Reflective Essay on New Perspectives on Leadership

New Perspectives on Leadership

Nicole Ashe
– IBUS6007

2009

Mimic, Jeff Wall, 1982

Storytelling is a powerful form of communication and one that a
leader should utilise to gain followership buy in and to assist in
the delivery of key messages, values, and goals of the
organisation. Storytelling is a fundamental human and social
interaction and is the way in which people best retain and
remember information.

What story does the photo above evoke for you?
Student: Nicole Ashe
Student Id: 307223639
University of Sydney, Summer School
16 March 2009
Lecturers: Richard Hall & David Grant

New Perspectives on Leadership – IBUS6007

Assignment B: Reflective Essay

Nicole Ashe

Reflective Essay
An effective leader embodies stories and relates them to their followers, these
stories are about “...themselves and their groups, about where they are coming
from and where they are heading, about what was to be feared, struggled against
and dreamed about” (Gardner H. , 1995, p. 14)

For a new perspective on leadership, leaders should incorporate storytelling
into the way they lead others. Leaders can achieve this by telling their own stories,
which reflect their own authenticity, but also by providing their followers with the
ability to share their stories. Storytelling enables the whole organisation to learn
and promotes leadership development within others in the organisation.
Throughout the two-week intensive course, New Perspective on Leadership, the
ideas, perspectives and concepts that resonated with me the most were
storytelling, ethics, transformational and authentic leadership, followership, and
art. It is clear that a leader who focuses on these areas will be able to bring about
real change and be a respected, creative and effective leader in an organisation. No
wonder new perspectives on leadership are being sought when we see the
pressures to embrace the latest management fad or fashion and the unquenchable
and sometimes unquestioned pursuit for quarterly profits are far more important
than the reinforcement and development of creative and ethical leadership.
Therein lies the problem, businesses short-term focus, competing in an ever
changing, fast moving world continually making the same errors of judgement and
decisions. A whole mind set shift needs to occur where the foundations of good
leadership are respected and celebrated not the fast rise to fame, Ferraris and
record share prices in record time. New Leadership needs to embody authenticity
where values are expressed and embraced by followers, stories are told and
listened to, ethical decisions are based on autonomy, consequences, and creative
thinking rather than short terms solutions.

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Storytelling throughout the course was a fundamental basis for the delivery
of course material and the way in which we learnt. The presenters on the course
told their own stories, which captured the essence of their leadership, and through
their own story, they shared with us their experienced feelings, thoughts and
emotions. As well as this the other students also shared their stories
demonstrating or relating their own experience and knowledge which would
provide further insight on a concept, or make you reflect on what had been said.
The meaning of storytelling not only resides in the subject matter or the text but in
the human transmission experience. Storytelling is a direct outcome of social
interaction (Wallis, 1993, p. 12). From a more structured perspective, it was on day
eight of the course at the Sydney College of the Arts where the use of storytelling
was formally introduced and explored. This resonated with me because the
concept of storytelling and the corporate business world seemed alien to each
other and in no way could be connected, as I related storytelling to children, and
facts and evidence to the business world. For fear of not been taken seriously
many organisations and leaders shy away from leading through stories (Haven,
2007, p. 5). The more this topic was examined the more powerful and meaningful I
realised it was to a leader, employees and fundamental to being human. (Schank,
1990) wrote that “stories form the framework and structure through which humans
sort, understand, relate, and file experience in memory” (Haven, 2007, p. 10).

This has taught me to value the art and process of storytelling and that it is a
powerful form of communication. As a leader in my organisation, I will encourage
others to share their stories from which there are learning’s and insights to be
gained as well as the ability to empathise with others in the organisation. I will also
endeavour to disseminate information or ideas through the mechanism and
structure of storytelling. Storytelling has been found to be far more effective in
gaining employee buy in and motivation towards corporate values, policies, and
attitudes. By structuring themes and messages into story form this can increase
worker commitment, involvement and sense of belonging (Armstrong, 1999);
(Haven, 2007, p. 110). When putting a presentation, speech or business proposal

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together I will now consider if this information can be put into a story structure, as
this is an effective way that people understand and retain information. Humans
remember stories better and longer than the same information presented in any
other narrative form (Haven, 2007, p. 4). People are a fundamental component of
an organisation and stories resonate with people. Humans interact, perceive, think,
imagine and make their moral choices based on narrative story structures (Haven,
2007, p. 103).

