Review of International Comparative Management .docx

Review of International Comparative Management
Volume 16, Issue 3, July 2015 335
The New Intelligence, the New Leader
and the Organizational Stress
Mircea Aurel NIȚĂ1

Keywords: Spiritual leader, the new intelligence, quantum
intelligence, self-
coherence, transdiciplinarity.
JEL classification: H83, D73, O30
Introduction
The last tendencies in management approach, or better yet, in
leadership
approach, promotes new features of the leader, starting with the
most necessary and
important quality – intelligence. Thus, experts in professional
training recall four
types of intelligence. Physical intelligence or the ability to do
(PQ), which asserts
the physical ability to do things, to meet tasks, to meet
objectives. This requires
1 Mircea Aurel NIȚĂ, National School of Political and
Administrative Studies,
Faculty of Public Administration, Email: [email protected]
Abstract

This paper aims a new trend in Leadership applicable to both
public and private
sector, and the relationship between organizational stress, types
of intelligence and
types of leaders. Based on the types of intelligence, the paper
shows the types of
leaders and their profile. Of the three known types of
intelligence: logical - rational
intelligence, emotional intelligence and spiritual or quantum
intelligence, this work
mainly aims to develop general skills specific to Spiritual
intelligence, because it
harmonizes and integrates the characteristics of the other two
types of intelligence. It
have been proposed to analyse the types of leaders and the
related general
competences according to the criterion of "intelligence".
Therefore, the authoritarian
leader's intelligence corresponds collocation - to do, for the
intellectual leader it
corresponds the intelligence of thinking, for the charismatic
leader it corresponds the
intelligence of feeling, while for the spiritual leader's
intelligence the main

characteristic is to give. Human resource in public
administration as in private sector
too, is facing more and more with organizational and
occupational stress. Thus, new
management is needed in order to apply the principles of the
transdisciplinarity –
which uses levels of reality, and the holistic education in order
to prepare future
quantum leaders. In addition to other types of leaders, a
spiritual leader’s features
includes new abilities: they know how to integrate the various
aspects of the
surrounding reality, to harmonize the extra-psychic with the
intra-psychic plans and
ensure self-coherence through a new way of thinking. By
intelligence characteristics
provided, the spiritual leader in public administration is the
leader at the service of
others, having a component of compassion.
336 Volume 16, Issue 3, July 2015 Review of
International Comparative Management
physical effort which the leader has to make through: meetings,
reports, ability to

work for hours, research, personal and managerial organization,
answering calls.
Actually, physical intelligence means a quantification of the
effort made by the
leader to put in practice the vision and coordinate.
1. The profile of the leader designed by intelligence type.
Types of leader
Intellectual intelligence or the ability to learn and think (IQ).
This type of
intelligence permits the formulation of strategies, analysis,
associations/
dissociations, plans, solving different situations. It is preferable
that a leader has a
high IQ, which usually is situated above normal, in order to
ensure the meeting of
the organization’s objectives with efficiency, effectiveness and
economicity.
Emotional intelligence or the ability to communicate (EQ).
Emotional intelligence
is the type of intelligence which ensures the transition from
traditional management

to leadership, with which is often confused. With the
publication of his book
“Emotional intelligence” in 1995, Daniel Goleman, American
psychologist, author
and journalist, has made the notion of emotional intelligence
very popular. Harvard
Business Review published the results of Bell Labs’ research in
1993. From that
moment, the business environment has become interested in the
emotional
intelligence field.
Spiritual intelligence or the competence to give (SQ). In
Romania, there is
a very well-known priest, Nicolae Steinhard (1912-1989),
writer, journalist, literary
critic and Romanian lawyer, PhD in constitutional law, of
Hebrew origin, who
converted himself to Orthodox Christianity. He is known for
two works considered
the reference in the spiritual – The Happiness Journal and
Giving you will get.
Spiritual intelligence is that type of leader answer to the effort
of those who he
coordinates. We should not confuse him with the religious

leader. The spiritual
leader does not promote religions, but tends to become himself
a „religion”, as a
way of living, knowing and completion through transcendence
of the mind.
Table 1. Emotional intelligence domains and adiacent
competencies,
according to Daniel Goleman
Personal competencies (abilities referring to the manner we take
care of ourselves)
Self-knowledge
Emotional self-knowledge:
understanding own emotions and
recognizing their impact; the use of
„intuition” in decision-making;
Correct self-assessment: knowing
your own advantage and limits;
Self-trust: correct assessment of
own values and ability

