By Joseph Diescho
‘Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things,’ warned Peter Drucker. In the world in which we live and work, we find it difficult to distinguish leaders from managers, and very often call all people who appear to be more influential than others, or those who are appointed by someone to do something important, leaders. Yet leaders and managers are different phenomena altogether and execute different tasks in the enterprise of their trade. In Namibia, whenever the President appoints someone to carry out a function, such people acquire titles and become known as leaders whereas they are not leaders. This does not mean that what they do is unimportant, but they are not leaders. It might be helpful for leaders to contend that they are leaders, managers that they are managers, and that administrators are in the business of running other people’s agendas.
The great Lao Tzu or Confucius as he is commonly known taught throughout the Chinese civilization the following: ‘A leader is best when people barely know he exists. When his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.’ What a statement. Our leaders today are seen, heard and felt at all times. Does it mean they are not leaders?
It is important to begin with definitions of what we are talking about. ‘In the beginning was the word. And the word was with God. And the word was God,, instructs the Holy Bible. Words have meaning and history. Concepts are born out of situations, which they describe and give meaning to. Situations arise out of experiences and original experiences that give words their origins are important in order to appreciate the real meanings of what it is that the words we use have reference to. Most African teachings are from proverbs or adages that illuminate the deeper meaning of life generally and situations specifically. This is why people get offended by words that afflict pain and injury to the person, and words also heal.
The concepts leadership and management have their history, which might be helpful to aid us not to use them too promiscuously and we tend to do so by calling people leaders when they are clearly not. Let us consider a situation that led to the understanding of leadership in an effort to distill our own circumstances today in light of such understandings.
The period of the Roman Empire had leaders called emperors. As they extended their rulership across lands, they possessed properties and human slaves as part of their might. In the execution of their power and authority these leaders appointed administrators who carried out instructions in their names. These administrators were not leaders but appointed managers of the will and directions of the leader who appointed them. These administrators were not leaders and those who were subjected to their authority knew that they were standing in for someone else who appointed them to carry out his commands, and knew that the administrators were as vulnerable to the powers of the appointing officers as they were themselves.
The story of Pontius Pilatus makes this very clear. When he was appointed as Prefect for the Roman authorities over Judea and Samaria during the time when Jesus of Nazareth was making his trips and preaching the Gospel, Pilatus did not have the authority to save him even though he found him not guilty of the offence he was charged with. His issue was how to make sure that those who appointed him would consider him worthy of the title bestowed upon him, and continue to keep him in his positions with all the trappings that went therewith. Hence Pilatus washed his hands in a state of whimpish helplessness.
In the affairs of evolving nation states which came about after wars, only kings, princesses and emperors were leaders who ruled over their subjects. In order to forge relations with other nations, they sent envoys to represent them in foreign land for purposes of peace and commerce. These envoys were not leaders and had no opinion of their own. They were to carry out strictly the instructions of their leaders as they were to all intents and purposes the eyes and ears of their leaders. They were the shadow of their leaders, and shadows cannot lead. That is why when wars were waged it would be said that the war was in the name of the leader. The British even today have a saying: My King or Queen, right or wrong. And they sing God Save the Queen.
How did these leaders become leaders? Different people came to power by different ways and trajectories. There are those who assumed power by conquering others and then made their systems permanent by hereditary right. That is to say, if your father or uncle defeated the enemy, and became the supreme ruler, you followed through blood relations. This is the system now in Great Britain, the Netherlands, Norway and other government systems which have kings and queens, and Japan through emperorship.
Then there are leaders who gained supremacy over others not through war or might, but by ingenuity and creativeness. For example, one person could have the powers to interact with and/or interpret the universe and forces of nature and in so doing convince others of his/her indispensability. Such was the power of the rainmakers in certain Afrikan historical communities. Then the one person with such powers became the protector and provider of not only the rains but sustenance to others in the management of the uncertainties of life. This leader was more than political leaders as he was the interlocutor between life and death.
What this means is that leaders became leaders by proving to others that they had extraordinary attributes that were in the interests of others and therefore others followed them for the purpose of common good. The leader thus became the custodian of common values – those values around which the rest of the community can coalesce in the pursuit of a Gemeinwohl.
In old Afrika it was the same in many instances. Rulers came to rule mostly by defeating the enemy and consolidated their powers such that their blood relatives through the father or mother inherited the throne, or emerged through migration by demonstrating more tenacity in the face of natural or human calamities. Some came to supremacy by way of being the most able resister of colonial encroachment and in so doing consolidated power over others. In many instances, such as the Afrikan historiography, the king was the direct link between the ancestors and the community, and even between the people and the God whom they considered their creator.
In colonial times in Afrika, leadership stayed in the Mother Country whereas administration and management of the affairs of the natives were entrusted in the hands of the appointed officials who were expected to execute and carry out the laws and ordinances of the state they were representing. In the case of Namibia as a German colonial territory, people such as the notorious Von Trotha and others were not leaders but mere executioners of the mandate they were sent to adhere to.
Most people find it difficult to distinguish leaders from managers, and in most post-independence Afrikan situations, there have been more managers than leaders. Why?
Both leaders and managers are important as they fulfill different functions and are often complementary with each other. It can even be argued that good leaders manage well and good managers lead well.
What is the main difference between a leader and a manager? One of the authorities on leadership, Warren Bennis, opines that leadership is like beauty: it is hard to define but you know it when you see it, and that the ingredients of leadership cannot be taught but must be learned … Another, James Hunter argues that leadership is about influencing others to work enthusiastically to accomplish goals and tasks identified as being for the common good … This shows already that leadership is about building relationships and influencing people around values that define a common vision and common good for the betterment of life for the greatest number of people in the given community.
Here are some characteristics of leaders in contradistinction with administrators and managers who carry out instructions of others as a job:
– They have a vision and manage attention through this compelling vision which unites people to want to get to a desired state and place where they have never been. This vision is consistent and becomes gradually predictable and more desirable even by those who disagree with it;
– Leaders know their own skills, including their polarities which are their strengths and weaknesses and deploy them effectively to mobilize a buy-in by others;
– Leaders have the ability to empower others by making them feel significant, relevant, part of the bigger picture and keep working together with the leader;
– Leaders have greater and higher driving principles than those around them and can articulate these principles in convincing manners;
– Leaders possess more integrity, that is that there is congruency between what they say and what they do;
– Leaders have imagination and creativity that unlock the potential of others to be and become better than they ever realized on their own;
– Leaders possess a magnanimity as they take more pride in what they do than who they are such that they are suspicious of praise and receive intelligent criticism without rancor, and are very capable of learning from their own mistakes rather than emphasizing the mistakes of others;
– Leaders possess an openness to learn and try new things instead of being fossilized to old ideas, even though such ideas might have worked in the past;
– Leaders have an unusual ability to inspire others far and near to want to be better human beings in the service of others, not just be happy by themselves;
– Leaders have communication skills to keep people around them informed of the journey, spelling out the road map and sharing possible hurdles that might be encountered along the road;
– Leaders are selfless and tough when needs be;
– Leaders are by nature visible and possess gravitas, or charisma, that is the ability to attract attention of others.
– The great scientist Isaac Newton once wrote: ‘If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulders of giants.’