Leadership Lessons from Einstein

Much has been written about leadership: rules, pointers, styles, and biographies of inspiring leaders throughout world history. But there are certain leadership ideas that we ourselves fail to recognise and realise in the course of reading books. Here is a short list of key practical issues to do with leadership.

1. Leaders come in different flavors.

There are different types of leaders and you will probably encounter more than one type in your lifetime. Formal leaders are those we elect into positions or offices such as members of parliament, committee leaders, and presidents of the local clubs. Informal leaders or those we look up to because of their wisdom and experience such as in the case of the elders of a tribe, or our grandparents; or by virtue of their expertise and contribution on a given field such as Albert Einstein in the field of Theoretical Physics and Leonardo da Vinci in the field of the Arts. Both formal and informal leaders practice a combination of leadership styles.

2. Leadership is a process of personal development.

Although certain people seem to be born with innate leadership qualities, without the right environment and exposure, they may fail to develop their full potential. So like learning how to drive a car, you can also learn how to become a leader and hone your leadership abilities. You can also improve your knowledge of leadership theories and skills through attending leadership seminars, workshops, and conferences or by reading books on the subject.

Daily interaction with people provides the opportunity to observe and practice leadership theories. Together, formal and informal learning will help you gain leadership attitudes, gain leadership insights, and thus furthering the cycle of learning. You do not become a leader in one day and just stop. Life-long learning is important in becoming a good leader for each day brings new experiences that put your knowledge, skills, and attitude to a test.

3. Leadership starts with you.

The best way to develop leadership qualities is to apply it to your own life. As the saying goes “action speaks louder than words.” Leaders are always in the limelight. Keep in mind that your credibility as a leader depends much on your actions: your interaction with your family, friends, and co-workers; your way of managing your personal and organizational responsibilities; and even the way you talk with the newspaper vendor across the street. Repeated actions become habits. Habits in turn form a person’s character.

One question to might like to ask yourself is “On what Issue(s) am I prepared to make a stand?” Making a stand might be verbalising an issue in writing or through other media avenues, it might mean taking a more direct, hands on approach to campaigning. It’s in finding these issues and making a stand that we first show leadership.

4. Leadership is shared.

Leadership is not the sole responsibility of one person, but rather a shared responsibility among members of an emerging team. A leader belongs to a group. Each member has responsibilities to fulfill. Formal leadership positions are merely added responsibilities aside from their responsibilities as members of the team.

Effective leadership requires members to do their share of work. Starting as a mere group of individuals, members and leaders work towards the formation of an effective team. In this light, social interaction plays a major role in leadership. To learn how to work together requires a great deal of trust between and among leaders and members of an emerging team. Trust is built upon actions and not merely on words. When mutual respect exists, trust is fostered and confidence is built.

5. Leadership styles depend on the situation.

Why is dictatorship successful in Singapore but in very few other countries? Aside from culture, beliefs, value system, and form of government, the current situation of a nation also affects the leadership styles used by its formal leaders. There is no rule that only one style can be used. Most of the time, leaders employ a combination of leadership styles depending on the situation. In emergency situations such as periods of war and calamity, decision-making is a matter of life and death. Thus, a nation’s leader cannot afford to consult with all departments to arrive at crucial decisions.

The case is of course different in times of peace and order—different sectors and other branches of government can freely interact and participate in governance. Winston Churchill, for example, was an extremely successful wartime leader, excelling at rallying people to a cause. However, as a peacetime prime minister, he was just as spectacularly unsuccessful, as he found the mundane tasks of day to day leadership in peacetime to be tiresome.

Another case in point is in leading organisations. When the staff are highly motivated and competent, a combination of high delegation and moderate participative styles of leadership is most appropriate. But if the staffs have low competence and low commitment, a combination of high coaching, high supporting, and high directing behavior from organizational leaders is required.

6. Find a Leadership Role Model

Whilst there is no “One Size Fits All” approach to leadership, you can benefit greatly by identifying a leader whose values and style match your own and look at how they approached situations. It may be someone alive today, or a figure from history. If you are involved in a number of different activities, you might want to adopt a different leader for different activities – one for writing, another for public speaking and yet another for coaching 1 to 1. Or you might take just one leader, study them in detail and then, in any given situation, ask yourself what that person might do. his is particularly useful if your chosen leader is a spiritual figure such as Jesus, or Buddha etc. When faced with a difficult situation, pause for a moment and ask yourself, “What would Jesus do?” (or whoever you have chosen as your role model).

7. The Title of Leader is Bestowed on Us.

I am always wary when I read somebody’s social networking profile to find that they describe themselves as a “leader”. I believe that it is a title that should be bestowed on you by others, not one you should adopt for yourself!

What do you have to add on the issue of personal leadership? What have I missed out?

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