Ethics now more than ever is in focus when leadership is discussed. Recent
corporate collapses such as Enron and WorldCom have put ethics, ethical
leadership and corporate moral behaviour well and truly in the spotlight. On day,
nine of the course ethics and leadership was the perspective presented by Dr
Caroline West. Unethical behaviour and professional norms of corporate giants
have personally eroded my trust of leaders and corporations but as (Sama & Shoaf,
2008, p. 40) state, it also erodes consumer confidence, market stability, and the
growth potential of businesses. When we think of a charismatic leader conclusions
of narcissism of are often drawn. This style of leader when making decisions may
only look at one piece of data or one side of an issue to confirm their bias or view,
in order to justify their ethical decision and deliberately avoid looking for
information that may disconfirm their opinion (Marcy, Gentry, & McKinnon, 2008,
p. 5). What is evident after day nine is that when people are placed in an actual
situation they are generally less fair, than they are when they predict what they
would do in a given situation and when making an ethical decision. This is
highlighted beautifully by the Milgram experiment where sixty-five percent of
learners where compelled to shock people to life threatening levels using a fake
shocking machine. This experiment demonstrated how “real world” pressures can
cause leaders and followers to make ethical mistakes (Marcy, Gentry, & McKinnon,
2008).

As (Gini, 1997, p. 69) points out businesses exist to serve more than just
themselves but that the goal of all businesses, labour, and work is to make life more

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stable, secure and equitable. As highlighted in the perspective of ethics and
leadership decisions made by leaders have consequences and we can see by the
fallout of such companies as Enron, the massive social impact in terms of peoples
financial security, employment and livelihood. These outcomes or consequences
are in total conflict with what ethics stands for in terms of protecting people’s
autonomy and individual rights and needs against and alongside the needs and
rights of others (Gini, 1997, p. 68). Ethical leadership is examined by (Sama &
Shoaf, 2008, p. 42) stating that ethical decision-making needs to consider more
than bottom line results and should understand the full consequences of utilitarian
decision making that may not fully account for the moral and social costs of that
decision. The term “big picture” thinking is used a lot in the business world and by
me in my own working life. The ethical perspective puts this metaphor into context
and demonstrates the real consequences of decisions and that the term “big
picture” should be changed to “ethical big picture”. The way to understand a
company’s ethics is to look at how that company treats its people, employees,
customers, and suppliers (Gini, 1997, p. 70). A moral community or company are
formed when ethical transformational leadership is consistent and clear in their
message that ethics and social responsibility are valued by those in leadership
(Sama & Shoaf, 2008, p. 44).

The fast pace of the course and constant change of perspectives and
locations I likened to transformational leadership in action. All the participating
students demonstrated traits of transformational leadership, genuine concern for
others, honesty, openness, encouragement of critical and strategic thinking, and
political sensitivity and skill. As in the business world, constant change and
technological advances have increased the importance of transformational
leadership (Krishnan, 2004, p. 58). Transformational leadership cannot occur
without positive followership and a transformational leader is one who motivates
followers to do more than they originally expected to do (Krishnan, 2004, p. 59).
Followership was brought to life in the course during the ‘Fluxus Interventions’ on
day three of the course. Not only did the fluxus interventions make the students

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engage with the exercise but by switching the roles that each member played it
ensured that everyone was a leader and a follower and repeatedly so. It was a
collective exercise, which is what leadership is. Each team had a shared goal and
the leader had to mobilise the others towards the set goal. As (Gini, 1997, p. 71)
outlines “leaders are powerless to act without followers”. The fluxus interventions
would have been almost impossible to produce on your own. Followership
resonated with me, as it seems to be a neglected area of leadership literature and
academic writing. Most research is based on the skills required to be a leader and
leader development. (Burns, 1979, p. 426) quite pointedly highlights “leaders and
followers are engaged in a common enterprise they are dependent on each other,
their fortunes rise and fall together” (Gini, 1997, p. 72).

It is clear that a true test of leadership and a leader is their ability to gain
buy in from their followers. Leaders may offer a vision but they need to be able to
convince and not just tell others, the well-being and combined intentions of all are
served by this collaboration (Gini, 1997, p. 77). This concept of followership has
highlighted to me that even if I have the best ideas, determination and charisma
this will have no affect if I have a lack of followership. Followers set the terms of
acceptance for leadership, is a concept that resonated deeply for me on the course
(Gini, 1997). Through meta-analysis, it has been demonstrated by (Gardner, Avolio,
Luthans, May, & Walumbwa, 2005, p. 365) that when trust exists between leader
and follower, an organisation will see elevated levels of job performance,
organisational citizenship behaviour, and organisational goal commitment. It is
through the leader’s commitment to their core values, self-awareness and
transparent decision-making that this trust develops which establishes a
psychological contract with their followers and creates the foundations for
resilience in times of change and an ethical culture. Trust is well placed with
authentic leaders who guide their actions by end values and recognise the
important of transparency, integrity, and commitment to core values that evokes
trust in their leadership and authentic behaviour on their part (Gardner, Avolio,
Luthans, May, & Walumbwa, 2005).

