Strategic Planning
Articles
“Sustainability through Leadership,”
America’s Byways Resource Center; Vistas, July/August 2003
Strategic Planning: Sustainability through Leadership
A person can hardly walk past a newsstand, bookstore or magazine rack these days without seeing titles that refer to leadership. There are theories, models, studies, tips, guides and assessments on what leadership is and how to develop those skills. From playgrounds to complex organizations, someone always seems to be in the lead—showing the way. Interestingly, what leaders do is not obvious and a leader is not always a person with an impressive title or credentials.
Why We Need Leaders
Everyone has ideas about what should be done and how to do it. Sometime individuals strike out alone and accomplish great things. More often, groups form around a common idea to get things done. If key individuals don’t draw the group members together, then confusion, frustration and conflict begin to impact the work and the group may even break up without accomplishing the goal. Each National Scenic Byway has a person named as the “byway leader,” However, many different individuals who take on different roles in the organization can provide leadership this is often not a job position or description. Any person who takes a part in drawing others toward a desired outcome is serving as a leader.
What Leaders Do
Every organization, whether it deliberately creates them or not, follows a set of guiding principles. Organizations form around vision, values and purpose—what the organization stands for and what the members are working to create or change. Effective leaders articulate that vision in a compelling way; identify the values and hold themselves and organization members accountable to them as decisions are made and actions taken. Leaders set the boundaries, hold to the course and provide ongoing encouragement to members to do the right work.
Leadership and management are connected, but not the same. As John Kotter, Professor of Leadership at Harvard Business School, differentiates it, management is about coping with the complexities of an organization and brings a degree of order and consistency. Leadership, in contrast, is about coping with change and setting the direction for the organization.
Most leaders do spend time acting as managers. They may develop work plans, supervise staff or volunteers, or conduct evaluations and report on projects. However, in the words of Frederick Smith, CEO of FedEx, “The primary task of leadership is to communicate the vision and the values of an organization. Second, leaders must win support for the vision and the values they articulate. And third, leaders have to reinforce the vision and values.”
What Leaders Are
Learning to recognize the qualities of excellent leaders increases the likelihood of identifying individuals who can help achieve the goals and sustain byway groups over the long run.
Are leaders born or made? Research shows probably some of both. In Leading Change, John Kotter writes, “The historically dominant concept takes leadership skills as a divine gift of birth, a gift granted to a small number of people. Although I, too, once believed this, I have found that the traditional idea simply does not fit well with that I have observed in nearly thirty years of studying organizations and the people who run them. In particular, the older model is nearly oblivious to the power and the potential of lifelong learning.” Some people seem to have a natural style that others are drawn toward and are eager to follow. By trial and error they reinforce their natural leadership qualities and improve the skills that make them effective. Others have the core qualities of leadership then work to learn the skills needed to become strong and effective leaders. They continue to learn and develop skills as a lifelong habit.
Either way, leaders know how to communicate a vision and a case for change in ways that compel others to grab onto it and help make it happen. It’s not so much about giving orders or detailed instructions (that’s management’s job): it’s more about the presentation of a compelling future—the desired end result of everyone pitching in to achieve a common goal.
Unless the leadership consistently stays on the path of the vision, an organization will move toward apathy and, eventually, cynicism. True leadership, as opposed to management, is not easy, and it’s no wonder that leaders frequently imagine quitting and moving on to simpler roles. Fortunately, they usually stick with it.
Byway organizations need solid leadership to be sustainable. Leadership will emerge from unexpected sources but will always come with certain qualities that draw others in to work together. Leaders have technical skill and expertise, specific character traits and effective interpersonal skills that play together to make them effective in leadership roles. Let’s look at each of these qualities and ways to identify and develop emerging leaders in byway groups.
Technical Skills and Expertise
We all have skills and knowledge gained through experience and education. These are sometimes the quantifiable things we put on resumes and what others think of when they are looking for someone to take on a task or fill a position. It’s why we are hired and promoted. It is often the base of how we get a foot in the door: however, if it’s the ONLY reason someone is hired or promoted, that person will eventually reach a point where he or she is ineffective in other key leadership areas. Be cautious about leaders who have great credentials but nothing else. Technical skills are important, but they aren’t enough to sustain a group through the rough spots.
