Overseas Think Tank for Indonesia

Image source: users.bigpond.com

By Beni Bevly
When I moved to the United States and joined several Indonesian community organizations in California in 1998, I was surprised by their leadership knowledge and skills. Why not? This is America, a country that exports management and leadership skills the most to worldwide.

Most of the leaders are lack of leadership. They took things personally because they did not differentiate between themselves and organization. They mixed their business’ and the organization’s interests. They did not identify what the followers’ needs, and etc.

I know that there are tons of the definitions of leaderships such as from C.E. Munson: The creative and directive force of morale, W.G Bennis: The process by which an agent induces a subordinate to behave in a desire manner, E.P. Hollander and J.W Julian: The presence of a particular influences relationship between two or more persons, F.E Fiendler: Directing and coordinating the work of group members, R.K. Merton, R.T. Hogan, G.J. Curphy, and J. Hogan: An interpersonal relation in which others comply because they want to, not because they have to, B.M. Bass, N.M. Tichy and M.A. Devanna: Transforming followers, creating vision of the goals that may be attained, and articulating for the followers the ways to attain those goals, C.F. Roach and O. Behling: The process of influencing on organized group toward accomplishing its goals, D.P. Campbell: Action that focus resources to created desirable opportunities, and R.C. Ginnet: The leader’s job to create condition for team to be effective

Once, in the committee meeting in one of the Indonesian community otganization, I mentioned the meaning of leadership to one of those leaders. I utilized the example of leadership definition from Bass, Tichy and Devanna. Bass, et. al. mentioned that leadership is transforming followers, creating vision of the goals that may be attained, and articulating for the followers the ways to attain those goals.

From point of view of this leadership definition, I focused on how leadership from Mahatma Gandhi transformed his followers, created visions of the goals that may be attained, and articulated for followers the ways to attain those goals.

Gandhi, as a leader of liberation movement from England, in India, transformed his followers to be countrymen who followed the gospel of self-sacrifice. Once, he said, “I am asking my countrymen in India to follow no other gospel than the gospel of self-sacrifice which proceeds every battle.” (Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Gandhi An Autobiography: The story of My Experiments With Truth). He created visions of the goals that India had to liberate themselves and stand alone.

His articulation for the followers the ways to attain those goals were clear; among them were non-violence, and non-cooperation. He told his followers, “I have no secret methods. I know no diplomacy save that of truth. I have no weapon but non-violence. … You have to stand against the whole world although you may have to stand-alone, you have to stare the face the whole world although the world may look at you with blood-shot eyes. Do not fear. …”

Mahatma Gandhi, with this type of leadership led his people to the gate of freedom.

The meeting was over. I went home. After dinner, my phone was ringing. It was a call from the leader that I talked to in the meeting. Do you know what he said to me? To make the long conversation short, he said, “Beni, don’t try to take over my leadership. This is my organization!” Wow! I never expected that kinf of response. I thought he would like to say thank you to me.

Recalling the leadership definition. I prefer the definition of leadership provided by C.F. Roach and O. Behling, which is “the process of influencing on organized group toward accomplishing its goals” because it is a fairly comprehensive and helpful one (Hughes, Ginnett & Curphy, 2002, Leadership: Enhanching the Lessons of Experience). This definition does not specifically mention only one aspect of leadership, but it shows the meaning of all aspects (key words “processing of influencing”) of leadership.

There are four implications of this definition, which also tell us why I prefer this definition: first, leadership is both a science and an art. Knowing what to do is not the same a knowing when, where and how to do it. Even those individual with extensive knowledge of the leadership research may be poor leaders. The art of leadership concern the skill of understanding leadership situations and influencing others to accomplish group goal. Formal leadership education may give individuals the skill to better understand leadership situation, and mentorship and experience may give individual the skills to better influence others.

Second, leadership is both rational and emotional. Leaders are often most effective when they affect people of both the emotional and rational level. It is true that leadership sometimes can be accomplished relatively rational, explicit, rule-base methods of assessing situations and determining action, but there is an emotional side of human nature that must be acknowledge.

Third, leadership and management. although leadership and management can be distinguished as separate functions, they complement each other. Both are vital to organizational success.

Fourth, leadership and followership. It’s important to know followers because leadership does not occur without them. Followers are part of the leadership process. The relationship between leadership and followership can be represented by borrowing a topographical mathematics: the möbius strip. The möbius strip can be made with two-sided stripe of paper (you can write “leadership” on one side and the other side “followership) that are twisted and connected. On this möbius strip, when you put a pen at any point and trace continuously, the pen will cover the entire strip (both sides) and return to the starting point. You already created a leadership and followership möbius strip wherein the two concepts merge one into the other.

Overall, to be a leader is not that easy as flipping over your palm. We need to take a moment and ask, “Am I an effective leader? If not what should I do?” But not by telling our follower, “Don’t try to take over my leadership!”

_____
*Beni Bevly holds BA in Political Science, MBA in Marketing, and is a DBA (Doctor of Business Administration) candidate. He is the founder of Overseas Think Tank for Indonesia.