Good leadership is the crucial variable for organisational success. From multi-national corporations to sports teams, NGO’s and government institutions, good leadership can inspire success and bad leadership can inspire the opposite. But what is good leadership? Or better yet; what makes a leader a good leader?
It should go without saying that the good leader is the one who is able to unlock excellence in his/her subordinates. A leader who manages to do this will have an organisation populated by excellent people such that the organisation itself will be excellent. An excellent organisation populated by excellent people will be at the forefront of its sector and achieve its organisational goals with distinction.
At Schuitema we believe that the good leader, the leader who is able to unlock excellence in his employees, is defined primarily by his intent. Fundamentally the good leader is always benevolently disposed towards her subordinates. This means to say that the good leader looks to do what is good for his people, in other words a good leader acts with the intent to serve his subordinates. But what does it mean to act with the intent to serve the interests of one’s subordinates?
Practically the benevolent intent of the good leader can be formulated as the intent to care for and grow the subordinate. This is what it means to act with the intent to serve the employee. So, in the first instance the leader is to care for the employee. This is fundamental because without care the leader cannot act in the interests of the subordinate, if the leader does not care he cannot look after his people. Care is thus the fundamental criterion for good leadership.
Care on its own however is not enough. This is because care on its own will not produce excellence in the subordinate, care is only the pre-condition to enable the possibility of producing excellence in the subordinate. A mother that only ever gives the child what the child wants will not cultivate excellence in the child. The requirement on the leader is more than care, the leader has to grow the subordinate and this may in some instances involve harsh actions. The care of the leader is disabling if it is not orientated towards helping the subordinate grow, whatever this may involve. The benevolent intent of the leader is thus a manifestation of care which is orientated towards growing the subordinate to cultivate excellence in the subordinate.
In an organisational context, the benevolent intent of the leader is to be implemented by doing three things for the subordinate. The first thing the leader is to do is to provide the employees with the means to do their job. Included in the means are things such as tools, resources, standards, etc. in other words all the materials necessary for the subordinate to be able to accomplish the task.
The second thing the leader is to do for the subordinate is to provide the subordinate with the necessary skills to accomplish their task. In other words the leader is to provide the subordinate with the ability to do the task required of the subordinate.
The third and most crucial thing the leader is to do for the subordinate is hold the subordinate accountable for performance. Accountability is the crucial variable for growth. This is the equivalent of disciplining the child when the child steps out of line. The leader is to hold the subordinate accountable in terms of clearly stipulated standards. Without accountability it is impossible for the leader to cultivate excellence in the subordinate. Accountability is the job of the leader once the leader has provided the subordinate with the means and ability.
Becoming a good leader is a challenging task. It starts with cultivating care for one’s subordinates. The care of one’s subordinates is a right of passage into leadership, it is the pre-condition that allows the leader to do his job. The true task of the leader is however to grow the subordinate. The task of growing the subordinate is a difficult one and requires that the leader be able to appropriately address the sub-standard performance of the subordinate. This is a task that requires no small amount of skill. Mastery this skill is essential for the good leader because appropriately addressing sub-standard performance is the by which the leader cultivates excellence in the subordinate.
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