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ffiww"fi -flLeadershipismorehanapositionBy Rod Waddell

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National flero Jim Bodden was able to share a vision forCa5rman's future that the people believed and followed.

eaders are everywhere. In every organisation there are peopleothers look to for support and guidance.Most authorities agree that effective leadership contains three

common characteristics: vision, passion and a set of guiding prin-ciples (values).

Take a moment and recall Martin Luther King's I Have a Dreamspeech. This speech inspired millions by providing a clear picturebf tn" future (vision), mobilised people toward action (passion) andappealed to our sense offairness and equality (values). Great leadersfrom Gandhi to JFK have shared these core characteristics.

Leadership vision is not just a gaggle of high sounding words. I fthat is what you want, then go to the Internet, as one of my local cli-ents did, and find one that makes a nice poster fo r your wall.Leaders develop their own vision of a future state and craft it inthe language that encompasses their follower's dreams and desires.It answers the question, why does this organisa tion exist? How doesit affect the lives of our customers? What characteristics make ourorganisation and the people in it, unique and special? The visionkeeps the organisation on track, at everylevel. When tough decisionshave to be made this shared vision keeps people focused in the rightdirection.

Passion is the indomitable drive that enables great leaders to per-severe through hardship. It is the motivating force that propels themand others towards an idealised moment in time, their vision. Pas-sion is what allows people to endure long hours of practice in orderto become the best.

University of Chicago psychologist Benjamin Bloom's researchindicates, "I t seems you have to put in at least a decade of focusedwork to master something and bring greatness within reach"

Passion s the fuel that drives leadership and winning.Inf luence, ower

Influence and power have long been accepted as hallmarks of ef-fective leadership. These are the tools leaders use to achieve great-ness. However, taken alone they may lead to disaster.

Fortune magazine used to publish a list of the Ten Toughest Boss-es n America. Most CEO's ried to avoid this l ist.

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Hank Greenbergpast CEO of AIG was reported as disappointedif he was left off it. Greenbergwas widely recognised or his tem-per and sharpness nstilling fear n those around him. No doubt Mr.Greenberg had power and influence but was that leadership?Manytop performers drive themselveso the top of their profession.Then,when they reachmanagement evels hey drive those around themand are frequently rewarded or their results. t seemsmost organi-sationshavevery few measures o definesuccessfuleadership.Get-ting results s frequently cited as he best measureof leadership.

But is it?Take Charles Dutoit, conductor of Orchestre Synphonique de

Montreal. After bringing great international recognition to theorchestra, he was forced to resign, driven out by musicians whoclaimed he had developedan abusiveand arbitrary rehearsalstyle.Heroic eadershipoften eads o successn the short run but historyclearly shows ew eaders,businessor otherwiseare able o sustainheroicallygeneratedesults ong term.Pr ime example

Russell Crow played John Nash in the movie A Beautiful Mind.The movie is about the life of the Nobel Prize winning economist,John Nash. The pivotal scene opens n a pub frequented by univer-sity students.

Young Nash s a doctoral student and desperatelyneedsa topicfor his dissertation. Suddenly hree co-eds walk i n. Nash and hisfriends begin to strategise how to make their approach. SuddenlyNash has an epiphany and exclaims, Adam Smith was wrong". HerepeatsSmith's now famous quote, "Society does best when eachman is doing what is best for him". Nash scrambles to pick up hisbooks and papersand hurries out ofthe bar.

What Nash had recognised was as he put it 'A flaw in AdamSmith'sconcept".Nash recognisedand ater proved mathematicallythat society does best when each ndividual does what is best forthemselves nd or the group".Arguablyyou couldsayAdam Smith'sinvisiblehand certainly helpedstoke he flames eading o our cur-rent economicmelt down.

