There are leaders — and there are those who lead. There are those who lead because of their job title — and there are those who inspire… So, how do some leaders inspire? What makes their followers follow them to the end of the earth? How do those leaders succeed when others fail? And is it a coincidence that the inspiring leaders communicate and act quite differently to those who fail to inspire.
In looking at the leadership styles of Nelson Mandela and the leadership styles of business school deans, something remarkable emerges that is worth noting…
Like it or not, leadership starts with a negotiation…
Of course, anyone in authority can demand that we do what he or she wants. For most of us, however, we prefer to follow because we want to, not because we have to. Those leaders who understand this also understand that they first have to persuade us why we should want to do as they’ve requested. The process therefore starts with a negotiation that has to end with us accepting the “why.” For inspirational leadership to result, once the “why” has been sold, the leaders then have to walk-the-walk…
Lets begin by looking at what Nelson Mandela and the business school deans faced as they began their negotiations with their respective followers and students. And how would they then each walk-the-walk?
What they each faced
What Nelson Mandela and his followers faced was the evil of apartheid — with all of its cruelty, indignity and injustice. They faced a fanatical white-supremacist government with enormous and overwhelming military and economic power. As government violence increased towards the anti-apartheid movement and those of color, Nelson Mandela’s followers demanded an increasingly violent response and insisted upon retribution. He, however, believed that this was not the way to reach their goal of ending apartheid…
What the business school deans faced was something quite serious — something that threatened to undermine our very economy: the evil of pervasive cheating. The deans’ explicit challenge was to train their students — our future business leaders — to confront not only the evil of pervasive cheating, but also the related evil of those who looked away as they saw those around them cheating. What made the deans’ challenge less daunting was that they were dealing with captive students — students who needed the MBAs as their ticket to prosperity. The deans, therefore, held all the cards…
How they each fared…
Against all odds, and despite overwhelming provocation by the government, Nelson Mandela presided over the peaceful transition of power to a black majority. Through his moral authority, he persuaded his angry followers against following the paths of retribution and vengeance. And, solely as a result of his inspirational leadership, apartheid was eliminated peacefully and constitutional rights were instituted that would protect all South Africans. As the world celebrated, lessons were learned of the extraordinary power of Nelson Mandela’s moral authority and inspirational leadership.
Against all odds, the business school deans were unable to inspire or even reach their captive audience. Their students cynically ignored them. In the ten years since Enron, reliable reports and surveys showed conclusively that cheating in the business schools was pervasive. Business students cheat more than other students. And as the cheating occurred, those around the cheaters looked the other way.
Where Nelson Mandela succeeded famously, the deans failed spectacularly… Was it because of their leadership styles. Was it because he had mastered the powers of negotiation and the deans had not?
How Nelson Mandela communicated…
Simon Sinek, in his book “Start With Why,” writes about how inspirational leaders understand that they have to begin by persuading those they lead “why” they do what they do. Only then will they move on to explain “how” they will do it. And only then do they address “what” it is they are selling or doing. He uses Apple as an example. He explains that Apple starts its pitch with the “why.” It explains to us all that it exists to challenge the status quo and to think differently. The “way” they do this is to create products that are beautiful and user-friendly. The “what” they sell are the great computers they make. He argues that people will only buy “what” you do, after they have bought “why” you do it.
Nelson Mandela instinctively understood this. He focused intently on the “why” and communicated this effectively and often. He explained “why” he believed so passionately in the injustice and inequity of apartheid and “why” he believed in the wisdom of “how” he wanted to get there. He did so regularly with absolute clarity and his followers enthusiastically believed for the same reasons he believed. And when he led by example in a way that was totally consistent with the “why,” he developed his enormous moral authority.
How the deans communicated…
The deans have never understood this critical need to communicate effectively in this particular way. In total fairness, however, they have had a good reason: They are seemingly in a state of disarray — and denial. And the result was predictable. Because they failed to communicate either effectively or at all, their students ignored them…
In a 2007 article entitled: “Teaching Business Ethics: the Attitudes of Business Deans Around the World,” Tilden J. Curry and Sharon V. Thach of Tennessee State University shone a light on this. In April 2007, they surveyed approximately 120 business deans from around the world concerning the teaching of business ethics. They reported that there is still no general agreement on these four questions:
1. What are the objectives or targeted learning outcomes of the course?
2. What kind of learning environment should be created?
3. What learning processes need to be employed to achieve the goals?
4. What are the roles of the participants in the learning experience?
Apart from this, there was (and continues to be) an ongoing debate between the deans about whether the ethics programs be a single stand-alone course, or whether each course should have ethics instruction embedded.
