Leaders should focus on various aspects of leadership depending on the macro and micro environments. economic, social and political realities should be taken into account in selecting a leadership style for a particular environment. sri Lanka is no exception. What type of leadership style should we consider for 2013?

There is no single leadership style. Herein lies the excitement and power of leadership. Yes, it is true the excitement to see a team blossom. Likewise, poor leadership can destroy the excitement of a team just like you crumple a blooming flower.

With the modest economic outlook for 2013, there will be challenges in a number of sectors. downsizing, rightsizing and future proofing will gather momentum as the growth figures decline. Most of the countries have made downward adjust-ments to their 2013 and 2014 forecasts. Long-awaited recovery in the Us and europe is benign and there is very little room for public sector and private sector mistakes.

The recent mantra for economic malaise has been domestic spending largely driven by massive infrastructure projects. But, as we have learnt from the post 2008 GFC period, throwing money at problems does not make problems go away. Instead, they defer critical decisions and problems just compound. Moreover, this time round there is very lit-tle money to throw around.

2013 will remain one of the most challenging years in recent history as there is very little room to spend our way out of an econom-ic crisis. Hence the leader-ship challenge is to moti-vate teams to perform in a sluggish environment with

modest financial rewards.What are the leadership alternatives

available for 2013?

Why human side?Famous management guru douglas

McGregor spoke of interconnected econ-omies and the human side of organisa-tions. Today we have an interconnected world of bits and bytes, wired societies and real-time businesses.

Competitors can knock each other off quicker than ever before and this has made the human side of enterprise more important than ever before. While techno-logical advancement has been put forward as the lethal competitive weapon, without teams working in harmony to deliver superior results, technology itself cannot deliver results.

The real leadership challenge today is to create environments that result in true collaboration throughout the organisa-tions and harness the full potential of human capital. There is very little room for silos and passing the buck as these will disrupt the systems of the intercon-nected world.

Increasingly companies are finding that the sustainable competitive advan-tage they are striving for rests within their human capital and thus the mental and physical health of human capital has become the key driver of competitive-ness.

To humanise the workplace you need humans with empathy, compassion and passion. ego driven selfish human beings are unlikely to be successful in this inter-connected world as they tend to have an I know it all approach.

Innovation and productivityafter the industrial revolution the

focus was on productivity and efficien-cy. Capital was invested in updating machines to improve productivity and quality. Today, technological advantage can quickly be imitated and the lead is taken by companies that continuously reinvent and innovate what they pro-duce.

Machines do not innovate but people do. and, this is where the team perform-ance becomes critical for corporate sur-vival and progress.

For example, many companies manu-facture computers and some have their own plants. But dell offers computers custom made to customers needs on demand computers. This innovation is driven by seamless supply chains man-aged by creative teams. another example is the airline industry. United airlines and singapore airlines have access to similar technology (aircraft) but singapore airlines deliver a better serv-ice to receive award after award.

again it is motivated teams that deliver results not necessarily the most expensive machines. The ability of com-panies to motivate and inspire employees to maintain human relationships with customers becomes the core driver of growth and profitability.

Feedback art or science?Feedback is a key tool of leaders but

how many are good at it? Let us look at some real life examples.

Tony, a young graduate trainee with a large banking group was continuously subjected to increasing pressure by his manager who, according to his colleagues, was a nice person in social gatherings etc. even the trainee acknowledges that the manager was nice socially as a person. But he continued to blame the trainee for things he was not accountable for.

Inaccuracies in monthly accounts were blamed on the trainee. The manag-ers view was you should know and you should fix. But errors were well beyond the trainees control. They stemmed from other divisions but the manager did not want to accept that. Ultimately, the train-ee resigned due to highly toxic envi-ronment and the bank was left without a person to do the reporting during the Christmas period.

sam, with barely two years experience after graduation, after weeks of over 12-hour work days with an ever increas-ing work load, faces a performance review with two managers. One is his direct supervisor and the other is the divisional head. during the review the divisional head lashes out, you are in the s***, you have no remorse, we dont care about your post-graduate studies. and, the staff member burst into tears. Unable to manage the stress and despair he resorts to counselling.

did the poor performing staff member improve his performance? No, things got worse and he resorted to stress leave. Often man-agers are promoted to leadership roles without appropriate leadership skills. Management is not Leadership. Moreover, leaders get carried away with their projects often ignoring their leadership responsibilities. Leaders prime responsibility is to lead.

Lets look at another example from academia two campuses offering business degrees. First campus had an autocratic manager and the second had an empathetic leader. The autocratic manager was highly qualified with higher degrees and research publications to his name.

The second campus had an experienced leader with servant-leadership style. at end of term functions she was the first to serve food to students and staff alike. Over the years the second campus has attracted more students and received a number of awards while the first with an autocratic manager has experienced con-tinuous decline.

The autocratic manager created a toxic environment and the good lecturers (cus-tomer facing staff) went elsewhere. The message is simple. academia or business, human side of leadership is the key to

superior team performance. This is even true in todays bits and bytes world.