Self-control
Emotional self-control: controlling rebel emotions
and impulses; Transparency: adopting a honest and
righteous behavior; to show you are trustworthy;
Adaptability: flexible adaptation to changing or the
possibility to overcome obstacles; Ambition: the
will to improve your performances to satisfy own
excellency standards; Initiative: availability of
taking actions and profit from opportunities;
Optimism: seeing the good in things;
Social competencies (abilities referring to the manner we
manage our relations)
Social conscience
Empathy: perceiving other’s
emotions, understanding their
perspective and actively inquire

about their interests;
Organizational conscience:
interpreting organizational level
tendencies, executive decisions and
policies; Solicitude: observing and
greeting the wishes of
subordinates, clients or buyers.
Managing relations
Inspired leadership: guiding and motivating
through a convincing vision; Influence: using
tactics of persuasion; Training others: stimulating
other’s abilities through feedback and guidance;
Catalyzing changes: initiating relational
management and mobilizing others in a new
direction; Conflict management: solving
disagreements; Team spirit and collaboration:
cooperation and team consolidation.
American physicist and philosopher, Danah Zohar is considered

„one of
the greatest contemporary thinkers in management” (Financial
Times Prentice
Hall), working with prestigious companies such as Volvo,
BMW, Motorola, Philip
Morris Tabaco, British Telecom, offering management
consulting. According to
her definition, spiritual intelligence is „what we use to develop
our meaning, vision
and value of wish and capacity. It allows us to dream and make
efforts. It sits at the
base of the things we believe in and is the sense of our beliefs
and values according
to which we act to give a meaning to our life”.
In this book, Danah Zohar and Ian Marshall consider that „A
high level
SQ (Spiritual Quotient) means to be able of using the
spirituality to contextualize
and value life, to enrich it, make it full of meaning, in order to
gain a feeling of
personal achievement, a purpose and a direction.” (Zohar and
Marshall, 2011,
p. 144)

Depending of the type of intelligence dominantly used by the
leader, we
identify 4 types of leader:
a) The leader that has a high level of physical intelligence
It’s the type of leader that makes use of his physical resources
at maximum
level. He works a lot and is an example for the others. He’s
devoted and available
to accept in his effort other persons even the organization as a
whole. He has good
intentions and is helpful at any level. He’s a model through the
way he executes his
work tasks, but also through dedication and full commitment.
Stimulates through
personal example. His attitude has a major risk – physical
exhaustion.
b) The leader that has a high level of logical-mathematical
intelligence
Has abilities offered by his brilliant mind in which planning and
organization are his main words. He’s prudent and ingenious in
proposals and his
way of action. He’s preoccupied first of all with efficiency. He
constantly follows

perfection courses and has solutions for every situation. He’s a
master of strategies,
knows tactics that target performance, has vision and
permanently manages risks.
He’s the definite professional, a specialist in his field. He
permanently learns from
other experts and he’s an autodidact. Does not excel in
understanding and
managing conflicts and is not interested in inter-human
relations in his team.
c) The leader that has a high level of emotional intelligence
He’s very valuable to his organization. He has a high level of
work
capacity, and at the same time he’s a professional that works
permanently. He’s
aware that he’s dealing with humans and not machines. Has a
great capacity of
self-knowing and knowledge of others; he recognizes his
emotional states and

manages them efficiently; he’s a fine observer of the human
being. He generates
and recognizes emotions and uses them in a constructive way.
Offers emotional
speeches and puts soul in everything he does. The people
resonate emotionally, and
the inter-human relations inside the organization are
permanently improved.
d) The leader that has a high level of spiritual
intelligence/Quantum
intelligence
He’s the ideal leader. With the spiritual leader you can exceed
success,
because he can reach excellency. He makes constant and
sustained effort, has
intuition and creates strategies and communicates emotionally
well. Plus, he
develops! He seeks experts and supports his team in the
professional and emotional
self-development. He’s a good guide and offers unconditional
support. Passion and
Sense are the key ingredients of the spiritual leader. He believes
in everything he
does and makes others believe, has principles from which he

never deviates and
shares to his team. He challenges people to involve emotionally
and to believe in
what they are doing. He works with values such as compassion,
honesty, creativity,
openness, truth, excellency. He’s the one that perfectly
encompasses all four forms
of intelligence: physical, logical-mathematical, emotional and
spiritual.
2. The spiritual leader or leader in the service of others
I'll stop on the concept of leadership in service to others, that
the authors
considered the highest spiritual path. The gifts that are endowed
their lives and
personalities of these people have the opportunity to serve, heal
and enlighten those
they lead, but ultimately this way requires great integrity, not
just moral attributes.
The leader in the service of others must be able to submit the
most powerful force
imaginable.
A. The main goal in promoting this concept is to create and use
a common

language, unlimited by language or faith. Highlighting the
similarities between
religions through common spiritual language would help
improve communication
between human societies.
B. The second goal is to create a language based on skills that
will assist in
assessing and shaping directions for higher spiritual
development. The
measurement of skill level was performed by Cindy
Wigglesworth, first on a group
of 549 people, using the CPI (California Personality Inventor)
assessment tool
(Wigglesworth, 2006).
C. The third aim is that the SQ will improve language skills in
the
workplace conditions of each of us through the harmonization
of human
relationships, for a better understanding of organizational
purpose leading to
improved products and services offered to the public and
developing responsible
behavior from employees.

