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Even his people
skills were of the
highest order, and
anyone meeting him
socially or
professionally for
the first time would
have regarded him as
articulate,
attentive, charming,
and gifted with an
infectious sense of
humour.
Unfortunately, he
was also
self-centred,
cynical, cruel,
manipulative, and
deceitful, and the
workplace he ruled
over was
characterised by
fear, hopelessness,
and a dispirited
lack of initiative.
The reality is that
the man was not a
leader, but a
misleader.
He didn’t have
followers; he had
functionaries who
did what he wanted
because he
intimidated, coerced
or cajoled them.
They were no more
than means to his
selfish ends – in
other words, he had
no respect for them
as human beings.
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Character is learned
in loving families
and caring
communities, where
the virtues are
encouraged and
expected in the
workplace and
everywhere else. |
His skills were
irrelevant, being
used, misused, or
abused according to
his own whim. The
damage he did in the
lives of his
employees was
unconscionable.
Skills on their own
are inadequate
I have seen so many
instances of this in
corporate life that
the conviction grows
stronger with every
day that, while
leadership training
is a very lucrative
business, it is
manifestly
inadequate to
produce leaders.
The truth is that
there must
inevitably come a
time when the honest
trainer must admit
to the trainee:
“There are no more
skills we can teach
you – now you have
to rely on your
character and
intellect.”
And there’s the rub
– there are no easy,
quick-fix,
skills-training
programs that can
transform character
and intellect
overnight. And
character and
intellect are the
essential factors in
leadership. Let’s
take one at a time
to understand them
better.
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The quest for
character
It is an interesting
comment on modern
society that when
emotional
intelligence became
a management fad
back in the 1990s,
its proponents were
all obliged to
acknowledge the
parallels between
their findings and
the long-held
principles of
ancient wisdom.
An excellent article
on corporate codes
of conduct in the
Harvard Business
Review a few years
ago underlined this
reality. The
researchers noted
that the eight basic
principles they
distilled from the
internationally
diverse codes of
conduct all echoed
guidelines familiar
throughout history.
Predictably, modern
research concurs
with ancient
philosophy that
integrity, the sign
of good character,
is built on the
virtues of judgment,
courage,
self-control,
fairness,
aspiration,
confidence, and
respect. None of
those can be
developed by
skills-training.
Character is learned
in loving families
and caring
communities, where
the virtues are
encouraged and
expected in the
workplace and
everywhere else.
The restless
intellect
Intellect is more
than animal
intelligence. It is
the creative spark
in the human mind
responsible for the
astonishing
diversity of human
culture. All human
beings are creative
– we are all able to
understand potential
and conceive
possibilities. In
other words, we have
vision, the ability
to project into the
future.
Frustrated intellect
often seeks release
in anti-social
behaviour, a lesson
society seems to
have forgotten.
Leaders emerge
through education
Character and
intellect make
civilised society
and all its benefits
possible, and are
the human attributes
that confirm that
leaders are made not
born. They can only
be developed by
self-driven ongoing
education, of which
skills-training is
but a tiny part.
Until we admit the
limitations of
skills-training and
encourage people to
take charge of their
own education, the
deluge of
misleadership will
prevail.
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