Toxic leadershipOver the last three decades in a number

of large corporations I have experienced many leadership styles. One of the most lethal leadership styles is toxic leader-ship. These leaders do not even realise that they are toxic to their teams. They are always right and they like to feed their ego. They can cause enormous damage to teams and even divisions before they depart or get fired.

almost all toxic leaders I have observed lack human side of leadership. They are all about them rather than us. Left unchecked they can cause destruction during a short period. The challenge for top managers is to identify early the potential damage a toxic leader can cause.

some corporations go as far as to side-line toxic leaders and give them special projects just to avoid the potential dam-ages to teams and corporations. One bank sidelined a toxic leader and allocated special projects for two years until he decided to leave. They found it better to keep him on payroll for years but not allow him to destroy the teams he was

responsible for.To x i c l e a d e r s n e e d

careful assessment and coaching. since they do not know (or accept) that they have a problem it is a challenge to coach them.

Mantra for 2013so, what should be the

mantra for 2013? In a tough economic environ-ment there will be enough anxiety and pain. Leaders will have to own up to their shortcomings and lead with dignity, respect and empathy. Tensed and fragile teams will need it.

Toxic leaders will have no place unless and until they own up to their shortcomings and trans-form themselves. To do this they must listen and pay attention to what oth-ers think, feel and have to say. Likewise, staff sub-ject to toxic leadership should learn to effective-ly communicate problems to senior Hr practition-ers and learn to manage their own stress levels.

Young staff members often resort to resigning to get out of the toxic envi-ronment. Often, this is not a good solu-tion because they may come across another toxic leader in their next job.

2013 will be a year to truly recognise the human side of leadership and that, in turn, will benefit the leaders and their teams alike.

(The writer is Director of Agape International and can be reached via email s.yahanpath@

agapei.com. He is also the founder of www.totalwealthplan.com and a visiting lec-

turer at Sydney Business School and CQ University, Sydney.)

THe reopening of the Jaffna University has placed a challenge of trust before the Government. The quest is to promote trust and good will, to forge genuine peace and equality in that embat-tled region. In November, clashes erupted between university students and the army when they had attempted to hold a march to remember those slain during the war. The Government, ever wary of any links to the LTTe, saw this as an attempt to under-mine its authority and sow discord among the northern popula-tion.

even though the Government will see this as a threat, from a humanitarian perspective, the people who died are still beloved members of a family. They are someones father, brother, sister, and daughter. Forgetting these human ties and the deep social connection between the people in the north and east would be a grave insensitivity that will not stand well for reconciliation.

This connection, together with the untold suffering that these people endured for decades on end, cannot be erased overnight. There should be more understanding of their emotions without insecurity and suspicion being allowed to govern all actions. The attack of the army on the Jaffna University and the subsequent tension will also erode confidence in the Government and make peace building mechanisms difficult, including civilian govern-ance of the north.

What was even more startling was that four of the students that were arrested had volunteered to be rehabilitated in Government run camps for former LTTe cadres despite not hav-ing any charges proved against them or even submitted to a court of law. such random acts can be seen as repressive, thus worsen-ing relations with the Government.

The slim silver lining was that mainstream media also criti-cised the detention of students without dismissing them under the common brand of LTTe rump. The ability to differentiate between the aspirations of a community and not confuse them with that of terrorists is an important part of reconciliation.

The fear, mistrust, and suspicion caused by this event cannot be allowed to fester. real development cannot be achieved with-out political rights, freedom of movement and speech, as well as a frank engagement with state entities that includes the Police and the army. The civil administration of Jaffna must be empowered to deal with such instances armed by the rule of law. arbitrarily dealing with students due to security fears is likely to increase them rather than reconstructing peace in the region.

during the war universities were seldom closed for security reasons and Jaffna defied the odds in remaining a valued institu-tion. This cannot now be tossed away due to suspicion, insecurity and insensitivity.

In real terms, development is yet to reach the north. all stake-holders, particularly the private sector, need to take a more proac-tive role to allow the north to heal through taking economic opportunities there. The achchuveli investment zone together with garment manufacturers has spearheaded this task but a lot more needs to be done. These industrious people need capital, technology, and market access, among other resources to rebuild their world. For peace to have any meaning, they must be assisted on political, social, and economic dimensions.

Graduates need to be given jobs so that they and the economy can improve. as was recently pointed out by a Canadian Minister during his visit here, political and economic issues are the main drivers of illegal migration. Without such comprehensive assist-ance, there is every danger that a vicious cycle of suppression and violence will undermine sri Lankas precious chance for peace.

Forge trust

Leadership alternatives for 2013View

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www.ft.lkTHURSDAY JANUARY 10, 201310

Editorial

Guest Column

By Dr. Shantha P. Yahanpath

The real leadership challenge today is to create environments that result in true collaboration throughout the organisations and harness the full potential of human capital

In a tough economic environment there will be enough anxiety and pain. Leaders will have to own up to their shor tcomings and lead with digni ty, respect and empathy. Tensed and fragile teams will need it. Toxic leaders will have no place unless and until they own up to their shor tcomings and transform themselves. To do this they must listen and pay attention to what others think, feel and have to say. Likewise, staff subject to toxic leadership should learn to effectively communicate problems to senior HR practitioners and learn to manage their own stress levels

AmeriCAns wAry After fisCAl Cliff deAl see pAGe 14