{"id":2839,"date":"2014-10-24T12:14:32","date_gmt":"2014-10-24T12:14:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=2839"},"modified":"2014-10-24T12:14:32","modified_gmt":"2014-10-24T12:14:32","slug":"envisioning-empowering-energizing-the-mystique-of-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/envisioning-empowering-energizing-the-mystique-of-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"Envisioning, Empowering, Energizing \u2013 The Mystique of Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"

We recently experienced a mission conference that was a great success. I am analyzing\u00a0this event in retrospect; in fact, I have been asked to write a news release recounting for what happened, the back story, and the membership\u2019s reaction to the event. Our outcomes were more than double our set goals. What happened? Did we set our sights to low? Not according to past efforts; the goals were a significant challenge over past achievements. So, what went right?<\/p>\n

Leader, leading, and leadership concepts and practices are constantly being studied, analyzed, and articulated in a myriad of ways through\u00a0voluminous writings, to seminars to \u201chands-on\u201d participatory conferences, to academic courses of study. Every business and organization wants good leaders and successful leadership practices; but how does one fight their way through the morass of writings, studies, and analysis? In addressing this malaise, Mandred Kets de Vries observed, \u201cAs far as leadership studies go, it seems that more and more has been studied about less and less, to end up ironically with a group of researchers studying everything about nothing.\u201d[1]<\/a>Who is a leader and what is leadership, really? is a question asked by MaryKate Morse; she notes that leadership is always taking place; \u201cleadership is influence. Leaders influence others \u2026. \u201d[2]<\/a> From my perspective, Morse\u2019s \u201cinfluence\u201d concept is an essential starting point and a guiding premise in evaluating leadership.<\/p>\n

Influence, fundamentally, is about relationships. Mandred Kets de Vries in The Leadership Mystique: Leading Behavior in the Human Enterprise<\/em> draws a sharp distinction between leading structures or systems and leading people. He indicates that his \u201cmain objective in studying leadership \u201cis to bring the person back into the organization<\/em>\u201d[3]<\/a> The sub-title gives the best hint to the book content, \u201cLeading Behavior\u201d indicates it is people to people; relationship is paramount in leadership. In our cohort\u2019s most recent reading, Exit, Voice and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations<\/em>, Albert Hirschman relates \u201cexit\u201d to two primary causes: price and quality in terms of product.[4]<\/a> Although Hirschman does not relate price and quality to people, I would see personal value<\/em> to the organization (partly but not solely in terms of pay) and workplace satisfactions as corollary concepts. These are both predominantly relational concepts and impact on relationships.<\/p>\n

Vries takes a clinical approach to analyzing organizational behavior. By focusing on people, he is able to encourage leaders to engage in learning \u201cmore about leadership and its vicissitudes\u201d in order to \u201cincrease their leadership effectiveness.\u201d[5]<\/a>One of the significant learning highlights in the book is Vries use of self-leaning questionnaires. These \u201ctests\u201d extend the clinical approach to a sort of personal \u201cclinical application\u201d in the reader\u2019s world of leadership.<\/p>\n

Vries focuses on three key themes:[6]<\/a> The first theme is the psychological rationale behind irrational organizational and individual behavior. The second<\/em> is the dark side of leadership \u2013 failure. Varies clinical approach comes through here, \u201cMy years of experience,\u201d Vries notes, \u201chave taught me that, like it or not, not everyone has any such [leadership] potential; that, like it or not, leadership failure is a reality \u2013 and a common one at that.\u201d[7]<\/a> The third theme<\/em> covers the qualities of effective leadership. The characteristics of a charismatic leader and the development of core competencies as displayed in the context in which the leader is operating will determine the leader\u2019s effectiveness.<\/p>\n

It is not possible to digest this book in three days reading nor give a comprehensive summary in this short paper. It is a wealth of leadership learning and application. Two chapters especially stand out for me:<\/p>\n

Chapter 8 \u201cCharacteristics of Effective leadership\u201d
\nChapter 9: \u201cLeadership in a Global Context\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In effective leadership, Vries addresses social, political and philosophical changes that are drastically affecting leadership in the twenty-first century. In integrating the property<\/em> (behavior patterns and personality attributes) and the process<\/em> (influence and relationships) leaders exhibit seven key competencies crucial to leadership effectiveness: surgency (fire in the belly), sociability, receptivity, agreeableness, dependability, analytical and emotional intelligence. \u00a0According to Vries, these competencies expressed in action \u201cwill stand leaders in good stead as they operate in today\u2019s global environment.\u201d[8]<\/a> He then presents the dimensions of culture and how global leadership style and ability must transcend cultural differences in creating value and attitude. Leadership is successful when it creates \u201cappreciation and accommodation of culture diversity \u2026 [and the] awareness of the need for a shared organizational culture.\u201d[9]<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, what went right?\u201d My assessment is being influenced (I\u2019m not done yet) by Vries\u2019 article \u201cThe Leadership Mystique\u201d (see note 1). He presents several key elements that I think factor into not only our successful mission conference but that permeates all successful leadership experience:<\/p>\n