3. Organizational stress in public administration and new
education
Analyzing the particularities of human resource management in
public and
administrative authorities of Romania, Armenia Androniceanu
shows that very
often it happens that public managers perceive their role and
status within the
organization through the prism of their legal situation, turning
them into subjects of
administrative decisions issued by others superiors. The
management, economic,
political dimension for such activity is almost completely
ignored, which is not
beneficial in the public sector that is developing to serve the
public interest
generally, for general and specific needs of society and not only
to implement the
law. It becomes imperative to change the fundamental
orientation in public

institutions in Romania, according to the general public interest.
(Androniceanu,
2008, p. 201). The strictly legal approach generalized in the
public sector in
Romania demonstrates its limits, causing serious concern to
Romanian politicians
and public managers for new meanings and ways.
So that the activity of managing the public affairs to become
both an art
and science, we need professional management of the human
resources, involving
not only the recruitment and selection criteria of professional
competence, but also
intelligently use of professionals through the consistent
accountability and
motivation skills held appropriate, economically and morally.
Although there are
changes in the perception on human resources, public
administration is still far
from reaching that professionalism requires by the civil society.
Professor Mihail
Dumitrescu, talking about the urgent need to innovate, to create
a "new"

management-level in government organizations, advocates the
adoption of
innovative strategies aimed at promoting new for achieving
efficiency in the
system. "One of the main objectives of management personnel
must be discovery
and assimilation of new elements in all areas of activity and
approach an open
mind to proposals for change. This is undoubtedly the highly
professional
managers to identify, understand and recognize the need for
change, on the one
hand, and on the other hand, to press for implementation."
(Dumitrescu, 2008,
p. 7). It is widely recognized that public administration, as an
essential part of the
social system is a complex phenomenon whose research requires
comprehensive
knowledge, in terms of science such as legal science, sociology,
psychology,
cultural anthropology, management. Each one comes with only
partial information
from research of some aspects of the administrative
phenomenon. The limits of the

interdisciplinary research can be experienced in this area,
making challenges to
find new dimensions of knowledge, to explain the phenomenon
in all its
complexity and generate solutions to fulfill aspirations said.
Beyond the
importance of these approaches in solving problems facing
public administration in
Romania today, you cannot note that society is transforming,
bringing the most
complex challenges, that make the modern man become
increasingly troubled, in a
perpetual search for their place in this world. Inner peace,
balance and harmony
between individual and social being are deeply affected, leading
to a profound
internal crisis, which spreads outdoors often. This is the real
problem of human
resources, the real challenge for both public manager and the
entire administrative
system. We must not forget the stress, in general, and

organizational, in particular -
the latter often being called and "employment" or
"professional". They have long
ceased to be phenomena with single event or just have personal
significance,
becoming in the meantime, especially in the current society,
pervasive and pose a
real social problem. In these circumstances, it is not surprising
that the issue of
stress was the subject of extensive research and debate in the
literature. (Brate,
2004, pp. 78-132; Pitariu, 2004, pp. 21-62) The concept of
stress is often confused,
wrongly, to competition; the difference stands out in the
manifestations of both
phenomena. Thus, fair competition may stimulate or motivate
employees to learn
new aspects of the job, while stress factor remains the degree of
de-motivating and
discouraging. Second, competition is limited and stress is a
state of evolution and
manifestation indefinite time. Also, competition, when not used
the irrational and
unjustified, produces positive psychically effects, while stress

has adverse effects,
lowering the potential and creativity of employees.
There is an urgent need to review and rethink the training
programs and
courses held in public administration. They should also include
a new type of
training that takes into account all dimensions of human being
that helps it to adapt
more quickly, and easily integrate into harmony with himself
and with others. A
civil servant working within a public organization must know
the difference
between myth and reality, the way of functioning of his own
mind and of course,
the dynamic ratio between individual and collective mind.
(Niță, 2014, p. 315) In
this case, knowing these mechanisms, the civil servant, high
civil servants and not
only, all the individuals will become more consciousness about
their own free will
and will not be so easily manipulated. Only a balanced mind
who knows the means
for blaming can support the resistance against manipulation,
even the manipulation

