Avoiding Hubris
But definitions of leadership can be tricky, and perceptions of what makes a good leader can differ, notes Peter McDougall, director of The Leadership Academy. Many IT people McDougall knows are "fascinatingly adept at doing magical things with IT equipment and systems". Many perceive themselves to be leaders in their field, particularly in their creative, technical and management areas, and they strive to do even better and bigger things in these areas. They see leadership as being "first" in their field, and to improve their position they focus on developing their personal creative, technical and management skills.
Like managers in many other areas of endeavour, but particularly in organizations that comprise very clever, creative people, such as universities and hospitals, McDougall says it is often a potent mix of self-confidence, self-interest and a certain amount of hubris that influences people to think and act in this way. But self-interest and hubris are the antithesis of the qualities needed for good leadership, and much empirical and anecdotal evidence indicates that they are two of the main reasons why managers fail.
"Our perception of leadership is that the role of a leader at any level is to create the environment in which they and their people can be successful in achieving their common goals. This involves maintaining a balance between three interrelated areas of need: one, to achieve the vision, mission, goals and objectives of the organization; two, to build and maintain their team; and, three, to develop the attitudes and skills of the individuals in the team," McDougall says.
"These needs must be kept in balance over a continuum because to neglect or over-emphasize one over any of the others will result in decreased overall performance and 'bottom line' outcomes. This requires the leader to develop and utilize many skills, some of them traditional management skills such as planning, organizing, coordinating and controlling, for we believe that leadership is not something that is mysterious or ephemeral, but is a difficult-to-acquire combination of art and skills that is practised within the real world of management, irrespective of the type or purpose of the organization."
McDougall says good leaders understand that even more important than credible management skills are the values, attitudes and skills of people within the organization, since people make the difference between outstanding and ordinary performance. People cannot be "managed" like materials, systems, processes and finance, or even ideas. They must be led by people who are committed not only to achieving the task, whatever it may be, but who genuinely believe in and demonstrate a selfless commitment to the team and to the individuals who are part of it.
"Within the limits of human frailties, they must do their best to learn, adopt and practise the values, attitudes and skills that they wish their people to possess and practise. They must lead by example, for it is not what leaders say that people follow, it is what they see them do.
"Leadership is primarily about people, and leaders of whatever ilk will only succeed if they work with and through them," he says.
SIDEBAR: The Model Leader
It is strong, capable IT leadership that will differentiate IS organizations that disappear into the back office of utility services from those that capitalize on opportunities during the next two years, notes Surinder Kahai, associate professor of MIS and fellow, Centre for Leadership Studies with The School of Management at Binghamton University.
Kahai is working on a paper exploring the development of a full range leadership model for CIOs, based on the work of colleagues Bruce J Avolio and Bernard M Bass. You can read more about the Full Range Model at the following sites:
Bass and Avolio developed the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) to determine the degree to which leaders exhibited transformational and transactional leadership and the degree to which their followers were satisfied with their leader and their leader's effectiveness.
A 21-item version of the frequently revised MLQ-6s has been available since 1992, designed to assess two transactional (contingent reward and management by exception) and four transformational (charisma or idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration) leadership factors, as well as Laissez-Faire Leadership.
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