Well Rounded View
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Thoughts on Leadership and the Third Sector
By Norman Drummond
To what else shall we turn and to whom shall we go?
It is often said that the true test of leadership is not when sitting between sessions at a planning forum under a parasol with a chilled glass in hand but rather when the wind and circumstances turn against you and your people and your firm. It is then that the true leader turns to face the wind with and for his people and so endeavours to make opportunities out of crises.
During the Cuban missile crisis in September 1962, the late US President John F Kennedy went on national television to remind the United States that the Chinese use two brush strokes in their culture and language to describe such a situation – one is for crisis and the other is for opportunity.
If we are to make opportunities out of crises, we will need to demonstrate the requisite qualities to become the leaders and inspirers of others that in our best thoughts and hopes we would aspire to be. We would do well in this current economic climate to consider the wisdom of Dr Jonathan, now Lord Sacks, the Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth, who as far back as early 2008 when the global financial crisis was beginning to become apparent said that“It was only in the famines that the ancient peoples of the Old Testament realised what the feasts were all about”.
I was reminded of this recently when invited to conduct a short one-day leadership seminar for the 35 high potentials of one of the big four professional accountancy firms. The day was hot and sultry and the London hotel room lacking in both air and atmosphere to say the least! Yet by the end of our time together a readily and regularly voiced consensus had been reached – well summarised in the words of a rather brilliant and dynamic 30-year old woman who said that “Our lives have become too 2-dimensional”.
What did she mean by that? Well in her own words “we have clearly been hired for our minds and all of us are unquestionably bright and talented. We know that it is our responsibility to keep fit and to train our bodies so that we can bring our minds fresh and alert to work for the firm – and often for ridiculously long hours! Yet there is a dimension missing in our lives on those occasions when the wind really blows hard against us – it is then that we have to ask ourselves ‘to what else shall we turn and to whom shall we go’?”
This strong assertion by a bright and intelligent young flyer calls us all to account for is it not true that when we are so focussed on the day to day treadmill (if not on survival) in challenging times we become, again in her own words, “like a 2-legged stool, so finely balanced that we often feel that we are about to fall over.”
Small wonder then that in times of comparative famines many of us at whatever age and stage have begun to re-order our lives in realising that we are indeed 3-dimensional human beings made up of body, mind and spirit. It is the spirit which will keep us strong when the wind blows hard against us and our team and our firm.
Indeed it is that spirit of selfless leadership which will enable and inspire others to look to us for helpful guidance and inspiration when with whatever regularity the question is asked “To what else shall we turn and to whom shall we go?”
The Tods Murray “Third Sector Forum” – for charity, voluntary, and not for profit organisations – on Wednesday 8th September 2010, provides an opportunity to discuss the qualities which are required to lead top teams through challenging times. The Third Sector already displays great resilience, and understands the benefits of community partnerships, which offers strong hopeful signs in surviving the downturn. Business leaders across the sectors have much to learn from each other and this can be best achieved by taking advantage of innovative opportunities and thinking creatively as to what might yet be possible in the years which lie ahead.
Norman Drummond
View Norman Drummond’s biography
View details of Norman Drummond’s latest book – The Power of 3
View details of the Tods Murray Third Sector Forum
View details of the Tods Murray charity team
Contact Richard Findlay, head of the Tods Murray Charity Team