is either positive, either negative oriented. Here, we can speak
about civil servants
and high civil servants, managers and government decision
makers too, who must
know the dualism of the mind, the preferences for acting with
the right or the left
hemisphere just to feel and use correctly the free will. (Niță,
2012)
The solution stands in the development of new abilities 1 – to
integrate
different aspects from the surrounding reality, 2 – to harmonize
at an intrapsychic
level these aspects and 3 – to ensure the Self Coherence,
implying a new way of
thinking according to a new Superior, Integrating and
Harmonizing Universal
Consciousness (Niță, 2010). It is the only way the Individual
can find his balance
both with Nature and the Macrocosmos!
Transdisciplinary approach would have a role in establishing a
new type of
education, centered on: learning to know, learning to do,
learning to live with

others and learn to exist. These are the types of education
pillars highlighted by the
new Dellors Report.
The International Commission on Education for the twenty-first
century
belonging to UNESCO, also known as the Delors Report,
focuses on four pillars of
a new type of education (see Table 2): 1-to learn to know, 2 -
learning to do, 3-to
learn to live with others, 4-to learn to exist (Nicolescu, 1999,
pp. 154-160):
Table 2. A new kind of education
Learning
to know
Learning to
do
Learning
to live

Learning to be
learning
methods that
help to
distinguish
reality from
illusion,
enabling
intelligent
access to
knowledge
about our age,
the scientific
spirit is so
essential
acquiring a
profession

and its
related
knowledge
and
practices,
which
require
specialized
o complying
with the rules
governing
relations
between
beings that
form a
community;
o practically
apply love and

compassion!
being and a profound self
knowledge, by discovering the
conditioning, harmony and
disharmony of our individual and
social life, the foundations of their
faiths and beliefs; determines the
elimination of one of the
fundamental tensions of the
contemporary era, the one
between spirit and matter, by
harmonizing them on another level
of experience than the ordinary
one, ensuring the survival of the
human race
We must therefore find a "true trans-politics: one based on the
inalienable
right of every human being in harmonious interaction between

intimate life and
social life" (Nicolescu, 1999, p.105) and, especially, her cosmic
life. A public
manager attitude should be a disciplinary, supposing and
thought and inner
experience, and science and conscience, and effectiveness and
affectivity.
(Nicolescu, 1999, p.104)
Conclusions
We can conclude that the new intelligence, known as spiritual
intelligence
or quantic intelligence, considered the intelligence of harmony,
peace and
equilibrium, is built on the following coordinates: - Integration
of different aspects
from the surrounding reality defined using levels of reality from
transdisciplinarity;
- Harmonizing these aspects in the intrapsychic plan; - Assuring
the self-coherence.
Public manager should not only professionally competent, a
person not
only open to change, but also an emotionally intelligent person

and a true spiritual
leader.
Leaders in government, in addition to a thorough training in the
economic,
legal, technical, management, psychology, sociology should
demonstrate qualities
such as: the ability to create professional relationships: knowing
how to work
together, knowing how to listen and be compassionate, to have
the ability to
persuade, maturity and integrity;
The concept of leadership has known changes continuously
generated by
the skills they need to achieve their goals and the organization
he leads and
represents, therefore with spiritual growth, also appears an
improvement in their
emotional intelligence that is a spiritual foundation support.
References

1. Androniceanu, A., (2008), Noutăţi în managementul public,
Editura
Universitară, Bucureşti;
2. Brate, A. (2004). Diagnoza multidimensională a stresului
ocupațional la
manageri, Revista de psihologie organizațională, vol. IV, nr. 3-
4;
3. Dellor J., et all (1995), Treasure within, Report to UNESCO
of the
International Comission on Education for Twenti-first Century,
UNESCO
Publishing;
4. Goleman, Daniel, McKee, Annie, Boyatzis, Richard (2007).
Inteligența
emoțională în leadership, Editura Curtea Veche, Bucureşti;
5. Nicolescu, B., (1999). Transdisciplinaritatea. Manifest -
Editura Polirom, Iaşi,
Romania;
6. Niță, A.M (2014). “The Importance of Image Management for
a Good
Society”. Revista de Cercetare si Interventie Sociala, Expert
Projects
Publishing House, Iasi, Vol. 44, pp. 308-320,
7. Niță, A.M. (2012). Think it through (Pune-te pe gânduri),
Scientificaly
educational research project Surviving by emotional
intelligence, project

