Essence of Leadership

Citation

Morrison, I. (2001), "Essence of Leadership", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 22 No. 5, pp. 249-252. https://doi.org/10.1108/lodj.2001.22.5.249.1

What we do in life echoes in eternity.

These words are uttered by Maximus Decimus Meridius, the General turned Gladiator portrayed by Oscar‐winning Russell Crowe, in order to motivate his troops to conquer the barbarian hordes in battle. As head of the Roman Army, Maximus’ leadership is grounded in an adherence to formal authority, a highly structured organisational form and a willingness of legionnaires to die for thegood of Rome. Most managers might struggle to recognise such a scenario in their own organisations as they attempt to lead their subordinates into “battle”. Nevertheless, in these days of flexible, flatter structures staffed by virtual teams and individual employees whose loyalty extends as far as their next pay cheque, Maximus displays many other qualities that Andrew and Nada Kakabadsewould recognise as forming the “Essence of Leadership” and from which managers can take hope and inspiration.

Andrew Kakabadse, Professor of International Management Development, and Nada Kakabadse, Senior Research Fellow, both at Cranfield University, have written a book which is a major contribution to the understanding of leadership and draws heavily on the work of the International Management Development Centre at Cranfield. The authors would recognise the ability ofMaximus to inspire strong loyalty amongst his troops as stemming from a complex set of conditions and personal characteristics which allow him to focus on the transactional as well as the transformational aspects of his role.Indeed, the central argument of the book is that the capability to lead must be coupled with the practical skills that managers need to conduct their day‐to‐day affairs, which in the case of a Roman general included the ability to wield his sword with alacrity but in the case of a modern manager might include administration and working with people to achieve short‐term results.

Therefore, the book examines the skills, knowledge and competence required by leaders to manage their daily reality: goals, roles and relationship, working effectively within culture and effectively using power and political skills to achieve transactional results, as well as examining the wider transformational role of managers – their ability to inspire, create visions and engender fierce loyalty. The book reflects on literature on the “nature versus nurture” debate whilst offering results from Cranfield’s own research which helps explain the impact of traits, attributes and demographic profiles on leadership success. It also takes a theme‐based look at a number of important leadership issues, including the experiences of women leaders, the dangers of “burn‐out” and the increasing attention given to ethical dilemmas and the impact of the leader’s own conscience. The book finishes by examining possible pathways that can be followed by individuals and organisations to develop leadership talent, a chapter which is rather less focussed than the others but which nonetheless offers interesting insights into how leadership potential might be released.

Overall, this book is an interesting, comprehensive and important contribution to the literature on leadership which is grounded in examples of best practice. It would be of value to anyone studying a management‐related course, although it is not designed to be a stud‐ent text book on the subject. It should also appeal to all managers who are in‐terested in reflecting upon and developing their own leadership skills in order to strengthen their organisation’s ability to deal with the “barbarian hordes”.