Character Traits
Warren Bennis, in Organizing Genius, wrote, “Leadership always comes down to a question of character.” There are many lists of traits that great leaders have in common and a few of those traits show up on every list. Indeed, when one presenter at his year’s National Scenic Byways Conference asked a group to name traits of a good leader, these same few appeared on that list:
- Effective leaders hold a set of core values and principles, which they consistently live by and employ in the way they treat people—both at work and in personal life. The specific set of values will vary widely from one individual to another, but are so strongly held and demonstrated in decisions and actions that there is no doubt what is steering the leader.
- Leaders are honest by nature. What they say and what they do are like two parallel lines. People following their direction do not have to second guess whether what is stated one day will still hold true another.
- Leaders have integrity. The reality of leader’s life and work conforms to the works they speak and write. They stand up for the values and principles of their organization and are loyal to their people - even (and especially) when those people are not present. They follow through with their commitments and are accountable to others who depend on that.
Interpersonal Skills
Leaders interact with others in many different situations and environments. Leadership is, of course, a continuous series of interactions with other individuals and with groups. Robert Coles, a professor at the Harvard Medical School, writes that leaders know how to persuade people to keep others company and to do the things that are the right things to do. They help build relationships and develop strong teams.
Leaders communicate, listen, solve problems and manage conflict and they don’t back away from situations that require those skills. They may coach and foster those skills in others, but they don’t shrug off the responsibility, downplay the importance or pass blame or judgment on others
Leaders must be willing to solve problems of all sorts and be comfortable with giving a steady stream of problems to solve. People new to leadership positions often have a sense that when they get past the current problem they are working on everything will be happy and peaceful. But, there’s always another problem to solve or conflict to manage. A leader must develop the skills to help solve the problem or help build a team that can. This is why many people don’t enjoy leadership roles: Others only come to them when there is a problem. Leaders have to enjoy the problems and develop the skills to solve them.
*How Do You Find Leaders in the Byway Community? *
Leaders are often found in unexpected places. If you carefully consider the list of qualities that are critical for effective leadership—technical skill and expertise, specific character traits and effective interpersonal skills—you will begin to see individuals in a new way.
Taking time to list the skills and qualities you are looking for, and then identifying individuals who have them can be far more effective than trying to think of the possible individuals first. We tend to keep naming the same leaders over and over again because those people have done a good job in the past.
Looking for emerging leaders and giving them an opportunity to take that role is one way to build a community and increase the pool of available leaders. The more leaders you have, the less chance there is that any of them will”burn out.” Remember the thought that leaders often feel like quitting? Giving them an end point to their role will help prevent that. And, after all goes well, people who have the qualities of leadership often can’t resist jumping right back in again.
Leadership does not need to be about hierarchy, status or who the “boss” is. Peter Senge, Director of the Center for Organizational Learning at the Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, describes leadership communities as organizations that have many leaders because there are many people at many levels who play critical roles in generating and sustaining the work to achieve a vision.
Leaders are people who “walk up ahead” and are committed to the learning and changes that need to happen to achieve goals and missions. They naturally influence other with their expertise, character traits and interpersonal skills. Look for those qualities and you will find people who can take on leadership roles.
Support current leaders and help develop those who are emerging. Allow people to step forward and give it a try. You’ll take risks and so will they. Everyone will learn a lot and the organization will be stronger for it.
While you tend to the business of you days, spend some time as an observer. Whether you are in business meetings, volunteer work groups, classrooms or with children on a playground, you will see leaders. Watch for the qualities that make them effective and look for those when you want to build leadership in your byway group.
As you pass some of those newsstands and bookstores, check out some of the literature. Here are a few titles that may be of interest and there are hundreds more. Much of the research h and writing is related to the world of business, but the lessons are easily transferable to public and community organizations.
- Leading Change, John Kotter
- Organizing Genius, Warren Bennis
- Good to Great, James Collins
- Built to Last, James Collins and Jerry Porras
- The Fifth Discipline, Peter Senge
- The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook, Peter Senge
- Shackleton’s Way, Margo Morrell and Stephanie Capparell
- Lives of Moral Leadership, Robert Coles
- Harvard Business Review (monthly periodical)
