Leadership and Liberation

A Psychological Approach

Seán Ruth

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781134219278
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychologie
• Subtopic: Geschichte & Theorie in der Psychologie

How do leaders influence the people around them?

Is leadership about having particular personality traits or is it about what leaders actually do and the types of relationships they build?

This ground-breaking book looks at how to be an effective leader. It presents a model of leadership that has many practical implications for those who occupy formal leadership roles or who seek to influence events informally. This model views leadership as a collaborative, influence process rather than a hierarchical or authoritarian one.

By looking at leadership in the context of liberation, it provides the reader with an alternative perspective, enabling them to think about their own aims and effectiveness as a leader. It analyses our understanding of oppressed and oppressor groups and how processes of mistreatment develop and become institutionalised. From this standpoint, effective leadership is presented as a means of confronting inequality and initiating positive change.

The practical skills required by leaders to assist them in becoming agents of change and influence, and in dealing with the inevitable conflicts that arise in complex interpersonal situations, are considered. The reasons why leaders are targets of attack are also looked into, as well as the situations in which they can act as a positive force for transformation.

Containing an in-depth review of the development of leadership theory, Leadership and Liberation also critically evaluates main-stream approaches and analyses the implications for leaders on the ground. The lessons to be learned are applicable to leaders in all types of groups and organisations and will be of interest to those studying psychology, business and management.

Part I The Content of Leadership

1 Core Functions of Leaders

DOI: 10.4324/9780203015674-1

Introduction

What is the role of a leader? Whether it be a team leader, a manager, a trade union leader, a CEO, a school principal, a community or religious leader, a social change activist or any other kind of leader, they all must grapple with what exactly their role is as leaders. What are the functions of a leader? As a leader, what am I supposed to do? If I want to be an effective leader, where do I begin? What do I focus on? Where do I put my energy or my attention? How can I tell if my priorities are right? For someone who is new to a leadership role or for someone who has been in a leadership role for some time, these are key questions. Even if the person does not occupy a formal leadership position but is informally trying to make a difference to those around them, the same questions apply.

Many writers on the nature of leadership have focused on identifying the qualities of an effective leader. While these are often very helpful, they have not always thrown sufficient light on what it is that leaders are supposed to do. They tell us about the leader as a person but not necessarily about leadership as a process (Rost, 1993b, 1997; Rost and Barker, 2000). In this chapter, I want to look at the key functions, the role, or the job of a leader. The qualities of effective leaders, which we shall look at in more detail further on, will tell us more about how the leader carries out these functions or about the personal characteristics that contribute to being effective in this role. To begin with, however, we need to have a clear picture of what an effective leader is trying to do. We can get a sense of this by looking at what stands out about people who are influential in other people's lives.

In workshops over many years, in different parts of the world, I have asked participants to describe what was special about individuals who had made a positive impact on their lives. What were the qualities of the people who stood out in their minds? People from a wide cross-section of backgrounds (different occupations, ages, genders, religions, nationalities, cultures) are remarkably consistent in what they highlight. Time and again, for example, they point to someone who cared about them, someone who was understanding, someone who was a good listener, someone who was approachable, orsomeone who brought out the best in them. (See Table 1.1.) These are characteristics of people who were influential in their lives, people who made a difference to them. In this sense also, they are characteristics of good leadership.

Now if we were to think of these qualities as a description of one single person, we would notice that none of them seems out of character. They are not inconsistent with one another. They sit well together. This is interesting because, in fact, this is not actually one person but a collection of different people. What it does seem to indicate, however, is that there is some harmony or consistency in the things that people respond to. They have some underlying feature in common. In fact, implicit or embedded in these characteristics of influence is an actual model of the leadership process and that is what we want to extract here.

In themselves, these characteristics do not tell us a lot about what the role of a leader is. They simply provide us with examples, expressions or manifestations of good leadership. In practice, no one person is likely to have all of these qualities to the same degree. We each have our strong points and our weak points. However, it is not these specific qualities as much as what lies beneath them that I am most interested in at this point. When we examine these characteristics in more depth, we can get a clear picture of what it is that good leaders do.

