Level 7 leadership
With more and more people realizing the importance of everyday leadership, theories continue to evolve around the inherent traits and qualities displayed by the leaders. One of the well known matrix, the 9x9 managerial grid, by Blake and Mouton,
has been in use for sometime now to categorize the managers according to the extent of their orientation towards people and productivity. Another piece of work done by Harvard Working Knowledge categorizes six levels of leadership- sociopath, opportunist, chameleon, achiever, builder and the transcendent. These classifications are differentiated by their long term goals they seek to achieve and somewhat, also by the measures these leaders take to attain these goals. The sixth level of leadership encompasses a large group comprising departments, divisions, companies and perhaps societies. To what end does this kind of leader works is not very well established but transcendent leaders affect the thought process and functioning of a large and a diverse group. A demagogue like Adolf Hitler and a spiritual leader like Dalai Lama may be placed in this category.
If we think of the traits that successful leaders, and not necessarily very popular leaders, have, we may come across many attributes with varying shades. Attributes like technical skills, planning,good communication skills, result-orientation, team-building, conscientiousness, extroversion, empathy, risk taking ability etc. Whether all or some of these are present in the leaders depends on the purpose they are serving. They have a goal in front of themselves and they imbibe one or more of these attributes to be successful. All of this is well known. There may a case for a leadership at highest level, where a leader may never exhibit these common traits. For example, he may possess technical skills, communication skills etc but still self-train himself to keep all of such qualities in some corner of his mind from where these would not appear to guide his central thought process. It is like a person acting as if he is devoid of any thoughts and skills. Such a person can be generally ineffective if he actually knows nothing. But if the person knowingly keeps all his qualities at bay, then he may be doing the best thing for he will not be hindered by any biases. His qualities will come to fore once his central idea becomes clear to him. Execution of his idea will definitely need all other qualities like communication, monitoring mechanisms, technical know-how etc.The best attribute such a leader would possess will be that he has none! One example that come to the mind is that of Mughal invader and Emperor Babur. Babur knew that he was outnumbered by the Rajputs led by Maharana Sangram Singh. He also knew that Rajputs were very good warriors. He could have approached his men and tried to inspire them all days and nights; he could have told them that they had been successful against the Lodhis of Delhi, that they had cannons which the Rajputs didn't possess. He gave a totally different angle to his speech that proved to be so effective that it eventually established Mughal rule in India.
With more and more people realizing the importance of everyday leadership, theories continue to evolve around the inherent traits and qualities displayed by the leaders. One of the well known matrix, the 9x9 managerial grid, by Blake and Mouton,
If we think of the traits that successful leaders, and not necessarily very popular leaders, have, we may come across many attributes with varying shades. Attributes like technical skills, planning,good communication skills, result-orientation, team-building, conscientiousness, extroversion, empathy, risk taking ability etc. Whether all or some of these are present in the leaders depends on the purpose they are serving. They have a goal in front of themselves and they imbibe one or more of these attributes to be successful. All of this is well known. There may a case for a leadership at highest level, where a leader may never exhibit these common traits. For example, he may possess technical skills, communication skills etc but still self-train himself to keep all of such qualities in some corner of his mind from where these would not appear to guide his central thought process. It is like a person acting as if he is devoid of any thoughts and skills. Such a person can be generally ineffective if he actually knows nothing. But if the person knowingly keeps all his qualities at bay, then he may be doing the best thing for he will not be hindered by any biases. His qualities will come to fore once his central idea becomes clear to him. Execution of his idea will definitely need all other qualities like communication, monitoring mechanisms, technical know-how etc.The best attribute such a leader would possess will be that he has none! One example that come to the mind is that of Mughal invader and Emperor Babur. Babur knew that he was outnumbered by the Rajputs led by Maharana Sangram Singh. He also knew that Rajputs were very good warriors. He could have approached his men and tried to inspire them all days and nights; he could have told them that they had been successful against the Lodhis of Delhi, that they had cannons which the Rajputs didn't possess. He gave a totally different angle to his speech that proved to be so effective that it eventually established Mughal rule in India.
