Page 104 - The extraordinary leader

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THE COMPETENCY QUEST

Many writers on leadership take considerable pains to distinguish between
leaders and managers. In the process, leaders generally end up looking
like a cross between Napoleon and the Pied Piper, and managers like
unimaginative clods. This troubles me. I once heard it said of a man,
“He’s an utterly first-class manager but there isn’t a trace of the leader in
him.” I am beginning to believe that he does not exist. Every time I
encounter utterly first-class managers they turn out to have quite a lot of
the leader in them.
—John Gardner
Not the cry, but the flight of the wild duck leads the flock to follow.
—Chinese Proverb

The most prevalent approach to leadership development in recent years has
been the competency movement. The fundamental premise is simple. Iden-
tify and define the competencies of effective leaders in a specific organiza-
tion. (Competencies are the combination of knowledge, skills, traits, and
attributes that collectively enable someone to perform a given job.) Then,
when selecting leaders, choose people who possess those competencies
because they will have a much higher likelihood of success. If you want to
develop leaders in the organization, design activities that directly expand or
strengthen those competencies for the leaders in the organization.
For example, if Ajax Manufacturing decided to embark on a competency-
based system, it would need to study its leaders to determine what the best

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