A new approach to leadership: understanding the Leader position in a society instead of listing its qualities. By defining a leader as a provider, we are able to re conciliate different frameworks and avoid the trap of staying with an unsolved problem. Leaders in the 21st century should understand even more his environment and integrate new dimensions to fully assess the consequences of his actions.

1. Heroes and Villains – Leigh Hafrey
Leader as a Provider
Abdellaziz Morsly
Introduction
I’m glad I have the chance to reconsider my previous paper “What leadership you seek in politics,
business and civil society in the 21st
century” after our week of discussions. In that paper, I mainly
tried to focus on the qualities of a leader but I didn’t clarify how I understood his position and what
was his impact on the society. In my opinion, giving a simple definition of leadership is very
complicated, we’ve seen different cases and contradictory theories, it is just not sufficient or even
relevant to try to list what makes a great leader, but by defining his position in the society it might be
possible to identify those individuals who can be effectively put into this category. As we’ve
discussed it, a leader uses his qualities (vision, sense making, relating, inventing) to create a path for
his followers. I see leaders as providers.
A Moral Compass Provider
From the conflicting views we analyzed in the “Trolley Problem” and in “The Road to Serfdom”, we
were not able to discern if there was a universal moral that guides everyone’s actions or if any
individual should follow its own set of values as it is impossible to take into account everyone else
values. This question will remain unsolved, but for a leader this is not an obstacle. Leadership should
help connect the social conscience with behaviors. This means that a leader is an intermediary
between ideas that already exist and the perception of the society at a certain point in time1
. For
example, can we assess that the idea of equal rights for black people didn’t exist before Martin
Luther King made his speech2
? This idea of equal rights is built on previous ideas and achievements
1
Platonic Realism – Allegory of the Cave – Plato in “The Republic”
2
« I have a Dream » Martin Luther King Jr. - 28 August 1963 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Have_a_Dream

2. such as Abolitionism that was also only the culmination of progressive changes in attitudes in the
long time. Martin Luther King thus acted as a connector between a moral (represented by an idea)
and the perception that it was the right thing to do at that moment. Through this example, we
understand that a leader may look like a “creator” but he, in fact, points to a direction that is often
non-conscious, but generally accepted.
A Care Provider
It might look a bit provocative, as the care provider is an existing profession, but defining the position
of a leader as a care provider helps us extract a fundamental aspect of the leader position in the
society. In her book “Starting at home”3
, Nel Noddings highlights the importance of caring about
family and friends as it helps expand this caring attitude towards others outside of this close
network. This theory reflects the “father/mother” image of the leader. Can we consider this caring
attitude as a quality or is it, instead, the very true function of a leader inside a group or a society? By
understanding the needs of the people around him and building trust4
, a leader can engage and
influence this people to act. As Nishida underlined in his work, emotion is conceived as “form
without form, voice without voice”5
, and is considered as source of intellectual creation. Leadership
becomes thus an essential node in the network as it unites emotions of different individuals and
delivers a common understanding on how to translate them into concrete actions.
A Happiness Provider
I was surprised to hear that most of my MBA’s colleagues didn’t feel happy in their life, but with this
economic, political and social context it is easy to understand why happy is not the first word to
come to mind for a Portuguese citizen. Happiness is defined by Aristotle as the ultimate good6
, it
consists of a complete life living in virtue. If we use this assertion, we can see why my colleagues
3
“Starting at Home : Caring and Social Policy » – Nel Noddings, 2002 - University of California Press
4
Guanxi or the The Power of Relationships - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guanxi
5
« Basho » Nishida Kitaro, 1926
6
« Nicomachean Ethics », Aristotle

3. emphasis honesty as a major criteria for their political image. Politics are thus responsible to create
the conditions where their citizens will feel happy. By creating consistent goals over the short and
long run, leaders are able to give hope to their followers and help prevent the destructive state of
hopelessness. Leadership is thus a bridge for the followers, it helps them transit from innocence to
the state of enlightened, mature and satisfied individuals7
.
A Solution Provider
It is hard to limit the actions of a leader in one single dimension. Any decision that a leader takes
impacts different organizations, environments and individuals. It is thus crucial for him to understand
the multi-dimensional effects of his choices and control the repercussions to achieve his purpose.
The description of the “Tri-Sector Leader”8
is coherent with this view, and pushes us to reflect on the
necessity for a leader to educate him-self and gain experience across different cultures. Today a
leader should get exposure to the private sector, the public sector and the civil society in order to
organize the relationships between theses worlds and simplify the decision process. Again, as we’ve
seen it before, the leader acts as a link between different worlds to bring knowledge and experience
from one side to the other. This multi-faceted quality is important but it primarily highlights the
pivotal position of the leader in the society: leadership merges different dimensions in a single
variable to choose the adequate path. In the 21st
century, a new dimension has arisen: the digital
world. It transcends all the sectors and frees itself of any rules. We thus expect the modern leaders
to gain experience in this world and use it to bring innovative solutions and embrace a global vision.
As described in my previous short article, communication, storytelling and multi-channel
engagement become now essential qualities for a leader.
7
« Candide ou l’Optimisme » - Voltaire, 1759
8
« Why the World needs Tri-Sector Leaders », N. Lovegrove & M.Thomas, 2013, Harvard Business Review

4. A Time Provider
Our discussions about the book “An Ordinary Man” by Paul Rusesabagina, reminded us that the limit
between heroes and villains is sometimes tenuous and that the question of the intentions versus the
achievement is not easy to solve. Does a “leader by accident” exist? Could it be a villain by accident?
In my opinion, it is more relevant to focus on the role of an individual in the society as it reduces the
problem to a first order equation with multi variables. As it is commonly said, history is written by
the victors9
, which means that any action an individual undertakes will be judged today but also in
the future in a different context. Humans need to remember emblematic people to crystalize an
event or a moment. A modern leader should thus combine the four dimensions cited earlier and
integrate time to fully understand the impact of his actions. Leadership connects the past, the
present and the future to provide a secure and consistent environment for the followers.
Conclusion
By approaching leadership through its provider function, we are able to delimit the shape of what we
expect from a leader. This week of discussions, helped me refine my understanding of what a leader
should look like. We listed the different qualities: humility, honesty, passion, entrepreneur, caring
etc… but it is impossible for a single individual to combine all these qualifiers. It is also very difficult
to compare the visions of Gandhi and Steve Jobs, without questioning the well-founded of such a
comparison. There is, indeed, something common between Gandhi and Steve Jobs, but it’s not their
visioning skill, it’s their function. They acted as providers, linking different universes together to
achieve a greater purpose that will transcend the space-time. I’m still unsure if a leader should have
the will to leave his/her footprint in this world, and if pursuing immortality through significant
actions could be a sustainable type of leadership but it is certain that to be recognized as a leader,
one should see his achievements recounted from generation to generation.
9
attributed to Winston Churchill, but of unknown origin