THE LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE IN AN EMERGING MODERN POLITICAL
ECONOMY –
BY DR REUEL J. KHOZA, 18 AUGUST 2006
Allow me to share some thoughts, a sample of thoughts put
forward in a book just published, a book titled “LET AFRICA
LEAD”. May I by the way of introduction, cite another
commentator on the leadership challenge, whose sense of drama is
more pithy and crisp in capturing the nature of the challenge we
face at this historical conjuncture:
“We live in a time of chaos, as rich in the potential for
disaster as for new possibilities. How will we navigate these
times? The answer is, together. We need each other differently
now. We cannot hide our boundaries, or hold on to the belief
that we can survive alone. We need each other to test our ideas,
to share what we are learning, to help us see in new ways,
listen to our stories. We need each other to forgive us when we
fail, to trust us with their dreams, to offer their hopes when
we’ve lost our own”.
M.J. Wheatley in Leadership and the New Science - Discovering
Order in a Chaotic World.
The nature of the challenge is clear: it is a conundrum
characterized by complexity, multidimensionality, elusiveness.
It calls for a leadership approach that understands complexity
and appreciates the limitations of rugged individualism. May I
venture to propose a model predicated on the enduring values of
Ubuntu, African Humanism.
The enduring values of Ubuntu can be rendered into a number of
distinct characteristics of leadership, which, applied together,
can go a long way in tackling some of the vexing leadership
challenges of our times.
- Server Leadership, which is at the top of the hierarchy of
leadership functions, implies that African leaders derive their
legitimacy and power from collaboration with, rather than
command over, their followers.
- Cohabitation refers to the proclivity to live with others
harmoniously, not only in terms of shared space, but also
accommodating other people’s ideas, and genuinely seeking to
understand before proceeding to persuade them.
- Social arbitrage is a relatively novel term that I apply to
the trade-offs made by leaders to satisfy conflicting demands
and ensure that their leadership decisions reward every
stakeholder with something.
- Emotional intelligence, a familiar term nowadays, relates to
the sensitivity and introspection of leaders as they carry out
their service role and employ arbitrage to reward their
followers.
- Paradox is often associated with leadership, but takes on new
meaning from the server leadership concept, which may appear to
be self-contradictory.
Server Leadership
The phrase “servant leadership” is taken from the writings of
American management and leadership theorists. While I go along
with most of what they say, the term servant has unfortunate
and, I think, misleading connotations. In Africa (but also in
America) the master-servant relationship raises the spectre of
slavery and racial dominance.
The term servant is demeaning, whereas what one wants to get at
is the idea of service to the community (which is also a
traditional concept of leadership).
Political leaders who conceive of their role as that of service
will not attempt to mislead their followers, abuse and exploit
them, steal from them, or govern without a mandate. In a
business organization, which I like to think of as having a
community spirit, the effective leader must be seen as an
authentic representative of the stakeholders who are the
ultimate sources of power and authority. They will consider
themselves well served if the business is well-run and
profitable. In today’s world this generally means the leader is
an aspirational figure who welds disparate elements into
hard-working, creative teams. Leaders such as chairmen and chief
executive officers (CEO’s) hold sway and achieve personal
influence by the favour of stakeholders- be they shareholders,
employees, customers and supplies.
Cohabitation
It needs to be said that human commonality does not imply
conformity. Although Ubuntu stands for “people’s oneness”, we
are clearly not all the same. All human beings share the same
general attributes and are prey to the same capricious forces of
destiny. But we are different in personality, experience, race,
gender, language, religion and broad cultural heritage. Ubuntu
accepts and celebrates these differences because they reflect
our inner being. They shape our individuality as well as the way
we interact with each other in all walks of life. Diversity
signals the richness of the human family. In modern
multicultural society, ethnic differences often provoke
conflict. Instead of tolerating each other, groups strive to
dominate, and those that succeed will often try to impose
single-group hegemony on the rest.
Ubuntu teaches the value of inclusively, cohabitation, harmony,
and the search for reciprocal understanding. Respect for
diversity is the first proof of genuine adherence to the
principles of African humanism.
