The 9 Natural Laws of Leadership
What is leadership? According to Dr. Warren Blank in his book The
9 Natural Laws of Leadership, defining leadership is not a simple
matter - a leadership strategy that works in one particular situation
may not work again at another time under the same conditions. Instead
of providing a simple definition, the author presents leadership in terms
of nine natural laws that offer an integrated portrait of leadership.
Nine Natural Laws of Leadership:
- A leader has willing followers. No leader exists without gaining
the support of others. This first natural law recognizes the collegial
role of followers.
- Leadership is a field of interaction - a relationship between leaders
and followers. Leadership is not a person, a position, or a program
but a relationship that develops when the leader and the follower connect
to create one, undivided whole.
- Leadership occurs as an event. Leadership exists as relationships
between leaders and followers, with these alliances being transitory
events. People who are viewed as great leaders generally have had a
series of successful leadership events and work at maintaining a core
of loyal followers.
- Leaders use influence beyond formal authority. Managers rely
on the influence and authority of their position to get things accomplished.
The difference between leaders and managers, according to Blank, is
that leaders rely on the influence gained through the web of interactions
they have with their followers. Managers rely on institutional authority.
- Leaders operate outside the boundaries of organizationally defined
procedures. Managers provide direction while leaders chart direction
beyond that prescribed by existing procedures. The author quotes Sun
Tzu in The Art of War: "Don't follow where the pathway goes,
lead instead where there is no path and leave a trail."
- Leadership involves risk and uncertainty. The reality of leadership
requires that someone accept the risk that is part of the territory
when acting outside the prescribed procedures.
- Not everyone will follow a leader's initiative. This is one
of the most critical limits of leadership. No leader, even the best
known, such as Abraham Lincoln, Ghandi, or Dr. Martin Luther King, will
have the support of all their potential followers.
- Consciousness - information processing - creates leadership.
Leaders think differently. They perceive opportunities and ways of overcoming
obstacles that others do not. Leadership occurs when a person influences
others to recognize his or her direction as useful - when they can sell
others on their idea.
- Leadership is a self-referral process. Leaders and followers
process information from their own subjective, internal frame of reference.
Every leader sees the world through his or her specific lenses, and
followers identify with a leader because the leader fits the followers'
self-referral image of what a leader should be. Compare the non-violent
approach of Dr. Martin Luther King with the cruelty of Adolf Hitler
- two completely different leaders with completely different types of
followers.
Performance Management and Leadership. Although
this book is not written specifically about performance management, we
feature it here because the nine natural laws of leadership include important
aspects of effective performance management. Good performance management
techniques can help develop managers into leaders. Communicating clearly
and honestly with employees, setting expectations, providing feedback,
developing employee skills, and recognizing good performance create relationships
between supervisors and employees that help supervisors become leaders
with willing followers - not merely authority figures.
Originally published on Winter 2001.