How Leadership is Defined

The definition of leadership has changed dramatically in the last quarter century.

• Before, leadership meant knowing all the right answers. Today, it means asking the right questions.
• Once, leaders were people who announced decisions they had already made. Now, leaders are expected to involve many others in the process of making decisions.
• In the past, leaders were pictured as older, as white, as male. Today, leaders increasingly are younger as well as older, people of color as well as whites, women as well as men.
• It is common to hear leaders described as people of vision. Today, what we mean is that leaders will help a community of people picture-together-what kind of community they all want in the future.
• It is common to hear leaders described as people of wisdom. Today, what we mean is that leaders will help a community understand the implications of the increasing rapidity of change in the world that surrounds them, and then guide the community through a process of making wise choices that reflect community values and build from local strengths.
• It's common to hear leaders described as people of action. Today, what we mean is that leaders will help others feel comfortable in assuming responsibilities for getting things done, in concert with a deliberate plan for action that specifies goals, establishes schedules, and evaluates progress.

Roles and Responsibilities of Community Leaders

Community leadership is similar to many other leadership roles. But it has its unique aspects, as well. It is more public. As it is often not compensated, it comes with fewer tangible rewards. It is subject to greater political pressure. It must satisfy a much broader and more diverse constituency.

Thomas Cronin describes what he terms three "stages" of leadership that are relevant to the community setting. On those stages, Cronin sees: In Act I, the trouble makers who "stir things up" and "get things going." In Act II, the movement organizers who "set agendas" and organize others to "push causes." In Act III, the power brokers, who exert significant influence through reputation or position.

The roles and responsibilities of community leaders take on greater complexity in times of volatile and unpredictable change. John P. Kotter, author of The Leadership Factor, writes in the "Harvard Business Review" that "management is about copinng with complexity" while leadership "is about coping with change." Says Kotter," . . . doing what was done yesterday, or doing it 5% better, is no longer a formula for success."

. . . the patterns of society and economy that once predicted the future no longer work to even explain the present.

The community leader today plays a different role than in the past. In many ways it is more difficult because of the times in which we live. Change is now a constant; modern transportation and communications have transformed a far-flung globe into one highly interdependent marketplace; the patterns of society and economy that once predicted the future no longer work even to explain the present. In this age, community leaders must assume responsibility for these major roles:

• Helping their community, through processes open to citizen participation, articulate and then communicate a vision that most citizens can embrace with enthusiasm.
  
• Matching community needs with available community skills and accessible internal and external resources.
  
• Specifying realistic strategies that move the community in the direction it must go to transform today's vision into tomorrow's reality.

Finally, people facing the challenge of community leadership should remember that what we've learned about leadership in the last quarter century turns the old adage upside down. Leaders are made, not born. That means that leadership can be learned. It's not something you just have. It is something that many people can acquire.

Challenges Facing Community Leaders

Doing More with Less

Only through careful planning, with a realistic eye on future possibilities and a creative approach to fiscal management, will local leaders be able to walk the fine line that defines "doing more with less."

Mandates from Above

Unfunded mandates from state or federal governments further complicate the fiscal challenges that community leaders face, as they are compelled to institute or continue programs for which no additional financial support is forthcoming.

The Rapids of Change

Change today comes at an increasingly faster pace and with unpredictable complications, and the patterns of the past are no longer reliable predictors of the future. Today's leaders need to learn how to "avoid being surprised" by unexpected events." Only through some locally driven "future forecasting" will the community leader keep on top of fundamental changes affecting the community and region.

Complexity of Issues

Today, it seems like everything is related to everything else, in intricate and complicated ways, making difficult the task of breaking apart complex challenges into manageable chunks. That's why leaders are challenged today to help define the issues in ways that many people can understand and then get lots of citizens involved in finding new and creative answers.

Economic Realities

Economic ups and downs are oftentimes a given. And when they are not - when economies are stable - communities risk the danger of apathy about the future. Community leaders are, therefore, challenged to help citizens understand both current conditions and future possibilities.

Social and Cultural Unrest

Migration from the coasts, urban flight from the cities, or an influx of new residents from quite different cultures can cause social and cultural unrest, even in the best of situations. The clash of cultures that results with challenge leaders who have been accustomed to working with homogeneous populations whose shared history and values are obvious, even if unspoken. Seeking advice from other communities with similar experiences may help leaders find creative answers.

Loss of Confidence in Institutions

The lack of respect for authority is pervasive in our society. Increasingly, citizens of all ages mistrust institutions of government, office holders, corporate leaders, schools and the news media. The challenge to leaders is to learn to use authentic processes for citizen participation in those issues that are critical to the community's sense of self and to encourage people - at the grassroots - to take seriously their individual and collective responsibilities for community health and well being.

Fear of "Assassination"

Anyone who volunteers for leadership assumes the "risk of assassination," By that, he means that leaders risk the reality that someone, someday, will try to take them down a notch or two and, in extreme cases, attempt to remove them from office. Today's leaders must learn to live without constant approval. Citizens should recognize that they have a responsibility to provide support and encouragement to the people who assume the public leadership roles, even if they do not always agree.

Characteristics of Leadership

In the community setting, leadership today is more often a team activity than an individual task.

The reason is that people feel better about themselves, make better decisions, remain more loyal to overall objectives, and produce better quality products and services when they work in a cooperative atmosphere . . . as part of a team. Each individual has the chance to see how her or his contribution fits into the whole. Healthy communities today operate in much the same way.

Describe leadership in terms of "fundamentals". Those fundamentals, translated into community terms, include:

• Trust and respect for others
  
• Problem solving skills
  
• Communication skills
  
• Trust in their own intuition
  
• Skill in running meetings
  
• Understanding how organizations work
  
• Being open-minded and approachable
  
• Ability to combine substance and style
  
• Exuding integrity

Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus, concluded that these leaders used five "key skills." In their book, Leaders: The Strategies for Taking Charge, the describe those skills as:

• The ability to accept people as they are
  
• The capacity to approach relationships and problems in terms of the present rather than the past
  
• The ability to treat people close to you with the same courteous attention that you extend to strangers
  
• The ability to trust others, even if the risk seems great
  
• The ability to do without constant approval and recognition from others

What's most important about these characteristics is that they go beyond what leaders think and believe. They also reflect what leaders say and do. Someone with leadership potential who does not behave like a leader will not be perceived as a leader. People who are perceived as serving themselves, rather than others, are not leaders.

For more information, contact:

Heartland Center for Leadership Development

941 "O" Street, Suite 920
Lincoln, Nebraska 68508
Telephone: 800-927-1115
E-mail: Heartcld@aol.com
Community and Rural Development Institute
Cornell Local Government Program