Social arbitrage
I will call the leader’s role one of social arbitrage. By this
is meant the constant process of finely attuning the independent
expectations of followers and making ruling accordingly. Under
traditional African democracy, social arbitrage would have meant
harmonizing the rival claims of villagers so tat everyone
emerged from the chief-in-councils ruling with some positive
benefit. In business today, it is often described as the search
for win-win outcomes in a bargaining situation. The key idea
here is that leaders trade between their followers as a
middleman trades between buyers and sellers. The interest of a
buyer in getting the lowest price and the seller in getting the
highest price is reconciled in the price that is actually
struck. Both come off with rewards and the leader’s reputation
for achieving harmony is reinforced.
Social arbitrage is not arbitration, as the latter term implies
despite settlement rather than an ongoing process of adjustment.
Arbitrage is a never-ending process. It also creates new
opportunities to reward people for their cooperation.
Of course, the term arbitrage connotes a calculated and hedged
approach to risk in the marketplace.
This may appear to sit uncomfortably with the notion of
tradition as a reassuring presence in the body politic of
Africa. In fact, the term suits the ancient context as well as
the modern one. It means that the African leader is a kind of a
broker, functioning as a channel of interaction between
different social players and as a barometer of opinions and
conflicting needs. Just like any stockbroker, the leader is
highly attuned to fine changes in the environment. There is no
standard of absolute correctness that leaders can apply in
dynamic social situations. Arbitrage is the (tacit) leadership
strategy of hedging against the risk of disaffiliation, while
attempting to balance the benefits for all players.
A key principle of negotiations is that the benefits of giving
ground can be reciprocal. In other words, a leader may actively
seek out the differences between parties in order to identify
what they most stand to lose and what they most stand to lose
and what they most hope to gain. Often the most powerful
ingredients in bargaining situations turn out to be the very
things that the parties refuse to talk about for fear of being
taken advantage of. Finding those differences requires probing
beyond the seemingly non-negotiable positions to focus on
value-creating expectations: what I want is not what you want,
but maybe we can both get what we want if we try to understand
each other. Leaders who promote this kind of understanding can
affect joint gains for parties who seemed irreconcilable.
In a nutshell, social arbitrage embodies a problem-solving
approach to self-interest or group interest of different
parties. The key to this is building trust. It becomes a case of
“we are both in this together-it’s us against the problem”.
Leaders who facilitate such understanding amongst their
followers (and amongst other leaders and their followers) are
poised to assume the position of moral authority in which all
parties respect their judgment. They free contending groups from
the win-lose situation by crafting a belief in win-win outcomes.
Perhaps, the most important outcome of all is that a
relationship is established on the basis of which future
consensus can be more easily attained.
Emotional intelligence
Because Ubuntu reminds us that we take our being from the being
of others, African humanism inspires leaders to identity with
their followers. The transitoriness of life affects leaders as
much as the led, exposing them to the same challenges, joys and
sorrows, irrespective of what their relative power or status. It
is human condition. No one can escape it. So African wisdom
insists that leaders are ordinary people who should express
humility and not arrogance. They are praised for their position,
not for their persons.
Emotional intelligence is a determination of high performance.
For those in authority, it means understanding their own motives
and matching these with the intentions, responses and behaviour
of followers. For the latter, it means being willing to put
personal desires aside and consider the larger scheme of things.
The result is a two-way flow of emotional intelligence between
leaders and led. Stress is reduced, relationships cemented and
equilibrium achieved, with happy and productive consequences.
Empathy exacts its own costs. To express it effectively the
leader may well take emotional risks. Take the case of Nelson
Mandela, who in 1995 donned a Springbok rugby jersey to
congratulate the national team on winning the Rugby World Cup.
