Leadership & Expert Operations Knowledge
Leadership at every organizational level matters. Everyday I see stories in the news about international and political crises, terrorism, war, murder, corruption, mass transit accidents and other bad news. In too many cases people in charge of protecting the public are making poor decisions. Our law enforcement personnel face death every day to protect the public but they are hamstrung by politicians who have little understanding of the work our brave police officers do everyday. Police officers have to stop the bad guys from harming the public while also facing a herd of lawyers and politicians seemingly eager to prosecute a police officer on even the thinnest or false accusations made by criminals? We desperately need good leadership in our political and government agencies.
I continue to research the processes and criteria we use to select those who will be in charge of the organizations tasked to keep us safe and to make America’s economy grow again. Below are selected quotes from some of the key leadership scholars whose insightful work continues to inspire my own research. People in charge at any level of organization should thoroughly understand the core business functions of their organization (Not just be a generalist cheerleader). I agree with Drucker (2002) that “generalist” leadership of critical organizations will likely result in mediocrity at best or total failure at worst.
It has been my experience as a member of many different military and civilian organizations that we know when the person in charge of our organization knows what they are doing and we know when they do not…too often the person in charge seems to think that they have fooled us into believing they know what they are doing. My educated guess is that I am not the only one who has had these types of experiences.
Quotes from Hogan & Kaiser’s What We Really Know About Leadership
“People who rise to the top of large organizations are distinguished by hard work, brains, ambition, political skill and luck, but not necessarily by talent for leadership” (Hogan & Kaiser, 2005, p. 171).
Because Admiral Horatio Nelson knew how every bit of a War Ship should be fought and how best a fleet should be fought, “Naval Historians are astonished at the quality of Horatio Nelson’s decision making under the almost unimaginable difficult and confusing conditions of a sea battle” (Pocock, 1987). (Hogan & Kaiser, 2005, p. 173).
Hogan, R., & Kaiser, R. B. (2005). What we know about leadership. Review of General Psychology, 9(2), 169.
Drucker (2002) wrote, “The idea that there are well-rounded people, people who have only strengths and no weaknesses (whether the term is used is the Whole-man or the mature personality or the generalist is a prescription for mediocrity if not incompetence” (p. 72).
Drucker continued to comment on whether executives should be specialized or multitalented and posited, there is no such thing as a good man. "Good for what is the question. What is the man good for” (p. 72). Drucker continued to comment on the whole-man concept [Dr. C adds: which the Air Force officer promotion system is based on] “The whole man” concept hides a profound contempt for man’s specific gift: his ability to put all his resources behind one activity, one field of endeavor, one area of accomplishment. Human excellence can only be achieved in one area, or at most very few” (p. 72).
Drucker, P. (2002). The effective executive. New York: Harper Collins Publishers
Quote from Bedeian & Hunt (2006)
As I understand your reasoning, you view leadership as an aspect (subset) of management, but hold that one’s conception of leadership should depend on one’s reason for studying leadership. This being said, my confusion in reading the leadership literature isn’t whether leaders and managers are different, or whether leadership should be subsumed as part of management. Rather, I continue to be baffled by the wide acceptance of studies that allege to be about leaders and their followers, but, in reality, are nothing more than studies of managers and their subordinates. As I adverted to in my last letter, find it particularly puzzling how leadership scholars came to accept the notion that such studies actually deal with leadership, and to be so willing to incorporate their authors’ claims into the leadership literature. I still see such claims as being similar to false advertising and leadership scholars as being accessories in promulgating this masquerade. (Bedeian & Hunt, 2006, p. 198)
[Dr. C adds: There is no evidence that managers are leaders or that subordinates are followers. It may be that researchers have found it easier to locate managers and subordinates to study than to locate leaders and followers?]
Bedeian, A., & Hunt, J. (2006). Academic amnesia and vestigial assumptions of our forefathers. The Leadership Quarterly, 17, 190-205.
The below two paragraphs/quotes are from Strange & Mumford on the origins of vision.
“Moreover, the theory of vision formation proposed by Mumford and Strange (2005) explicitly notes that reflection is of value in vision formation only to the extent that this reflection on past experience facilitates identification of key causes and key goals” (p. 143).
A third and final implication of the present study pertains to the role of experience in vision formation. Clearly, vision depends on the availability of descriptive mental models---models typically acquired through experience. The literature on vision-based leadership has, however, ignored the influence of experience leaving one with the impression that visions emerge, somehow miraculously, from a vacuum (p. 145).
Strange, J. M., & Mumford, M. D. (2005). The origins of vision: Effects of reflection, models, and analysis. Leadership Quarterly, 16(1), 121-148. doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2004.07.006
Quote from Gladwell’s book Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
When experts make decisions, they don’t logically and systematically compare all available options. That is the way people are taught to make decisions, but in real life it is too slow”…expert and experienced leaders, “would size up the situation almost immediately and act drawing on experience and intuition and a kind of rough mental simulation” (examples: ER doctors, fireman, hostage rescue team leaders, SWAT leaders…these leaders are never “the new guy”, they are very experienced and the best of the team…basic skills plus leadership skills) (Gladwell, 2005).
Gladwell, M. (2005). Blink: The power of thinking without thinking. New York: Back Bay Books.
I hope the quotes above have sparked further discussion about how best to identify, select and develop those individuals we need to lead organizations critical to America’s future.