Even at work, many people are hedonistic; they place a premium on pleasure and indulgence above industry and productivity. So, they prefer leaders who pander to them, pamper them, give them free rein to have their way most of the time and generally make them feel good. Leaders like that are referred to as ‘good men’. But if all a leader does is make his reports feel good, not only will he destroy the people he superintends over, he will also bring down the organization or nation he leads because such leader is weak. He may be a liked leader but he will never become an idolized one. Weak leaders do more harm than wicked ones. Weak leaders can neither build a great organization nor a productive workforce. It is not the calling of a leader to make people feel good; rather his calling is to make them get better. This is not achieved by making people feel comfortable all the time. While a good person wants to refrain from stressing his people, a good leader does not think twice about stretching them to ensure they realize their potential. But while stretching them, the leader is conscious of their limit and stops short of getting them to the breaking point. Hence, as observed by Jim Rohn, “The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not a bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly.”
When Deng Xiaoping became China’s paramount ruler in 1978, he championed reforms that were strange to the people. He came up with the one-child family planning policy to control China’s perpetually burgeoning population. The people did not really like that.
He decentralised economic management and allowed China’s peasant farmers to control their production and profits, this boosted agricultural production across the country, though the elite did not particularly love the policy. He freed many industrial enterprises from the control and supervision of the government and allowed factory managers to determine production levels and pursue profits for their enterprises. He also opened up Chinese enterprises to foreign investment, although the policy did not go down well with the political class. Deng encouraged free enterprise by allowing individual Chinese to make personal economic decisions. He also encouraged the acquisition of skills and promoted technical education. This resulted in the production of skilled, well-educated technicians and managers who spearheaded China’s economic development.
To achieve his objective of transforming China into a more prosperous country, Deng neither indulged nor pampered the people. He made the vision of his leadership clear and was not economical with the price the people had to pay. He didn’t go into all of that because he savoured inflicting pains on the people. His action was based on his understanding that a good leader does not give the people what they want but what they need. Although there were grumblings while Xiaoping was doing all these, the country and the people became better for it. By the time he died in 1997, China had become a rapidly growing economy with the standard of living rising. Xiaoping, by insisting on making the people get better, rather than making them feel good, set China on the path to becoming a world power.
Why a ‘good person’ may not be a great leader
Let’s see why a ‘good person’ may not make a great leader.
Good persons want to do nice things but great leaders are focused on doing the right things
The major difference between a great leader and a good person is their focus. While a good leader wants to get the best out of the people by doing the right things, a good person wants to be nice to the people. While there is nothing wrong with being nice, the fact is that it is only by doing the right things that leaders lead the people to produce the desired results. Results answer to making the right decisions, taking the right steps in the right direction and removing every obstacle on the way. Doing this may adversely affect some people. But for the leader, it is a choice between losing a part to preserve the whole and preserving a part to lose the whole. Leaders are driven by the desire to improve the lot of the people. It is this that drives them to take decisions in the best interest of the people not minding whose ox is gored in the process.
A leader has to learn to balance his affection and respect for individuals and the system. Where there is a clash between what is good for an individual (or individuals) and the system, the leader must choose the system above individuals because if the system is healthy the constituent members of the system will be healthy. But if the focus is on some individuals, the whole system may suffer.
Good people don’t rock the boat but great leaders try new things to create new experiences
Change is the precursor of innovation, the forebear of progress and the harbinger of success. Until there is a change, there cannot be any improvement. Until a people change, their narrative will remain the same. But change comes at a price. The price of change is inconvenience because new things first hurt before they soothe. This is why change is often resisted. But a good man hardly ever wants to hurt anyone or cause anyone any inconvenience. So, rather than subject them to new experiences that can improve their lot, he prefers not to rock the boat and leave the people as they are.
But what is the essence of a leadership that does not leave the people better. People subject themselves to a leader because they believe he has the capacity to improve their lot. However, when a leader is too particular about keeping those he leads comfortable, he fails to bring to reality their desire for improvement.