So, in this context, what was it exactly that the deans were telling their students about the “why” of what they were doing in ethics instruction? And, without doing so effectively, how could they have had any hope of inspiring their students to take ethics seriously? How could they have had any hope that their students would either view cheating seriously or that looking the other way as others were cheating was unethical?
Did the deans really even view cheating as a problem? According to a 2010 survey of deans of business schools, and despite reports of pervasive cheating by 40%-60% of the students, only 5.1% of the deans surveyed regarded academic dishonesty as “a very serious problem.” 48.3% believed it to be “moderately serious.” So, how could the students ever have regarded cheating as a serious issue if the deans themselves didn’t?
Something did appear to ease the deans’ concerns about the seriousness of student academic dishonesty at their schools: the existence of an honor code. What the deans apparently overlooked, however, was that Enron too had a Code of Ethics. As we later learned from the Enron experience, without leaders with moral authority to insist on compliance, these Codes are not worth the paper they are written on. The question now was whether the deans had any more moral authority than those at Enron? Judging by the pervasive cheating of business students at schools with honors codes, it would appear that the deans did not.
How did the deans attempt to communicate their passion and concern about academic dishonesty? According to the same survey, 78% of the deans included a statement of their policy in their student handbook. Just over 66% of the deans required the policy to be included in course syllabi, but only 25% required instructors to discuss the policy in class. If this reflected the seriousness with which the deans viewed the problem, how could the students ever have viewed the deans as being serious about cheating?
And while, according to numerous reports and surveys, academic dishonesty remains pervasive amongst business students, how many complaints did the deans report receiving from faculty? 63.2% of the deans reported five or fewer complaints. And why was this? 68.4% of the deans said it was too time-consuming to make and administer these complaints. 41.2% believed the faculty felt sympathy for students. 28.2%% said that feared legal action. 10% said it would reflect negatively on the school. How could the students ever view looking the other way as cheating occurred as being unethical when this is exactly what the deans were doing?
A conclusion…
All we know with any certainty is this: Nelson Mandela and the deans had distinctively different leadership and negotiating styles. While Nelson Mandela communicated with his followers and won them over by persuading them that he believed what they believed. The deans did not. Whatever the deans were telling their students and whatever their faculties were teaching them, the students ignored them and cheating in the business schools was pervasive. And as the cheating occurred, the deans and their faculties and the non-cheating students all looked the other way. Sad…
ABOUT THE AUTHORFor over 30 years as a business attorney and corporate executive, Michael Friedlander has structured and negotiated sophisticated business transactions around the world. Both as an attorney and later as CEO of an international music company and CEO of an international architectural design firm, he has encountered many of the ethical issues that today’s corporate executives face. Michael has recently written “Detecting the Scam: Nelson Mandela’s Gift” (http://www.detectingthescam.com) in which he offers an intriguing and distinctive perspective on the recent high-profile scams by studying them through the lens of Nelson Mandela’s life, skills, and moral authority. His site includes recent reviews of his book, including from The Jerusalem Post. It also includes audio of the first few chapters including the Preface, and a video answers the question of the connection between scams and Nelson Mandela’s gifts (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2xpfocMqNw.) In his book, he describes the scam as a negotiating duel between the scammer and his mark. As he looks at Mandela’s historic negotiations to end apartheid, he extracts 10 Powers of Negotiation and illustrates how they can be used not just to detect scams, but in any type of negotiation. Using his own Duck School of Common Sense, he raises some provocative questions about the Enron, Bernard Madoff and Ahmed Chalabi adventures and failure of our finest and brightest to do the right thing. In his blog ( http://detectingthescam.wordpress.com ), he blogs about many of the issues he has raised in his book. Michael received a law degree in South Africa and then studied at the Sorbonne in Paris and at the McGill Law School in Montreal. He is a member of the California Bar.
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