Managers, Brokers
and Leaders
Alexander Liss
Any city needs a mayor, who is a good manager,
one who could coordinate, balance different tendencies, possibilities and
goals. A mayor-manager binds together the decision-making mechanism. He helps
right decisions to be realized.
He plays also a role of a broker. There are
a few centers of power in the city and a broker is needed to bring a compromise.
In a corporation there are also a few
centers of power – groups of investors and groups of managers. A CEO of the
corporation is a broker, the way a mayor is a broker. This is in addition to
being a manager.
In time of a crisis, there is considerable
uncertainty and this often causes either indecisiveness or vacillations. This lack
of decision is worse than a mediocre decision. In such situation, a leader is
needed. A leader makes a decision based on available limited information. Most
likely it is a mediocre decision, because there is no information to make a
good decision, but a leader presents it as a well justified decision. This
breaks the decision making deadlock or vacillation. Both abilities are
important for a leader - the ability to rely on gut feeling and take risk, and
the ability to influence others to carry on with this decision.
In time of a crisis, a mayor or a CEO have to be
able to lead.
A rare person can balance skills of a
manager, a broker and a leader. In addition, top managers and power brokers
have to be able to handle large amounts of money, which is not easy, and they have
to be able to resists temptations of money, which is even more difficult. Hence,
they have to be rich and they have to be well compensated.
The role of a leader warrants special study.
A military commander has to be a leader, because of
environment of high uncertainty, where military operates. In addition, a
military commander has to keep some information secret from his subordinates.
This only reinforces the need for being a leader.
Withholding of vital information, as a tool to
protect the position of leadership, is widely used and abused. It is
intoxicating to be a leader, to feel the submission of strong and smart people.
It is tempting to continue to hold to power of a leader, when there is no need
for it any more. When this could be done through instigation of high level of
uncertainty, this is often used.
When this does not work, the dictate could be
imposed, then a leader becomes an autocrat.
Note that cooperation of two sides is needed for the
rise of a leader-autocrat. A person has to learn to hold to the position on the
top and the group has to slide into the state, where it wants the leader-autocrat
and gladly abandons self-governance.
This is a stable form of the society or a social
group, where there is a leader making decisions for the society or a group and
a society or a group wanting this arrangement. Sliding into such arrangement
from a situation of self-governance could happen quickly, especially in time of
a crisis. Restoration of self-governance from this stable form of society could
be very difficult.
Examples of sliding into such autocratic forms of
society one could find in Communist Russia and Nazi Germany.
As a result of Great Depression, for awhile,
American society slid to semi-autocratic form of society also. This should be a
lesson of how easily it happens even in free societies.
In healthy societies, there are mechanisms in place,
which allow dislodging of a person imposing own leadership at detriment of the
society as a whole.
In democratic societies, such person could be voted
out of office, but usually, this mechanism is not sufficient, because in some
situations the voters want an autocrat.
The next safe-guard is setting up a system, where
there is a group of people competing for the top position of power. This group
resists strongly the rise of an autocrat and dislodges the autocrat at a moment
of his weakness. This way political systems and systems of governance in
corporations are designed.
This explains the layered structure of power in societies
and groups, where people feel free. Top layers fight to protect their
privileges from being usurped by an autocrat and thus protect freedom of the
rest of the society or a group.
Many people are looking for leaders, when
they vote for politicians, select religious community, or try to fit in a
corporation. In a free society, they should be looking for people able to play
well a role of a manager, not a leader. For example, a city mayor, who acts as
a leader instead of focusing on fixing streets and reducing crime, is a bad mayor.
This is the most important safe-guard of
freedom – people have to keep in mind all the time that freedom has to be
guarded.