In that simple act, he identified with the team. It was a moment
of high emotional energy. For generations, Springbok rugby had
been a symbol of old-style white nationalism, if ever there was
one. Mandela ran the ideal risk of alienating black followers by
lionizing the amaBokkebokke. That single gesture brought
adulation from white South Africans who suddenly realized the
President was their President too. A sense of common South
Africanism flooded the country. I am neither saying that
conflict and stress can be avoided nor suggesting that
individuals have no right to differ with the group. I am saying
that the introspective leader will manage human relationship in
the full awareness that everyone’s feelings deserve to be
considered.
Paradoxes of leadership
In the Democratic Republic of Condo (DRC) they have a saying: A
single bracelet does not jingle- no one succeeds alone – and
this applies as much to the leader as to the followers.
Leadership is a paradoxical challenge, as it calls for a rare
ability to deal with polarities. Even though society is
hankering for democratic leaders with the common touch, the same
society wants leaders who are uncommon, charismatic, heroic and
visionary.
Those whose destiny is to lead are destined to lead lives of
paradox: as much loved as they are hated, as selfish as they are
selfless and altruistic, as flexible as they are decisive, as
consultative as they are resolute, despised and revered.
Revival of ideas
In South Africa, as in most of Africa, we must rededicate
ourselves to the revival of African ideas. This is the way to
re-establish the sense of community, of commonality of purpose
that was always the foundation for server leadership. The
struggle today is increasingly an economic one. For political
problems cannot be solved as long as poverty and disease stalk
the land. From the shouted slogans and stamping feet that shook
the streets during the heyday of liberation, we have moved to
the hush of boardrooms and the bustle of small business
start-ups in the township and BEE transactions.
One of the dilemmas we experience when speaking about African
leadership is that the modes that naturally present themselves
are invariably political. This is hardly surprising in the wake
of the national liberation movements that swept across Africa
during the second half of the 20th century. If Africa is the
cradle of humankind, the origin of the species, then it was
Africa who led humanity to start with. Ancient and modern
history have witnessed the achievements of African leaders in
all spheres of life: social, economic, cultural, religious,
scientific, and political. There were leaders in Africa before
colonial oppression and there will be leaders long after Western
domination has ended.
We as Africans have so far shamefully neglected to disseminate
our leadership ideas to the world, or even to assimilate them
ourselves. The result is that we have allowed other models of
leadership to fill the void in our hearts and minds.
Today we need a form of leadership that bridges the schisms and
cleavages wrought by the religious, tribal, social, economic and
political divisions that have characterized so much of recent
African politics.
To sum up, Africa is not isolated from the rest of the world,
nor the rest of the world from Africa. We have much to learn
from each other. The seeds of African solutions to African
problems have grown in soil enriched by many cultures. But to
pursue our destiny we must write our own history and seek a
future in line with out own values. The task of deconstruction
and the reconstruction of the African worldview is being pursued
by many scholars more competent than I. But I do believe that my
insights into business can add to the general ferment of ideas.
Our history is rich and we have the potential to achieve a
complete Renaissance in Africa. The 21st century could indeed
become the African Century if our leaders pull their weight and
our intelligentsia provide critical but supportive input. The
African leadership model that is proposed here is the one that
projects self-knowledge and humility as the basis of services to
the community. Server leaders can never be servile, never just
echoes of the populist voice. They must be visionaries committed
to serving the cause of Africa.
Today we have to question whether African leaders are doing
justice to the qualities of this great continent and its people.
Do we face a famine of leadership, or a feast of it? The choice
is essentially ours. If Africa and the world are to escape from
hunger, disease, terror, exploitation and militarism, the values
we cli9ng to may well become necessary survival tools for all of
humankind. This is not falsely optimistic: our icons can roar
and be heard. Africa can lead.
Comparison of business leadership approaches in recent
literature yields at least tow major paradigms: the tough and
the tender-minded, represented here by Jack Welch and Stephen
Covey respectively. The African humanist approach, Ubuntu,
offers a new paradigm. It is both competitive and
principle-centred, but adds the element of empathy based on the
human condition. This provides the foundation for the leadership
to identify with stakeholders. By striving to reach sufficient
consensus, and prompting individuals to contribute to the common
good, the African business leader creates teams with a shared
vision and a competitive edge.
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