To get at this underlying model, we can ask what is going on between the people involved when any or all of these characteristics are being demonstrated. In particular, what is the leader doing in that situation? What function is the leader carrying out? In reply to these questions, many people point out that these qualities highlight the fact that leaders are involved in a relationship, that they listen and communicate well, that they are able to put themselves in the other person's shoes. Each of these is significant but I want to emphasize one in particular. At the heart of these general characteristics is a very simple process of one person empathizing with, or, more simply, thinking clearly about, someone else.

Table 1.1 Characteristics of Influential People

Some of the most commonly cited characteristics of individuals who had a positive impact on others are listed below. These have been taken from a wide range of groups, varying in terms of gender, age, religion, occupation, culture and nationality.
Caring	Positive
Approachable	Enthusiastic
Has integrity	Supportive
Accepting of people	Has a vision
Respectful	Good listener
Affirming	Challenging
Brings out the best in people	Inspiring
Understanding	Has a sense of humour

Many of the characteristics highlighted are expressions of one person's ability to empathize with, think clearly about and respond appropriately to the needs of another. In reply to the question of who made a difference to them, people may describe someone, for example, who was able to see clearly a talent or ability they had and who was able to offer the challenge or encouragement they needed to realize their potential. This person was able to think well about them and to respond in some helpful, appropriate way. People are described who had their finger on the pulse of the situation, who were aware, thoughtful, sensitive, intuitive, or in touch with what was going on. Put simply, they were able to think clearly about the other person and what they needed. If we place this at the core of the process, it has profound implications and allows us to see leadership in ways that are radically different from traditional, hierarchical or authoritarian conceptions of leadership.

The essence of this alternative model is that leadership, at its core, is a very simple process of thinking well or thinking clearly about people and the situation facing them. (In this sense also, leadership is something people do rather than a position they occupy.) Essentially, the key function of a leader is to think. We could sum this up in terms of two questions that a leader is continually trying to answer. The first of these is “What is going on here?” The second is “What needs to happen in order to tackle this situation?” In practically any leadership situation, the leader is grappling with these two questions. This, as we shall see, does not mean doing the thinking for people, telling them what to do or thinking in isolation from them. Rather, it is the job of the leader to collaborate with people and facilitate the process of finding answers to these questions. This puts the emphasis on the leader being a facilitator, a listener, a team builder, an enabler, a developer of other people, and, fundamentally, a thinker. So, what does it mean to say that the leader's job is to think?

Think About People and the Situation Facing them

In carrying out this role, people have to be thought about on several levels. First, people have to be thought about individually. How is each member of the group doing? What is going well for them and where do they need a hand? What potential do they have and where are they stuck? Where do they need support from us? Essentially, thinking about people entails being able to see where they struggle while, at the same time, seeing their strengths and their potential. It means being able to separate that struggle and its effects from what is true of them positively and inherently as humans. We think about Anne, for example, and notice the great potential she has to become a leader but also the places where she lacks confidence in herself. We think about Barry and notice the talent he has for organizing but also his tendency to get overwhelmed because he takes on too much work. We notice Jane and herdeep commitment to the work but also the places where she is inclined to become isolated from the group. Without a picture of this struggle and of the person's potential, it will be difficult for a leader to figure out what makes sense in any given situation.

Secondly, people have to be thought about collectively. This is quite different from just thinking about each individual. What is the situation facing the group or organization as a whole? What is going on in the group or organization? Where is it experiencing difficulties? What issues does it need to address? Is it achieving what it set out to do? Is it on track? What are the challenges and what are the opportunities that it faces? What is the potential of this group? What stops it being more effective or reaching this potential? Thinking about these questions often involves taking account of such issues as relationships, communication, organization, morale, power, roles, goals, conflict and, as we shall see in later chapters, oppression. We are trying to put our finger on the pulse of the group. Just as with the individual, we are trying to understand where the group as a whole is struggling and how we can assist it with that struggle. So, for example, we may notice that the group has become so preoccupied with short-term, day-to-day crisis management that it has lost sight of the long-term goals. Or perhaps trust has broken down and people no longer feel safe to communicate openly with each other. There is a need for people to stop and take stock of what has been happening to them and where they need to do things differently.

