Is it Image, Issues or Ideology that Makes a Great Leader?
We are past the half way mark in the primaries/caucuses for both
parties. Perhaps we can compare our
nonprofit leaders with how voters think about political candidates, our
political leaders. Mid-century political scientists developed a formula to
predict the vote based upon three factors: how voters evaluated a candidate's
image, issue positions, and the voter’s political party or party
identification.
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| Warren Bennis, Leadership author |
The formula doesn't work as well in the
21st century since more of us identify as Independents, but it's a good
exercise in looking at leadership from different perspectives. Leadership and management theorists have had
an equally tough time figuring out how to assess a great leader. Right now management literature emphasizes leadership style.
Let's take a look at the formula and apply it to our nonprofit managers. When we think of candidate image we
often think about whether he or she is charismatic, inspiring, likable, trustworthy. Those
are characteristics we might ascribe to the president or director of our
nonprofit, too. Nowadays, we seem to focus on the negative characteristics but for the exercise think about the positives.
The second part of the formula is issues.
We vote for the candidate who takes issue positions we favor. In
politics we often split issues down to the economy and foreign
policy. It's not that you and I have to know the details of a candidate's
immigration policy, position on more or fewer troops in Syria, or position on
job creation. It's whether we agree or disagree in general with the most
prominent policies being discussed by the candidates. Applying it to the nonprofit
executive, the focus he takes on the budget and fund raising or the kids, the
members, the day-to-day operations of the nonprofit meshes with what you value. Ignore some of those minor disappointments or disagreements for the purpose of
this exercise.
The third part of the formula is party
identification, your ideology. You might know whether your president or
director is a Republican, Democrat, or Independent and you might agree or
disagree. This third part, translates better
as her vision, a belief in the mission and vision of the nonprofit. The
director walks the talk. She seeks input. Or she emphasizes the need to run the
organization like a business with standardized policies and places less emphasis
on the actual mission. The organization is
well managed and not chaotic and that is what is important in her vision.
Put the three parts of the formula
together. Think of your boss. What
characteristics do you like/dislike, her image? What goals or policies are in
the strategic plan that you like or don't like, the issues? What is her belief in the mission and vision,
her ideology? In this formula, you’ll consider
her a great leader if the image she portrays, the issues she prioritizes, and
her ideology match what’s important to you. Now would you vote for her if you
had a chance? Is there something missing
from the formula?
For a great author on leadership, see the works of Warren Bennis. Two of my favorites are On Leadership and Why Leaders can't Lead
See how the candidates size up on the issues
