On Leadership

Just as there are many examples of bad leaders and bad leadership, there are probably many different models of good leadership. I think if any one is asked to list what are the attributes of a good leader, the list would be very long, and include compassion, vision, decisiveness, humility, etc. In fact the attributes of a good leader would vary so much depending on the context and who you ask about it that the hypothetical "master list" would be no different from the attributes of a "good person".

Even so, given that a leader must function within a team (otherwise, why else is there a leader?), I do think that the core of good leadership is being able to bring out the best of the members of the team. I would quote here a passage from one of my favourite books. It is not a classic in the conventional sense and is probably only well known to fantasy fans like me. It is from "The Test of the Twins, Volume III of the Legends Trilogy, Dragonlance" by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.

"Lord Gunthar studied the man before him carefully. The leader of the Knights had risen to his position because he was basically a just and honest man. He was also a keen judge of character. He had liked and admired the half-elf since meeting him after the end of the war. But he had never been able to get close to him. There was something about Tanis, a reserved withdrawn air that permitted few to cross the invisible barriers he set up.

Looking at him now, Lord Gunthar suddenly felt closer than he had ever come before. He saw wisdom in the slightly slanted eyes, wisdom that had not come easily, wisdom that came through inner pain and suffering. He saw fear, the fear of one whose courage is so much a part of him that he readily admits that he is afraid. He saw in him a leader of men. Not one who merely waves a sword and leads a charge in battle, but a leader who leads quietly, by drawing the best out of people, by helping them achieve things they never knew were in them."

There are many people who seemed to think that a good and successful leader must be one who is the most capable in the team and one who always know what is the best course of action. If that indeed is possible, well, then that superman can do everything by himself, so what for do you need a team? Good leadership does not equate to all-roundedness and capability, it is about how you can bring out the strength of your people, trust them to do what they are good at and even overlook minor weaknesses. In fact, if you look at successful leaders in the world, more often than not, they often have mediocre capabilities or they are only particularly good in certain areas. But all successful leaders have had very good teams of diverse talent. This has got nothing to do with luck but with how the leader was able to tap on the respective strength of his followers, give them the respect and recognition due and in the process inspire their fierce loyalty. Beside been able to bring out the best in one's team, accomodation is also important.

I remembered that I once had a conversation with a colleague in which I said that a good boss should be able to accomodate the weaknesses or bad points of his people and instead use them in what they are good at, to which the colleague retorted that, a boss is necessarily higher in rank than the subordinate, so why should he accomodate the subordinate? It should be the subordinate who accomodate the whims of the boss.

I did not point out to her that in history, even good emperors were able to be tolerant of the bad points of their officials for the greater good they could bring to the state. One such enlightened ruler is 唐太宗李世民 (Li Shi Min of the Tang Dynasty). He had a Prime Minister by the name of 魏征 (Wei Zheng) who could be rather blunt in pointing out the failings of his policies. The emperor valued this man a lot and when he died, he had lost "a mirror" that allowed him to see his own failings. This was indeed great magnamity for we must remember that the emperors in China could at any time order yourself and your whole family to be beheaded for no better reason than that he did not like you! It was not surprising that good emperors of later dynasties like Emperor Kangxi used Li Shi Min as a benchmark. And needless to say because Li Shi Min was able to use good officials, his reign was known as one of the golden ages in imperial China.

My point is that if a despot who could order people to their deaths at a whim could be accomodating to his people and use people according to their strengths, there is no excuse for the BS that because the boss is above the subordinate in rank, he should not be more accomodating of people with talent if they have some other shortcomings. Of course, being the boss, one could afford to be intolerant but that would mean even if he gets the best team by sheer luck, he would not be able to keep it for long.