financed by Constanta County in Romania together with a
scientific
documentary produced by NEPTUN TV television in Constanta
city,
Romania, episode 1 in Managerial Coomunication and Limits of
Human
Knowledge, Printech Publishing House, Bucharest.
8. Niță, A., M. (2010). Schimbarea de paradigmă în
managementul comunicării:
nivelurile de realitate şi operare a minții umane – Semiotics`
Creativity –
Unifying Diversities, Differences, Divides, 3rd International
Conference of
the Romanian Association of Semiotic Studies, Iaşi, Romania,
4-7 November,
2010;
9. Pitariu, H.D. (2004). “Stresul profesional la manageri:
corelative ale
personalității în contextul tranzacției socioeconomice din
România”, Revista
de psihologie organizațională, vol. II, nr. 3, p. 4;
10. Russu, C., Dumitrescu, M., & Pleşoianu, G. (2008).
Calitatea
managementului firmei. Evaluare şi interpretare.

11. Wigglesworth, C. (2006). “Why spiritual intelligence is
essential to mature
leadership”. Integral Leadership Review, 6(3), 2006-08.
12. Zohar, D., Marshall, I. (2011). Inteligența spirituală, Editura
Vellant,
Bucureşti.
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DQ 2-1 Responses
1.
Public administration provides a multitude of benefits to the
community. It does not operate apart from the community, but
rather it is intertwined in the betterment of the community.
Public administrators have to tackle some of the community’s
most difficult challenges. A public administrator oversees and
supervises public agencies, sets budgets, and creates
government policies (“What is”, 2018). When the community
has to deal with the many obstacles and challenges that come
during monsoon season in Arizona, public administrators work
closely with the different departments like: police, fire

department, weather services, Arizona Department of Public
Safety and other agencies to make sure Arizona will be ready
with the proper resources, supplies, manpower and funding.
President Woodrow Wilson said this of public
administration “It is the object of administrative study to
discover, first, what government can properly and successfully
do, and, secondly, how it can do these proper things with the
utmost possible efficiency and at the least possible cost either
of money or of energy (“What is”, 2018, para 2).”
These events, like preparing for community dangers are
incredibly important, as they help to mitigate disasters. Just
sending out warnings to those living in Arizona that a thunder
storm is expected with flash flooding allows many people
enough time to choose a different route or choose not to drive at
all. This lessens the possibility of accidents and that saves the
community time and money.
It is the job of a public administrator to ensure it is looking out
for the best interests of the community and planning, preparing
and working hard to ensure that the safety and well-being of
community is at the forefront of all they do.
Resource
What is Public Administration | Study Public Administration in
the US. (2018). Retrieved from
https://www.internationalstudent.com/study-public-
administration/what-is-public-administration/
2.
Describe/define/identify values in the context of public and
nonprofit administration. Please explain as to the importance or
significance of values. Why do they matter? You can expound
your post in relation to decision making in the public and
nonprofit organizations. Please provide illustrations/examples.
you can also consult other relevant resources. Please read your
course materials. What do you think?
3
To achieve success at a personal and organizational level in the
public sector, the following values should be demonstrated:

transparency, accountability, ethics, professionalism and
leadership (Derosia,2010).
Transparency is important because it’s the public
administrator’s job to make sure the citizens understand what is
being done within the community. Accountability is important
because it helps public administrators remember they are being
held responsible for their actions. Ethic is on the list because it
helps public administrators to be mindful of the laws that are in
place and to have integrity. To be professional, one must
understand the importance of the position being held and act in
a professional manner no matter what. Leadership is a must
when working in public administration because as a public
administrator citizen are depending answers and advice from
someone that is reliable and balanced.
Yes, these are significant to public administration, because
when working with the public and different personalities, one is
held to a higher standard.
The State Secretary for example, when she informed the citizens
about the possible cuts in government assistance programs, and
several of us possibly being laid of from our state jobs, she used
all five values. Even though she was giving employees bad
news, I received it in a positive manner and understanding way,
due to the way she presented it to the us.
Derosia, M. (2010). The Five Core Values of Public
Administration. Retrieved from
https://www.govloop.com/community/blog/the-five-core-values-
of-public-administration/
.
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The Work of
Leadership
by Ronald A. Heifetz and Donald L. Laurie
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Article Summary
The Work of Leadership
A list of related materials, with annotations to guide further
exploration of the article’s ideas and applications
Further Reading
Followers want comfort,
stability, and solutions from
their leaders. But that’s
babysitting. Real leaders ask
hard questions and knock
people out of their comfort
zones. Then they manage the
resulting distress.
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What presents your company with its
toughest challenges? Shifting markets?
Stiffening competition? Emerging tech-
nologies? When such challenges intensify,
you may need to reclarify corporate values,
redesign strategies, merge or dissolve busi-
nesses, or manage cross-functional strife.