Good man seeks popularity, great leader focuses on legacy
A good man’s ultimate desire is to be loved by everyone. He wants to be popular, hence why he prefers doing nice things to doing the right things. On the other hand, a great leader is desirous of bequeathing a great legacy rather seeking popularity. For this reason, he travels to the future and brings to the present ideas, programmes and projects that can better the lot of the people and stand the test of time.
If a leader seeks to be popular with those he leads, he will not achieve much. Leadership is not a popularity contest. At the heart of leadership is the need to empower others for success. No matter how liked a leader is, if he does not deliver on his mandate to take the people to a point which is better than where they started off, the likeness will turn to hatred in due course. That is why leaders who ride to office on a huge dose of goodwill but fail to meet the aspiration and yearnings of the subject are usually revolted against. So, great leaders don’t strive to be popular, they don’t seek to be liked, they don’t act nice. They do what is right even if it is hurtful and they still earn the respect of those they lead because the results always vindicate them. According to Peter Drucker, effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes.
Good man is ambivalent but great leaders take hard decisions
As a result of not wanting to hurt his people, a good man is often ambivalent. He is reluctant to make any decision that may not go down well with the people. But great leaders are not like that. Great leaders are always decisive. Once they are convinced that a decision is right for the organization or the people, they waste no time in moving ahead to accomplish it.
Decisions are very important because they shape lives. The quality of life a person enjoys is a function of the quality of his decisions. In the same vein, how strong, stable and successful an organization gets is determined by how sound and profound the decisions of its leaders are. The prosperity or otherwise of a nation is an indication of the kind of decisions leaders of the nation make. Individuals, organizations and nations are at the mercy of the decisions made by them. They first make their decisions then the decisions make them who or what they eventually become. Rich or poor, energized or enfeebled, progressive or retrogressive, respected or reproached, decisions make people and organizations so. Therefore, when an organization is led by someone who avoids making hard decisions, the destiny of the organization is already determined. The only way for it to go is the south.
Good man is emotional, great leaders are rational
To the good man, feelings always trounce reason. Therefore, a good man always allows his emotions to get the better of him. On the other hand, great leaders are not given to emotions. They are rational and allow reason to determine their decisions and actions. When a leader is emotional, he will make sub-optimal decisions and hurt his organization.
Success in leadership has a lot to do with having the right perspective on issues. A leader’s perspective determines his decision and the action of his organization. But when leaders allow sentiments to hinder them from having the proper perspective of a situation, they become enslaved by their emotion. Emotion beclouds reasoning because it distorts the reality. Hence an emotional person can hardly be rational. When leaders descend into the arena of emotion and sentiments, they disrobe themselves of sensibility, deprive themselves of objectivity and become susceptible to ineptitude. Leaders who give in to emotions are unlikely to make serious impact.
To be great, leaders must learn to detach themselves from a situation and look at it from the perspective of an uninterested party. The problem with many leaders is that their personality and interest get involved in the decision making process and this often impacts negatively on their decisions and consequently their actions.
Good man cannot enforce his own rules while great leaders ensure compliance
Douglas MacArthur’s counsel to leaders is golden. The American military leader, who served as General of the Army for the United States, as well as a Field Marshal to the Philippine Army, advised leaders never to give an order that cannot be obeyed. The essence of the counsel is that the day a leader’s order is spurned is the beginning of the end of his leadership. It means he is already losing respect and the basis of his leadership is being eroded.
Great leaders, without driving their people but as a result of building a formidable structure, have their instructions obeyed and executed. But on the other hand, when the instruction of a good man is not obeyed, he himself will make excuses for those who disobeyed because he is too weak to enforce it. While the good man may appear considerate, that attitude will be the undoing of the organization because where order is not enforced, chaos becomes imminent.
Last line
Leadership is not for the lily-livered, it is for those with enough love to desire a better future for the people and enough will to help them attain the envisioned future.
and then