Doing what is best for the group is brought to life by the values

Pol i t ica leadersh ipsnear lysrare s hemythical ingasetby the eader.Valuesare he standardsby which we ive our ives.As we saw n examplesabove,a eader's alue-setcan be destructiveor constructive.Great eadersare consistentlyguided by their val-ues, hey walk the talk. An organisationwithout a clearset of valuessimply offers a place for staff to come and trade their tfme for mon-ey. Values provide a deeper meaning for work. Ask yourself, "Whowould take a ob for low pay,where they would have o leavehome formonthsor yearsat a time; a ob where njury and deathare realpos-sibilities. Yetsoldiershave alwaysmarched o war for high idealsV is ion , pas s ion

Political eadership s nearly as rare as he mythical Singa Lion).Singapore's ise from a volatile third-world county with few iraturalresources n 1965 o a highly prosperous irst-world country todayis accredited o Lee Kuan Yew,prime minister, and Goh KengSwee,his deputy.Mr. Lee's ision, passionand valuespermeate he Singa-porean culture. Lee requentlystated hat "Singapore'sonly naturalresourcesare ts peopleand their strong work ethic."

Meritocracy is a central political concept n Singapore.Singa-pore'spoliciesare a model or balancingwhat is good or the ndivid-ual (business)and what is good or the group (citizens).Singapore'seconomy s highly diversified and poisedto take advantageof emerg-ing technologiesand geopoliticalshifts. Mr. Lee remains as one ofthe world's most recognisedand nfluential leaders.

PresidentBachelet,Chile'scurrent leader,has consistentlybeenrecognised or her leadership.Shebecame he Minister of Health in2ooo. TWoyears ater she was appointed Minisier of Defense; hesameMinistry that ailed her and her mother and ortured her fatherto death during Pinochet 's eign of terror. Shecould have retaliatedbut shedid not. She ed and they followed.Shewas electedpresidentin zoo6. Her act ions make evident her vision, passion and valuesand havebecome ntertwined with the aspirationsof a arge part ofChileansociety or changeand moderation.

In a relatively short period of time she has extended her influencebeyond Chilies'borde rs and becomea world leader .Time Magazineranked her r5th in the Top roo of the world's most nfluential peoplein zoo8. Also in zoo8 Forbes anked Bacheletz5th in the roo most

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powerful women of the world. Leadership is more than a position.Motivat ion

Leadels recognise their peoplc don't work for them, they workfbl themselves. Etfective leaders engage heir fbl lowers by providinga motivational environment. Motivation occlu's in tw o forms. Ex-ternal motivation occurs when I do something external to me, thataffects my wants or l i festyle needs. Internal motivation occurs whenI perfbrm a task fo r the sheer pleasure of doing it; fbr example, com-peting in a three-mile swimrning t ournament, solving a hard przzleor learning something new.

Money, an external motivator, does motivate but i t is a very ex-pensive motivator with a very short half l i fe. Each employee has aunique motivational profi le of intrinsic and extrinsic motivators.Great le:rders nobil ise people by l inhing their individual values andmotivators with the leader's vision, mission and goals.

Mil l ions of dollars are wasted each year by employers trying tomotivate their pcople. People are unique. We have unique interestsand needs.

Highly cffectivc lcaders takc the time to understand what moti-vates their staff. There are only six diff'erent categories of motiva-tional incentives. Three examples include: money, recognition andservices.Money in al l i ts fbrms and recognition are self explanatory.Services include things that only th e organisation can off'er to yo uas the employee. Examples include, extra vacation time, designatedparking or flex time.

Banks fi 'equently offer staff members preferential loan rates.Now imagine receiving these extra incentives based on your perfor-mance. You would have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Simple u rveyA simple motivational survey can make this easy for anyone in-terested irr identifying their own rnotivators and those of their staff;l inking highly desirable incentives with performance targets in-creasesstaff motivation. Reinfbr:cingperfbrmance this way containscost and increascs productivity. I tel l managers, "I f you don't knowwhat motivates your staff yo u could be feeding bananas to your ti -gers. '

The measnre of a eader is reflected in their people. The way to es-

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