How to inspire a following

By VICKI JAYNE

Are they born, made, moulded, mentored or merely encouraged? Debates around the nature and nurture of leadership are hardly new but these days they're being explored with a whole new fervour.

Leadership programmes seem to be springing up everywhere - large organisations have their own culturally compatible versions, the public service has its Leadership Development Centre and the University of Auckland's Business School last year launched the NZ Leadership Institute.

To a large extent these efforts reflect the changing view of organisations - from being a bundle of different functions that need to be managed to being a bunch of disparate people who will perform much better if they are inspired, motivated, and supported by good leadership.

As the cliche has it "you manage things but lead people".

But the notion of "leader" is also undergoing a bit of a revamp. It's now seen as less to do with charismatic individuals - and whether they come in the Genghis or Gandhi mould - as with the quality of their relationships with others. And fair enough, given one of the primary requirements of leadership is that somebody wants to follow you.

There is an awareness that older, simpler notions of leadership are no longer effective and a new "collaborative" model is evolving to meet more complex economic and social needs.

Instead of being individualistic, achievement dominated, self-interested and discrete, it is more pluralistic, diverse, inclusive and focused on the common good.

Collaborative leaders can be found at all levels of organisations or communities. They don't confine themselves to one particular field of endeavour but take responsibility for building communication between different groups and generating wider communities of interest.

These are people who can inspire commitment and action by getting others switched on, revved up and better able to come up with creative visions or inspired solutions.

And New Zealand doesn't have nearly enough of them.

"It's our lack of adequate leadership that is holding this country back," says Tony Nowell who is chief executive of Griffins Foods, chair of the Food and Grocery Council and sits on a number of other industry and community bodies.

In some industries, including his own, the shortage of young leaders coming through has become a major concern.

"I came back here four years ago after about 13 years working overseas and I was a bit appalled by what I saw as a huge gap in leadership in this country. New Zealand wasn't and still isn't going forward the way I think it should and I think that substantially has to do with leadership capability," says Nowell.

He is not just talking leadership with a capital "L" - the top-tier, high-profile public-figure variety. The problem is more pervasive and has to do with people's reluctance to be accountable in a way that embraces all aspects of New Zealand society.

"There is a lot of good will and intent but it's very hard to get people to stand up and publicly voice what they really believe in, to take a stance. I think a lot of the problem comes from a lack of communication and understanding across the boundaries of different business and community sectors."

This concern prompted Nowell to become one of the movers behind a new leadership initiative - one that is firmly in the collaborative mould.

Leadership New Zealand (LNZ) is a not-for-profit trust set up to focus on developing and enhancing the quality of our future leaders. Its vision is "a culture of leadership in an integrated community" and its brand symbolises the weaving together of different community threads through that leadership.

After more than a year's gestation, LNZ is planning an official launch of its mid-career leadership development programme in August.

Alongside that is the establishment of a broad-based "leadership forum" that will act as heart and brains to the organisation, providing inspiration, information and communication.

The third strand of LNZ activities is the setting up of a "skillsbank" to which leaders commit their talent and time and on which community groups (for example, not-for-profit groups or schools) can draw.

LNZ is modelled largely on the Melbourne-based "Leadership Victoria" which has been going for about 15 years and whose 400-plus alumni have made a substantial contribution to progress in that state, reckons Nowell.

One of them is also set to make a contribution to the local leadership scene.

Kate Cantwell, recently appointed executive director of Leadership NZ is an alumni of the Victorian programme who is familiar with its structure and benefits.

"It's all about bringing together people from different sectors of the community so you get a cross-fertilisation of ideas and understanding.

"Often what happens is that those groups don't have the useful conversations - education doesn't talk to health, health doesn't talk to transport, business doesn't talk with environmentalists. This is all about bringing people together and helping to generate those broader conversations."

The result may not always be agreement but it does encourage people to think differently and improves mutual understanding. An example she cites is that of a woman who developed a policy for Victoria's State Government on safe injecting rooms for heroin users.

"Because there's a lot of fear around that subject, it's just not talked about. But a leadership course like this encourages people to have the conversation and become more willing to hear the facts.

"It may not change their ideas, but it means future debate won't just be about opinion or prejudice. It'll be about fact-based decision-making."

The process, she says, helps to build wider community networks.

"It brings people out of the confines of their particular speciality - and at the end of your programme, you have a commitment to each other and to the community."

That sense of interdependence is something New Zealanders tend to shy away from, reckons Nowell. Perhaps, it's the pioneering, DIY-gene that Pakeha immigrants were forced to develop.

The downside of the "No 8 wire" mentality is a tendency to embrace independence to the point of excluding any notion of interdependence.

His own view of leadership puts communication high on the desired attributes list.

"It is being prepared to listen, understand others' points of view and weave them into your own world view - so that even though you might not totally accept them, you can work with them."

In the long run, says Nowell, that consultative style of leadership has proved more effective than the charismatic, leading-from-the-front, devil-take-the-hindmost approach. It also makes for more constructive relationships in the wider community.

"I think if you can get a more holistic view of leadership in this country - where it's accepted that business is part of the game - then I think we will grow and prosper in all respects."

Broad spectrum participation will be a feature of the first LNZ leadership programme for which applications open in August. The year-long programme will cover vision and values to ethics, environment, history, art and culture.

Participants will meet for two to three days each month and be exposed to leadership issues and have the opportunity to debate these with key speakers.

The commitment to build leadership capacity doesn't end there. In Victoria, the fact that programme alumni continue, through the skillsbank, to work with a range of non-profit organisations has helped to lift the quality of the latters' outputs and been of huge value to the overall community, says Cantwell.

Anyone and everyone can have the opportunity to be leader - and we all are some time and in some aspects of our lives, says Cantwell.

What the LNZ programme offers is an opportunity for people who have leadership capacity to step up and make a contribution.

"We're not talking about the next Prime Minister or the next CEO of the company but about people who can, and want to make a difference in broader aspects of their community."