERSHIP

While real leadership may be difficult to define, it is obvious when it is present because people are energized and confident as they produce desired, positive results. Real leaders articulate a vision, clarify priorities, get out of the way, and know themselves and their impact on others. As Chinese philosopher Lao Tsu said, "Wicked leaders are those the people despise; good leaders are those the people revere. But when great leaders are present, the people say, 'We did it ourselves.'" Perhaps part of the difficulty in explaining and defining real leadership is that it is often nearly invisible.

LYNN A. MOLINE, a former business executive, is the principal of a consulting practice that advises government, business, and nonprofit executives on leadership issues and organizational and strategic planning, She is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

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