These
adaptive challenges
are murky,
systemic problems with no easy answers.
Perhaps even more vexing, the solutions
to adaptive challenges
don’t
reside in the
executive suite. Solving them requires the
involvement of people
throughout
your
organization.
Adaptive work is tough on everyone. For
leaders
, it’s counterintuitive. Rather than
providing solutions, you must ask tough
questions and leverage employees’ collec-
tive intelligence. Instead of maintaining

norms, you must challenge the “way we do
business.” And rather than quelling conflict,
you need to draw issues out and let people
feel the sting of reality.
For your
employees
, adaptive work is painful—
requiring unfamiliar roles, responsibilities,
values, and ways of working. No wonder
employees often try to lob adaptive work
back to their leaders.
How to ensure that you
and
your employees
embrace the challenges of adaptive work?
Applying the following six principles will help.
1. Get on the balcony.
Don’t get swept up in
the field of play. Instead, move back and forth
between the “action” and the “balcony.” You’ll
spot emerging patterns, such as power strug-
gles or work avoidance. This high-level per-

spective helps you mobilize people to do
adaptive work.
2. Identify your adaptive challenge.
Example:
When British Airways’ passengers nick-
named it “Bloody Awful,” CEO Colin Marshall
knew he had to infuse the company with a
dedication to customers. He identified the
adaptive challenge as “creating trust
throughout British Airways.” To diagnose
the challenge further, Marshall’s team min-
gled with employees and customers in
baggage areas, reservation centers, and
planes, asking which beliefs, values, and be-
haviors needed overhauling. They exposed
value-based conflicts underlying surface-
level disputes, and resolved the team’s own
dysfunctional conflicts which impaired
companywide collaboration. By under-
standing themselves, their people, and the
company’s conflicts, the team strength-
ened British Airways’ bid to become “the
World’s Favourite Airline.”
3. Regulate distress.
To inspire change—
without disabling people—pace adaptive
work:

•
First, let employees debate issues and clarify
assumptions behind competing views—
safely.
•
Then provide direction. Define
key
issues
and values. Control the rate of change:
Don’t start too many initiatives simulta-
neously without stopping others.
•
Maintain just enough tension, resisting
pressure to restore the status quo. Raise
tough questions without succumbing to
anxiety yourself. Communicate presence
and poise.
4. Maintain disciplined attention.

Encour-
age managers to grapple with divisive issues,
rather than indulging in scapegoating or de-
nial. Deepen the debate to unlock polarized,
superficial conflict. Demonstrate collaboration
to solve problems.
5. Give the work back to employees.
To
instill collective self-confidence—versus de-
pendence on you—support rather than
control people. Encourage risk-taking and
responsibility—then back people up if they
err. Help them recognize they contain the
solutions.
6. Protect leadership voices from below.
Don’t silence whistle-blowers, creative deviants,
and others exposing contradictions within
your company. Their perspectives can provoke
fresh thinking. Ask, “What is this guy
really
talk-

ing about? Have we missed something?”
page 2
Dec 2017 to Feb 2019.
B
E S T
O F
H B R
The Work of
Leadership
by Ronald A. Heifetz and Donald L. Laurie
harvard business review • december 2001

E
S
S
S
C
H
O
O
L
P
U
B
L
IS
H
IN
G
C
O
R
P
O
R
A

T
IO
N
. A
L
L
R
IG
H
T
S
R
E
S
E
R
V
E
D
.
Followers want comfort, stability, and solutions from their
leaders. But
that’s babysitting. Real leaders ask hard questions and knock
people out

of their comfort zones. Then they manage the resulting distress.
Sometimes an article comes along and turns the
conventional thinking on a subject not upside
down but inside out. So it is with this landmark
piece by Ronald Heifetz and Donald Laurie, pub-
lished in January 1997. Not only do the authors
introduce the breakthrough concept of adaptive
change—the sort of change that occurs when
people and organizations are forced to adjust
to a radically altered environment—they chal-
lenge the traditional understanding of the
leader-follower relationship.
Leaders are shepherds, goes the conventional
thinking, protecting their flock from harsh sur-
roundings. Not so, say the authors. Leaders who
truly care for their followers expose them to the
painful reality of their condition and demand
that they fashion a response. Instead of giving
people false assurance that their best is good
enough, leaders insist that people surpass them-
selves. And rather than smoothing over conflicts,
leaders force disputes to the surface.
Modeling the candor they encourage leaders
to display, the authors don’t disguise adaptive
change’s emotional costs. Few people are likely to
thank the leader for stirring anxiety and uncover-
ing conflict. But leaders who cultivate emotional
fortitude soon learn what they can achieve when
they maximize their followers’ well-being instead
of their comfort.

