Ich dien

I have been asked along to speak with our Lower VI to develop some idea around the topic of leadership. Now reader, you might find your interest piqued, OK so what does he have to say about this?

A several million-pound industry that churns out weighty and not so weighty tomes on the topic, supported by both the collective armed forces of the globe and innumerable university faculties all dedicated to developing the understanding of what leadership is, how it is discharged and what makes a good one, oh and the fact that we have just recently seen the coronation of a King… No pressure then, eh?

If what I say lacks depth or wisdom it will at least be honest and heartfelt. It will be up to the Lower VI to make up their own minds on its relevance to them. I have never seen leadership as an end, rather it is a means to an end. I question those who want to lead for its own sake, why would you do that? I suspect it more authentic and meaningful to pursue a goal or objective and use a position that allows you to direct a path and have others join a programme. Being a leader gives the opportunity to pull the levers that make a particular vision a reality. We talk a lot at Embley about making the world a better place; we effect this change by influencing the lives of those in our community. Leadership is then about moving obstacles, clearing out at the ruck the better to move to the next phase. Being ambitious for an objective that is bigger than you are and about which you act as an agent for change seems to me a fundamental of leadership.

It’s not all about you. There are moments when leaders need to set the direction of travel but more times when they need to be quiet and listen – in particular, listening to the voice of dissent, disagreement. Where in the group is the challenge that says I think you are wrong? I see it differently, what about looking at it like this? The capacity to quite literally shut up and listen diffuses ego and can bring clarity. To decide in the heat of battle, you need to be able to see through the smoke and understand the parameters of the battlefield. We live in a media obsessed world and I know reader you will be fed up of me talking about it, but we do. It is easy to fall into self-absorption and self-congratulatory platitudes. Physicist Richard Feynman once said, “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.” One way we fool ourselves is by imagining we know more than we do; we think we are experts. 

Of course this requires that the leader is surrounded by talented people capable of seeing clearly themselves and creating a culture where they will pop up with ideas and challenge. So, choose your help wisely. In the same way that no one is self-made and no they are not, somewhere along the way everyone has had help and support. So too then a leader is only effective through the offices of the team. This is really important. It is the collective endeavour of the team that affects change.  Leaders might catalyse this and direct it, but if the team is talentless the vision will never be realised. The folks need to be competent in their roles otherwise the blind are leading the disillusioned.

Leaders also need to be confident in their own judgement; trust themselves without being self-absorbed and have the courage to stick to their convictions. This sort of authenticity will see you through the challenges brought on by outside factors. There are any number of variables which are outside of your control; nothing you can do about that but there is everything you can do about your reaction to them. That is within your control. This, I think, is where a real test of character lies. Is your rhetoric nothing more than breath in the wind or do you actually believe it? If the vision is sound, it is worth clinging on to especially in difficult times. Remember it is not about you, it is about something bigger. Confidence or belief in the vision, and a humble understanding that it is worth struggling for because it is worthwhile for others, gives meaning to the struggle. Nietzsche once commented that with a ‘why’ we can cope with any ‘how’. The things we do may be tough but bearable because we know why we are doing them. In our case it is for the children.

My final note, there could be so many more, but my final thought is that leading is about serving those who serve the vision. I talked earlier about leading being the capacity to pull levers that allow others to do what they do in the service of the vision. The back-office functions, the thousand tasks that occupy time and bandwidth that are unremarked and unremarkable but without which the mission fails, stalls or stops. Listening the better to discern the need; oiling the gearing that drives the machine and doing what is unrecognised but necessary and not crowing about it, that’s got to be at the heart of it hasn’t it? His Majesty as Prince of Wales heralded the role in a simple phrase, adopted after Crécy in 1346, ‘ich dien’. Therein is the heart of leadership.