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Authentic leadership was presented on day one during David Grants
overview session on leadership, under post-transformational approaches. This
concept was further explored on day two in the ‘Ozi Burger’ role-play. The elected
CEO’s effectively embodied the role and character of the CEO and endeavoured to
stay true to his core values and founding principles of what Ozi Burger stood for
which was a demonstration of authentic leadership in action. According to
(Cameron & Dutton, 2003) authenticity is the ownership of one’s personal
experiences and acting accordingly through your own true self by expressing what
you think and feel through how you behave (Turner & Mavin, 2008, p. 377). The
concept of authentic leadership was then used by me as a lens in which I viewed all
the presenters on the course as I felt that authenticity is fundamental to an
effective leader/leadership. This is further highlighted by (Shamir & Eilam, 2005, p.
13) when they suggest that authentic leaders choose the events and experiences
that appear in their life-stories and these stories reflect their concept of leadership,
which enable them to enact their leadership role (Turner & Mavin, 2008, p. 378).

Throughout the course, ‘authenticity’ was made reference to in discussion
but was never solely focused on. It was during my own reflection after the course
was completed that I explored and researched this concept further and through its
links to storytelling and values, that I decided it was a key function of effective
leadership. Authentic leaders have strongly articulated values and what they say is
consistent with what they believe and the way in which they harness followership
by providing drive and motivation towards legitimate goals (Turner & Mavin, 2008,
p. 377). Authenticity, like storytelling taps into the true human side of leadership. I
have learnt that through your own experiences, you gain authenticity and when
leading in my own role I will endeavour to stay true to my own values. How
individuals interpret their accumulated life experiences is where authentic
leadership starts. The stories we tell about ourselves is how we discover and know
ourselves (Turner & Mavin, 2008, p. 380). Both emotion and experience create
authenticity and when you are transparent in your approach and the expression of
emotions and feelings followers will respect that as long as the emotions are not

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detrimental or inappropriate (Turner & Mavin, 2008). To foster authentic relations
with followers (Gardner, Avolio, Luthans, May, & Walumbwa, 2005, p. 344) say that
these relationships are characterised by a) openness, trust and transparency, b)
guidance towards worthy goals, and c) a focus on follower development. This in
turn cultivates the development of followers until they themselves become leaders.

Art and Leadership was another concept that required further reflection
once the course was completed. Jane Turner and Tanya Patterson presented
conceptual art, creative thinking and acting on day three of the course. The day’s
perspective broadened your way of thinking about leadership by looking at it
through an artistic or creative lens. The fluxus interventions forced a creative
process to occur and the exercise demonstrated the relevance of focusing on the
actual creative process rather than just the end product or result. Like art and
creativity, leadership can be studied and observed as a process instead of separate
practices (Murray, 1999, p. 135). In the afternoon session, Tanya presented some
conceptual art pieces by such artists as Joseph Kosuth and Felix Gonzalez-Torres,
which are shown in Figure 1 & 2 below. The ideas behind the art was firstly, to
demystify the notion of the ‘artist’, and secondly that the viewer was challenged by
what they saw and to force the viewer to question how we are taught to see things,
and finally how one idea can be shown. This can be linked to leadership in that a
creative leader is one who would take the patterns of the artist and incorporate
these ideas and relationships from
complexity to clarity for their
followers (Murray, 1999, p. 142).