To stay alive, Jack Pritchard had to change his
life. Triple bypass surgery and medication
could help, the heart surgeon told him, but no
technical fix could release Pritchard from his
own responsibility for changing the habits of a
lifetime. He had to stop smoking, improve his
diet, get some exercise, and take time to relax,
remembering to breathe more deeply each
day. Pritchard’s doctor could provide sustain-
ing technical expertise and take supportive
action, but only Pritchard could adapt his in-
grained habits to improve his long-term
health. The doctor faced the leadership task of
mobilizing the patient to make critical be-
havioral changes; Jack Pritchard faced the
adaptive work of figuring out which specific
changes to make and how to incorporate them
into his daily life.
page 3
Dec 2017 to Feb 2019.
• B

EST
OF
HBR
Companies today face challenges similar to
the ones that confronted Pritchard and his doc-
tor. They face adaptive challenges. Changes in
societies, markets, customers, competition,
and technology around the globe are forcing
organizations to clarify their values, develop
new strategies, and learn new ways of operat-
ing. Often the toughest task for leaders in
effecting change is mobilizing people through-
out the organization to do adaptive work.
Adaptive work is required when our deeply
held beliefs are challenged, when the values
that made us successful become less relevant,
and when legitimate yet competing perspec-
tives emerge. We see adaptive challenges every
day at every level of the workplace—when
companies restructure or reengineer, develop
or implement strategy, or merge businesses.
We see adaptive challenges when marketing
has difficulty working with operations, when

cross-functional teams don’t work well, or
when senior executives complain, “We don’t
seem to be able to execute effectively.” Adap-
tive problems are often systemic problems
with no ready answers.
Mobilizing an organization to adapt its be-
haviors in order to thrive in new business envi-
ronments is critical. Without such change, any
company today would falter. Indeed, getting
people to do adaptive work is the mark of
leadership in a competitive world. Yet for most
senior executives, providing leadership and not
just authoritative expertise is extremely diffi-
cult. Why? We see two reasons. First, in order
to make change happen, executives have to
break a longstanding behavior pattern of their
own: providing leadership in the form of solu-
tions. This tendency is quite natural because
many executives reach their positions of au-
thority by virtue of their competence in taking
responsibility and solving problems. But the
locus of responsibility for problem solving
when a company faces an adaptive challenge
must shift to its people.
Solution
s to adaptive
challenges reside not in the executive suite but
in the collective intelligence of employees at
all levels, who need to use one another as re-

sources, often across boundaries, and learn
their way to those solutions.
Second, adaptive change is distressing for
the people going through it. They need to take
on new roles, new relationships, new values,
new behaviors, and new approaches to work.
Many employees are ambivalent about the ef-
forts and sacrifices required of them. They
often look to the senior executive to take prob-
lems off their shoulders. But those expecta-
tions have to be unlearned. Rather than fulfill-
ing the expectation that they will provide
answers, leaders have to ask tough questions.
Rather than protecting people from outside
threats, leaders should allow them to feel the
pinch of reality in order to stimulate them to
adapt. Instead of orienting people to their
current roles, leaders must disorient them so
that new relationships can develop. Instead of
quelling conflict, leaders have to draw the is-
sues out. Instead of maintaining norms, leaders
have to challenge “the way we do business”
and help others distinguish immutable values

from historical practices that must go.
Drawing on our experience with managers
from around the world, we offer six principles
for leading adaptive work: “getting on the
balcony,” identifying the adaptive challenge,
regulating distress, maintaining disciplined
attention, giving the work back to people, and
protecting voices of leadership from below.
We illustrate those principles with an example
of adaptive change at KPMG Netherlands, a
professional-services firm.
Get on the Balcony
Earvin “Magic” Johnson’s greatness in leading
his basketball team came in part from his ability
to play hard while keeping the whole game situ-
ation in mind, as if he stood in a press box or
on a balcony above the field of play. Bobby Orr
played hockey in the same way. Other players
might fail to recognize the larger patterns of
play that performers like Johnson and Orr

quickly understand, because they are so en-
gaged in the game that they get carried away
by it. Their attention is captured by the rapid
motion, the physical contact, the roar of the
crowd, and the pressure to execute. In sports,
most players simply may not see who is open
for a pass, who is missing a block, or how the
offense and defense work together. Players like
Johnson and Orr watch these things and allow
their observations to guide their actions.
Business leaders have to be able to view pat-
terns as if they were on a balcony. It does them
no good to be swept up in the field of action.
Leaders have to see a context for change or cre-
ate one. They should give employees a strong
sense of the history of the enterprise and
what’s good about its past, as well as an idea of
Ronald A. Heifetz
is codirector of the
Center for Public Leadership at Harvard

