Jonie Graham

Columnist

Jonie Graham

Senior Consultant, BRC Partnership

Message in a Bottleneck

As a leadership consultant the question I am most asked is, “are leaders made or are they born?” The ensuing discussion is usually both informative and enlightening and often leads to one of those light bulb moments of self-awareness that brings a greater understanding of one’s personal effect on those that we lead.

According to leadership scholar and author James MacGreggor Burns, leadership is probably one of the most studied phenomena in the world today but also one of the least understood. This should not be surprising, for although there are considerable amounts of research, books, articles, conferences, training seminars and podcasts on the topic of leadership, there are probably as many definitions of leadership as there are leaders.

I am never convinced that the, “are leaders born or made” question is the right one to be asking. Of course we all know gifted, leaders but after just a little thought I’m sure we can all think of leaders that we have known that may not have necessarily been gifted but have proved none the less very capable leaders. Perhaps a more useful discussion than “made or born” would be do leaders empower or do they curtail? Do they resource or do they deplete? Do they inspire or do they disillusion?’’

In March of this year the Ever Given container ship blocked the Suez Canal for six days. Due to the ship running aground at the narrowest part of the canal and drifting to an angle, no other ships could pass by. This led to a buildup of 369 other ships waiting in the approach to the canal hoping to pass through and go on with their respective journeys. By some estimates the cost to the world economy was somewhere in the region of $9.6 billion USD in lost trade. The blockage was eventually cleared thanks to the combined effort of an international fleet of tugboats. The cause of the incident was down to a sandstorm that led to an inability to steer the ship, eventually resulting in the ship being blown onto a sandbank.

I am not sure if anyone ever asked if the Captain of that ship was born a Captain or if he became a Captain, or even if he was a gifted Captain. What difference would it have made? Neither of these things mattered in those circumstances. Of course ability is critical and skills are important, but skills can be learnt and ability improves with practice. Of the multiplicity of things that went wrong that day, two related occurrences led to the inevitability of the ship running aground. The high cross winds caused a sandstorm that limited visibility and ultimately made it impossible to steer the ship.

There is nothing more important for a leader than vision and the ability to steer their ship. Even leaders with the most limited vision can at least see what is right in front of them and therefore can establish some idea of corrective measures, decisive action or preparatory manoeuvres that should be made. The greater the vision, the greater the understanding and the greater the potential for the action the leader and their team take to be of significant benefit to the organisation. Clear vision is a critical attribute of any leader. Without vision teams become easily distracted into areas that will be detrimental to the organisation or they involve themselves in so many secondary activities that they dilute the effectiveness of the team. Vision not only sets direction but it inspires quality and maintains focus. An effective leader is a visionary leader.

The ability to steer the ship, or at least to know the right instructions to give so that the ship can navigate safely and accurately, is another key skill for today’s leaders. How you steer your ship will depend very much on your people and your organisation. Some will use inspirational communication to steer the ship, others will seek to motivate team members through incentives, direction or rewards. What is important is that organisations grow. There needs to be movement, development or improvement. Organisations that are static are organisations that are dying. If the organisation and what they offer matters then the leader must inspire movement. The most effective way to do that is to model what matters. Regardless of your preferred method to motivate your team, you cannot afford not to model the things that matter the most in your success.

Leaders that avoid grounding their ship, causing a blockage in the movement or growth and restricting trade, are leaders that strive to see as far and as wide as they can. Leaders that will communicate clearly what they see and what needs to be done and leaders that will demonstrate by example what it means to be committed to the cause of the organisation. Therefore take some time today to sit and reflect on how you ensure that your vision is clear and how it is communicated unambiguously to your team. Consider what is it your team see you model? If they only did what they saw you do, would they be valued members of your team? What is it you need to ensure that you not only do but you inspire your team to do as well? Let us strive to be leaders that are those that open up channels rather than those that block them, those that promote movement and growth, rather than those that cause back log and lost opportunities. Let us be those leaders that are more akin to bottle openers than bottlenecks.

“The ability to steer the ship, or at least to know the right instructions to give so that the ship can navigate safely and accurately, is another key skill for today’s leaders.”