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Figure 1 - Felix Gonzalez-Torres, “Untitled”, Portrait of Ross in L.A., 1991

Figure 2 – Joseph Kosuth, “One and Three Chairs”, 1965

This resonated with me, as art and creativity are not usually synonymous
with leadership however; on reflection is quite relevant and impacting if used well.
In times of crisis or the impending need for dramatic change in organisations,

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leaders are looked to and expected to have the creative solutions and fresh ideas to
solve organisational problems. As (Murray, 1999, p. 137) states that great creative
leaders bring far more than the creation of something new they change the domain
or field in which they have worked forever after. Much like we learned in the
musical perspective when the classical composer and pianist, Ludwig van
Beethoven, changed the way music was performed by insisting that performances
take place in a concert hall and not in private palaces. This changed the way music
was performed from thereafter and forced concert halls to be constructed. This
will influence me when I attempt to float an idea or express those ideas to others.
The idea not only has to resonate in my mind but also in the mind of my followers.
(Aptekar, 1986) wrote “it is the idea , the meaning, and the perception made clear
and visible by the art form that is great art”, in relation to a leaders it is their ability
to translate and make sense of the idea that is the art of leadership (Murray, 1999,
p. 136). In her paper (Murray, 1999) focuses on an author, Toni Morrison, and says
as a great creative leader and a highly awarded artist in her field, Morrison has the
ability to not only communicate a story, but also that she establishes meaning to
others through her ideas. This highlights the significance of ideas made clear
through language, perceptions and the art form (p. 142).

Storytelling can be a source or mechanism for not only presenting ideas or
information but also as a means for self-reflection. The more leaders are able to
reflect on their values, feelings and experiences the more they can learn from them
(Cartwright, 2004, p. 10), much like this essay has made me reflect the same way
about my experiences, feelings and values whilst on the course and has increased
my learning on the perspectives I have chosen to focus on. To re-establish trust in
leaders and corporations at large leadership needs to adopt a foundation based on
ethics, authenticity, creativity and transformational leadership. In our current
times now, more than ever these perspectives need to be reinforced with current
and up and coming new leaders. The stories of these new leaders should focus
their attention on both useful information and pleasure: the allegory, the lesson,
the moral (Wallis, 1993, p. 12). This is the new perspective for our future leaders.

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Works Cited
Aptekar, B. (1986). Making the invisible visible: The roots of original magic languagage. In D.
Castriota, Artistic Strategy and the rhetoric of power: Political uses of art from antiquity to
the present (pp. 171-184). Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.

Armstrong, D. (1999). Managing by Storying Around: A New Method of Leadership. Three
Rivers, MI: Armstrong Inc.

Burns, J. M. (1979). Leadership. New York: Harper Torchbooks.

Cameron, K. S., & Dutton, J. E. (2003). Positive Organisational Scholarship: Foundation of a
New Discipline. (R. E. Quinn, Ed.) San Francisci, CA: Barrett-Koehler.

Cartwright, T. (2004). Feeling Your Way: Enhancing Leadership Through Intuition.
Leadership in Action , 24 (2), 8 - 11.

Gardner, H. (1995). Leading Minds. New York: Harper-Collins Publishers.

Gardner, W. L., Avolio, B. J., Luthans, F., May, D. R., & Walumbwa, F. (2005). Can you see
the real me? A self based model of authentic leader and follower development. The
Leadership Quarterly , 16 (3), 343-372.

Gini, A. (1997). Moral Leadership and Business Ethics. The Journal of Leadership Studies , 4
(4), 65-81.

Haven, K. F. (2007). Story Proof: The Science Behind the Startling Power of Story. Westpor:
Greenwood Publishing.

Krishnan, V. R. (2004). Impact of transformational leadership on followers influence
strategies. Leadership & Organisation Development Journal , 25 (1), 58 - 72.

Marcy, R. T., Gentry, W. A., & McKinnon, R. (2008). Thinking Straight: New strategies are
needed for ethical leadership. Leadership in Action , 28 (3), 3-7.

Murray, G. J. (1999). Courage to Create and Courage to Lead: A Case Study of Artistic
Leader Toni Morrison. The Journal of Leadership Studies , 6 (1/2), 134 - 144.

Sama, L. M., & Shoaf, V. (2008). Ethical Leadership for the Professions: Fostering a Moral
Community. Journal of Business Ethics , 78, 39 - 46.

Schank, R. (1990). Tell Me a Story. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.

Shamir, B., & Eilam, G. (2005). "What's your story? a life-stories approach to authentic
leadership development". The Leadership Quarterly , 16 (3), 395-417.

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Turner, J., & Mavin, S. (2008). What can we learn from senior leader narratives? The
strutting and fretting of becoming a leader. Leadership & Orgnanisational Development
Journal , 29 (4), 376 - 391.

Wallis, B. (1993). Telling Stories: A Fictional Approach to Artistis' Writings. In B. Wallis,
Blasted Allegories: An Anthology of Writings by Contempary Artists (pp. 11 - 17). New York:
New Museum of Contempary Art & Cambridge: MIT Press.

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