Effective leadership: Most urgent need to resolve economic crisis
Street protests
The economic development policies and programmes of the current government can be described as being appropriate for improving the wellbeing of the people though there are shortcomings such as the inadequate emphasis on an enabling environment for investment and on removing the anti- export bias. However, the government appears to be falling behind in implementation, and losing public support. The primary reason for this may be the lack of focus on key result areas and decisions taken in haste without consulting stakeholders, examining various alternative solutions, reaching consensus on the most feasible options and effective communication to the people in a language they understand. It may be this unprofessional approach to decision-making that results in disagreements among members of the coalition government and widespread public demonstrations, leading to poor management/implementation of development programmes. There is no doubt that the major solution to this problem is effective leadership accompanied by what is referred to as ‘Emotional Intelligence’ as proven by the likes of Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore and Mahathir Mohammed of Malaysia.
Daniel Goleman, Psychologist, Rutgers University, US (What makes a Leader? Harvard Business Review, August 2015) states, “It’s not that IQ (Intelligence Quotient or level) and technical skills are irrelevant. But my research, along with other recent studies, clearly shows that emotional intelligence (or Emotional Quotient) is the sine qua non (most essential ingredient) of leadership …and excellent performance”. He then lists and describes the components of EQ as self- awareness, self -regulation, motivation, empathy and social skill.
Self -awareness
According to Goleman, “self–aware people know and are comfortable talking about their limitations and strengths and they often demonstrate a thirst for constructive criticism”.
Some of the current leaders of the country apparently think they know everything, take decisions without consulting the needs of stakeholders such as affected people and without considering options with professionals; they begin to think only after criticisms are made or public demonstrations take place.
President Donald Trump of the US seems to suffer from the same disease. The result is meaningless opposition even towards good proposals, negative public opinion and costly delays of such development programmes. Examples of bad decision-making in Sri Lanka are the banning of glyphosate (a chemical used in the control of undesirable weeds that is harmful only when overused) without consulting professionals, launching the Development (Special Provisions) Act and the proposal to hand over the development of the Hambantota Port on a public private partnership (PPP) basis to the Chinese without prior consultation, though the second and third of these are quite essential for improving the economy.
Self-regulation
“People … feel bad moods and emotional impulses, but they find ways to control them- that is (such) people are able to create an environment of trust and fairness (besides displaying) integrity (honesty). In such an environment, politics and infighting are sharply reduced and productivity is high,” says Goleman. This is self-regulation. He also says that “people flock to such organisations and aren’t tempted to leave”. The present government is a coalition of a number of political parties where infighting is worsening and there is an absence of transparency and integrity that reduces the predictability of policies resulting in discouragement of investments needed to create jobs mainly for the youth and the 34 per cent poor in this country and for producing goods and services for export. This may be due to the inability of the leaders to create an environment of ‘trust, fairness and integrity’.
Motivation
Motivation is the “deeply embedded desire to achieve for the sake of achievement (or) a passion for work (not driven) by external rewards”, says Goleman. Many people may doubt that few leaders of this government or the governments before have displayed a passion for work for example like in the case of Singapore’s Lee who was not discouraged by the tiny size of the market of his country or China’s Deng Xiaoping who was not demotivated by the huge population suffering from extreme poverty in his country. There is no doubt agreement that most of our leaders have been driven by short-term political gains even by creating communal hatred, which invariably deters investments particularly by foreigners, and not passion for work that enhances the wellbeing of the people.
Empathy
“Empathy means thoughtfully considering the feelings of employees’ feelings – along with other factors – in the process of making intelligent decisions”. Empathy is particularly important today for at least three reasons: The increasing use of teams; the rapid use of globalization (where dialogue can lead to misunderstandings due to cultural differences) and the growing need to retain talent,” according to Goleman. After the President and the cabinet of ministers took over the appointment, promotion of public officials and the management of the public service in this country in 1972, a tool that can be used for converting ministerial policies speedily to implementation has been badly blunted resulting in the low pace of economic development. This is unlike in the case of Singapore where officials have been appointed and promoted purely on merit with spectacular results. In this country unfortunately this appears to be done mainly on the basis of political affiliations and hence the very poor efficiency of implementation, widespread corruption and huge losses incurred especially by the state-owned enterprises.
Social skills
Goleman says that, “a leader with social skill has a knack of finding common ground with people of all kinds; a leader’s task is to get work done through other people, and social skill makes that happen”. It “is the culmination of the other dimensions of emotional intelligence; a leader tends to be effective at managing relationships when (he/she) can control (his/her) own emotions and can empathize with the feelings of others; even motivation contributes to social skill”; where, when he is driven to achieve, tends to be optimistic even in the face of setbacks or failure”.
Goleman says however, “It is fortunate that emotional intelligence can be learned”. There is no doubt that if our leaders could make an effort to learn these components of EQ especially social skills, they will be able to manage relationships and can get things done even in the face of failure. What they could succeed to do are the resolution of conflicts such as the communal question (and even the SAITM and the Central Bank Bond issues) without letting these drag on and pollute public opinion. Additionally they could improve the law and order conditions, remove the cumbersome regulations (on which businesses spend 70 per cent of their importing or exporting time), liberalise the various markets to enhance productivity and global competitiveness as well as develop infrastructure and the skills required by businesses. If they could get these done, this country would be a much better place for investment, for creation of jobs, production of goods and services for export to increase foreign exchange earnings and thereby solve our debt crisis.
Leadership styles
According to Goleman (Harvard Business Review, March April, 2000) the effectiveness of leadership also depends on leadership style. Leaders use six leadership styles;
a) coercive, which requires immediate compliance,
b) authoritative, which mobilizes people toward a vision,
c) affiliative, which creates emotional bonds and harmony,
d) democratic, which builds consensus, and
e) pace setting, which expects excellence, and
f) self-direction and coaching, which develops people for the future.
Research by Goleman indicates that leaders who secure the best results use most of these traits in a given week, depending on the business situation. The authoritative leadership style has the most positive effect, but affiliative, democratic, and coaching follow closely behind. So what is recommended for Sri Lankan leaders are the authoritative way as in the case of leaders of the high performing South Eastern and East Asian economies along with the other two styles for taking decisions after discussion of options with stakeholders, examples of such urgent decisions required are the conversion of the state owned enterprises which are reported to incur massive losses amounting approximately to Rs. 200 billion annually, to public private partnerships (PPP), passing stringent laws to deal with corruption that is estimated to divert about 45 per cent of budgeted government funds and generally exercising political will to take bold but well considered key result decisions to rescue Sri Lanka from the crises that the country is facing presently.