So says Dr Donna Ladkin, professor in leadership and ethics at Cranfield School of Management in the UK and author of Rethinking Leadership: New Look at Old Leadership Questions. Ladkin, in New Zealand earlier this year at the invitation of Massey University’s School of Management, is proponent of what she calls aesthetic leadership, or “leading beautifully”. She believes how leaders lead is as important as what they do.
“People are always assessing whether they can trust you, if you’re someone they want to follow,” she says. “Whether you’re worth following.” Followers start making that decision from their very first glimpse of leader. It’s gut impression, heart-felt reaction, as opposed to the rational assessment we all like to think we make.
She says leaders need to add an aesthetic awareness to their operational, political and communications skills. They must decide how they want to lead, what kind of leader they aspire to be. “A lot of the old recipes for leadership are bit tired, I think people are looking for something new. The aesthetic is part of who we are as humans. You can pooh-pooh this, but whether or not you think it’s relevant, it’s happening.”
But aesthetic awareness isn’t something that can be tacked on to long list of competencies: it can be learned, but to be truly effective, it’s an outward manifestation of what’s within.
Ladkin cites three core aspects of leading beautifully: mastery, coherence and purpose.
Mastery is being “really skilled at what we do”. Moving into leadership role often takes managers out of their area of functional expertise. But they need to be masters of their sector, of relational abilities, and of understanding what makes the organisation tick in its market. key aspect of mastery is being able to understand the possibilities of the moment.
Coherence is how leader presents him or herself, Ladkin says, and that’s about authenticity. “People will always look at what you’re doing rather than what you say,” she warns.
Purpose, the third strand of Ladkin’s definition of leading beautifully, is big part of engagement.
Beautiful leadership will have “good” purpose, Ladkin says. While that may be more easily identified in the not-for-profit sector, any leader in any sector can incorporate an ethical dimension to leadership.
Ladkin emphasises that leading aesthetically doesn’t mean being soft touch. “Beauty is tough. It’s exacting, discerning. When you think about the All Blacks, they are masters of what they do. The way they play is beautiful… they’re working with their skills, but precisely tuned into the moment.”
Identifying the people who are bringing an aesthetic quality to their leadership isn’t difficult she says. “Who are the people who lead teams which really ‘buzz’? Who do people most seem to enjoy working for – or conversely, who do they not like working for?”
Ladkin points out that people who lead well are those who see their staff. As Tom Peters put it back in the 1980s, they wander around. In particular, Ladkin suggests to executives that they spend half an hour in part of the organisation they don’t know. “They come back with so much,” she says.
• From The heart of leadership by Adele Gautier in the March issue of NZ Management.