University’s John F. Kennedy School of
Government in Cambridge, Massachu-
setts.
Donald L. Laurie
is founder and
managing director of Laurie Interna-
tional, a Boston-based management
consulting firm. He is also a founder
and partner at Oyster International, an-
other Boston-based management con-
sulting firm. He is the author of
Venture
Catalyst
(Perseus Books, 2001). This
article is based in part on Heifetz’s

Leadership Without Easy Answers
(Belknap Press of Harvard University
Press, 1994).
page 4
Dec 2017 to Feb 2019.
the market forces at work today and the re-
sponsibility people must take in shaping the
future. Leaders must be able to identify strug-

gles over values and power, recognize patterns
of work avoidance, and watch for the many
other functional and dysfunctional reactions
to change.
Without the capacity to move back and
forth between the field of action and the bal-
cony, to reflect day to day, moment to mo-
ment, on the many ways in which an organi-
zation’s habits can sabotage adaptive work, a
leader easily and unwittingly becomes a pris-
oner of the system. The dynamics of adaptive
change are far too complex to keep track of,
let alone influence, if leaders stay only on the
field of play.
We have encountered several leaders, some
of whom we discuss in this article, who man-
age to spend much of their precious time on
the balcony as they guide their organizations
through change. Without that perspective,
they probably would have been unable to mo-
bilize people to do adaptive work. Getting on
the balcony is thus a prerequisite for following
the next five principles.

Identify the Adaptive Challenge
When a leopard threatens a band of chimpan-
zees, the leopard rarely succeeds in picking off
a stray. Chimps know how to respond to this
kind of threat. But when a man with an auto-
matic rifle comes near, the routine responses
fail. Chimps risk extinction in a world of
poachers unless they figure out how to disarm
the new threat. Similarly, when businesses
cannot learn quickly to adapt to new chal-
lenges, they are likely to face their own form
of extinction.
Consider the well-known case of British
Airways. Having observed the revolutionary
changes in the airline industry during the
1980s, then chief executive Colin Marshall
clearly recognized the need to transform an
airline nicknamed Bloody Awful by its own
passengers into an exemplar of customer ser-
vice. He also understood that this ambition

would require more than anything else changes
in values, practices, and relationships through-
out the company. An organization whose
people clung to functional silos and valued
pleasing their bosses more than pleasing cus-
tomers could not become “the world’s favorite
airline.” Marshall needed an organization dedi-
cated to serving people, acting on trust, re-
specting the individual, and making team-
work happen across boundaries. Values had to
change throughout British Airways. People
had to learn to collaborate and to develop a
collective sense of responsibility for the direc-
tion and performance of the airline. Marshall
identified the essential adaptive challenge:
creating trust throughout the organization. He
is one of the first executives we have known to
make “creating trust” a priority.
To lead British Airways, Marshall had to get
his executive team to understand the nature of
the threat created by dissatisfied customers:
Did it represent a technical challenge or an
adaptive challenge? Would expert advice and

technical adjustments within basic routines
suffice, or would people throughout the com-
pany have to learn different ways of doing
business, develop new competencies, and
begin to work collectively?
Marshall and his team set out to diagnose in
more detail the organization’s challenges. They
looked in three places. First, they listened to
the ideas and concerns of people inside and
outside the organization—meeting with crews
on flights, showing up in the 350-person reser-
vations center in New York, wandering
around the baggage-handling area in Tokyo, or
visiting the passenger lounge in whatever air-
port they happened to be in. Their primary
questions were, Whose values, beliefs, atti-
tudes, or behaviors would have to change in
order for progress to take place? What shifts in
priorities, resources, and power were neces-
sary? What sacrifices would have to be made
and by whom?
Second, Marshall and his team saw conflicts
as clues—symptoms of adaptive challenges.

The way conflicts across functions were being
expressed were mere surface phenomena; the
underlying conflicts had to be diagnosed. Dis-
putes over seemingly technical issues such as
procedures, schedules, and lines of authority
were in fact proxies for underlying conflicts
about values and norms.
Third, Marshall and his team held a mirror
up to themselves, recognizing that they em-
bodied the adaptive challenges facing the orga-
nization. Early in the transformation of British
Airways, competing values and norms were
played out on the executive team in dysfunc-
tional ways that impaired the capacity of the
rest of the company to collaborate across func-

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