Effective Leadership by John Adair

Author:John Adair [Adair, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pan Macmillan UK

A leader is best

When people barely know that he exists.

Not so good when people obey and acclaim him,

Worst when they despise him.

‘Fail to honour people,

They fail to honour you’;

But of a good leader, who talks little

When his work is done, his aim fulfilled,

They will all say, ‘We did this ourselves.’

Lao-Tzu, Sixth century BC

Your object, then, in directing, regulating and restraining is to ensure that the group’s work keeps within bounds or remains on course like a ship at sea. That is the sole criterion of your effectiveness as a controller. You have oversight, which means you should be able to look at the whole picture. If obstacles or difficulties crop up in the path of the adopted course, you are then in a good position to help the group to cope with them.

The stance of a controller is to be where the action is, but observing rather than doing. If you watch a good leader in the execution phase of an exercise or project, his or her eyes are never still. The pattern of ability here is: look, think; and intervene only where strictly necessary and with the minimum exercise of power.

Obviously if a safety standard is being ignored and someone is in danger of losing life or limb, your thought processes will be instant. But much of what you pick up on will be below-standard performance (especially if you are inclined to be a perfectionist), and you will have to make a judgement as to whether to intervene immediately or to make the points later.

If you decide on intervention, the principle is to use the minimum force possible. If you are at the controls of an ocean-racing yacht, for example, you do not normally have to force the rudder about or lunge around at the crew with a boathook. In order to get the group onto its agreed course again you may only have to touch the controls – a quiet word or even a look can do the trick. As the Arabs say, ‘Who does not understand a look cannot understand long explanations.’ The personal course you have to steer as a leader should take you between the two black rocks of too much interference and lack of direction. Many a leader is shipwrecked in these foaming straits.

If the plan is going well and the group is composed of self-disciplining people, you can sometimes have time to help an individual or a subgroup with their part of the task. If you want everyone to work hard you must not give the impression that you are standing around with nothing to do. Yet you should always remain in such a position that you can instantly take control if things begin to go wrong. Some leaders make the mistake of getting so involved in a piece of work that they forget their responsibility for the whole. You do not see the whole forest if you are busy cutting down a tree – which your woodman could do better than you

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