Thirdly, the leader must think about what is happening in the wider situation that has implications for the individuals, the group or the organization. What do we need to take account of in the world at large outside this group or organization? Where does this group or organization fit into the wider scheme of things? What is going on in the wider environment that has, or will have, some impact on us and that we need to think about? What are key issues in the environment of this group or organization that might affect how we see our task or how we attain our goals? How can events or processes in the wider environment help us to make sense of what is happening within our group? Thus the leader tries to understand the processes operating within the group and between the group and the world at large. Bennis (1998) talks about the leader as someone who helps define reality, interpreting events and making sense of the complexity around people. Tichy (2002) says the role of a leader is to see reality. The ability of a leader to name or describe clearly what is happening is often a powerful resource for any group.

Sometimes the leader offers people a theory, a model or a context that makes sense of what is happening around them. Being able to put a name on what is going on and give an accurate description of the wider context or the bigger picture is a powerful contribution for any leader. It is closely related to the leader's ability to listen and empathize. If the leader has listened and empathized well, and understood the struggles, this theory, model or context will resonate deeply with people and also hold out a challenge to them.

Finally, both the group or organization and the individuals within it needto be thought about over time. What has happened in the past for this group? What might happen in the future for the group? Where is it heading? In a similar way, a good leader thinks about individuals in terms of their previous experience, what is happening to them in the present and what is possible in the future. It is not enough to think only in the short term. The leader must think about how things will be over the longer term, having a clear understanding of both the past and the present and how things might evolve in the future

Having a vision of how things could be different is a key feature of effective leadership. What often distinguishes effective leaders is the clarity of the vision they have evolved about the future of the group or the organization. Leaders are able to hold out a view of the “big picture” that can excite and inspire people. There is a proactive movement towards a future goal rather than merely reactive, short-term responses to immediate crises. This ability to evolve a meaningful, relevant and challenging vision depends on the leader having a clear understanding of both the history and experience of the individuals and of the group and also of their present circumstances. The vision that emerges is deeply rooted in an understanding of the struggles that people face and have faced, both individually and collectively. As we get a clear picture of those struggles, we also get a picture of how things could be different. A good leader has a picture of the possibilities for change and development in the people around them. In this sense, vision is directly related to our ability to listen deeply and empathize. In many cases, the vision that emerges gives expression to a deeply felt need that has never been clearly articulated before. People may not have realized how important it was to them until they heard it described like this.

Thinking on all these different levels is at the heart of leadership. More than any other ability, being able to think well is essential for effective leadership. Saying this, however, does not mean that it is something leaders do in isolation

Get Other People'S Thinking

Thinking about people and the situation facing them cannot be done on our own. In order to get clarity about what is going on and what needs to happen, it is absolutely necessary to involve other people in this process. A problem with this central, thinking role of leadership is that no one person is smart enough, or has access to enough information, to be able to answer all the important questions on their own. As a leader, there are almost certainly several gaps in my knowledge and understanding of any complex situation. There are also some things that are beyond my experience, situations about which I am not good at thinking clearly and that I find it difficult to appreciate fully. Other people are likely to have a deeper understanding, or more information, about these than I do at this point in time. So, in fulfilling thisbasic role of leadership, an essential requirement is to get other people's thinking. What has become very clear, as Jackins (1984, 1987, 1997) has pointed out, is that it is not possible for a leader to do the thinking for people. It is not the function of leaders to have answers to all the questions that need to be answered nor is it realistic to expect leaders to have all the answers. It is not the leader's job to know everything. What leaders can do is try to get other people's thinking and use it to fill in the gaps in their own thinking and, in the process, get greater clarity about problems and their solutions. At its core, the role of a leader is to facilitate the process of finding clarity. Essentially, this is a collaborative process that draws on the contributions of everyone involved.

At one level, this simplifies the role of leadership enormously and lifts the burden of always having to know what to do off the leader's shoulders. It shifts the emphasis in the role from that of expert, fixer or commander to that of facilitator. At the same time, fulfilling this facilita...