Andrew Layman, CEO of the Durban Chamber of Commerce writes his views in the Mercury - on Leadership.

1. Today I am thinking about leadership. Among
a list of quotations from which I draw
guidance are two that are relevant. A
nineteenth century French philosopher
observed that “men are governed only by
serving them; the rule is without exception.”
This was way ahead of his time (but not in
respect of gender equity, of course). The
preference for servant leadership has gained
traction in recent times, although it is often
honoured more in the breach than the
observance. I don’t think that it is a common
perception that the leaders who command
our headlines are service-oriented, either
towards the organisations which employ
them, or the community at large, or the
people who they employ in turn. Rather,
they are often portrayed as being self-serving.
This is media construct, I’m sure, because a
man’s good works are of far less interest to
the public than his dirty ones.
What also occurs to me is that modern
appraisal practices, with their focus on
measurables, place emphasis elsewhere. A
leader, held accountable to the achievement
of targets, which may include the attainment
of targets by employees, must, perforce, give
attention to his or her management of
structures and performances and, in the
process, lose sight, perhaps, of the fact that
happy people work better. Motivation has
come down, it seems, to the means of driving
people to meet a specific goal, and this is
frequently done by the introduction of
incentives. The engagement of the human
personality to bring about a desire to do well,
for the personal satisfaction of achieving this,
is infrequently part of the deal. More
significantly, it is the promotion of the idea
that we can do well together, because this
gives mutual satisfaction, which is often
missing. Another favourite quotation is a
Chinese proverb: “Not the cry, but the flight
of a wild duck leads the flock to fly and
follow”.
I think of a rugby team (the Sharksis an
appropriate example) which is sometimes
woeful, and sometimes sublime in its
performance. These are substantially the
same players with constant abilities, hearing
similar motivational talks from the captain
and coach, following the same broad tactics,
but offering different levels of competitive
performance in their matches. How is it that
among fifteen people, they can either all
spark on a particular day, or play as if they are
strangers on another? A champion golfer
will have a wretched off-day, but fifteen
people simultaneously? This is a team
dynamic which I don’t claim to understand.
What I have learnt over a long time is that it is
the leadership of people, not the
management of targets, which poses the
challenges over which one most loses sleep.
In a large organisation, there is a Human
Resources department to which this problem
may be delegated. In some cases, the
management of the people is outsourced

2. even, as if it is not core business. I have also
come to realise that the people who present
the most difficulty are sometimes those with
the greatest potential to contribute towards
the organisation’s success. That they don’t
do so might result from a concept of
teamwork which favours conformity and
expects a degree of uniformity in attitude and
approach which is strongly at odds with the
one who prizes individuality. Of course, there
will be no success in a collective environment
where every person expects his or her
individuality to prevail unconditionally and
consistently. Thus, leadership is the process
of building a team in which people are
comfortable in their own identity, but
perform, together when required, to the
benefit of all. I have not seen this as a
measurable KPA in a performance
management system. The reason for this is
that it is believed that the success or
otherwise of this leadership will be reflected
in statistical outcomes. Well, it may be, but,
I suggest, it also may not. When the
executive is assessed to have done well
enough to earn the incentive bonus (which is
often – in the public sector particularly -
related simply to the achievement of what the
job requires, rather than any improvement
beyond this) there is no test as to the extent
to which he or she would have failed but for
the people who have done their jobs.
Andrew Layman, CEO – Durban Chamber of
Commerce and Industry
/durbanchamber
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