This Expert Warned Us That Leadership Is Important

Last Updated on October 23, 2024

This Expert Warned Us That Leadership Is Important

Leadership is important. People with strong leadership qualities are crucial to prevent global threats. Make your voice heard and vote for a strong leader.

Thirteen years ago, I read Walter Bennis’ article, “The Challenges of Leadership in the Modern World.” Since I teach leadership classes, I read this pioneer’s article with interest.

Bennis concluded his article by predicting the four most significant threats to the world.

• a nuclear or biological catastrophe
• a world-wide epidemic
• tribalism and assimilation
• the leadership of our human institutions

Back in 2007, Bennis was clear that without the strong leadership of institutions, we could not tackle the first three threats. And it is clear, thirteen years later, that we did not and still do not have the leadership qualities in place to do so.

The world has experienced all of these: nuclear meltdowns, the current pandemic, increasing loyalty to social groups (tribalism,) and stamping out of unique cultures (assimilation.)

We need to change that with our voting power.

Why Leadership Is Important

Bennis reminded us that strong leadership is crucial to our daily lives. Leaders impact all parts of our existence.

• Food security
• Safe medicines
• Legal protections
• Freedom from war
• A pristine environment

Among the typical leadership qualities such as having a mission and getting results, Bennis said influential leaders motivate use to join their mission and create trust. Furthermore, they help others develop leadership qualities.

In contrast, corrupt leaders have been a leading cause of death.

[If leadership is one of your skills you may enjoy the post What Is the Biggest Need in Activism? Administrative Work.]

Leaders Make a Difference In Our Lives

In my first leadership class, I asked students to identify a strong leader and a bad leader in their lives. Then they brainstormed the leaders’ traits and behaviors. How enlightening! With strong leaders, trustworthiness permeated the discussion, and the students generated a list of leadership qualities that included goal setting, feedback, and personal development.

However, our discussion about bad leaders was much more detailed and generated a lot more passion. My students had many more bad leaders than good ones, and the range of leadership qualities was much broader. Students talked about the myriad ways a lousy leader can impact their life. The discussion was so disheartening that I ended up ditching this exercise.

Instead, I asked each student to visualize their best leader and discuss their influence. Every student got emotional about the impact this person had on their lives. Some were in tears during their presentation. And, since many had not told the leader what a positive impact they made, I asked them to. We need to make sure influential leaders realize the impact they make in our lives.

Leadership is important.

Leadership Gone Bad

In 2007, Bennis was still ruminating on the most recent election.

“If the United States presidential election of 2004 taught us anything, it was that half the nation has a radically different notion of leadership than the other half…But how likely is it that a consensus will be reached on something as straightforward as how to define leadership when, less than two years ago, it became clear that half the electorate saw its candidate as the embodiment of a strong leader, while close to the same number saw him as poorly qualified at best, and dangerous at worst?”

Sound familiar? If anything, these opinions are likely more strongly held than back in 2004. Leadership research is hampered by the difficulty of defining leadership qualities.

Because of his decades of work on leadership, Bennis was familiar with the research that followed World War II. For example, Stanley Milgram wanted to make sure that the Holocaust never happened again, so he focused his research on obedience to authority.

The Milgram Studies

Milgram conducted laboratory studies in which a person in a white lab coat asked the subject to participate in a study on the effect of punishment on learning. Another test subject (secretly one of Milgram’s colleagues) was in the next room performing a training task. The subject was told to shock the trainee if he got the answer wrong. Furthermore, each time the person missed a question, the subject was required to give a stronger shock.

The shock machine was labeled from ‘Slight Shock’ to ‘Danger: Severe Shock,’ and finally, the last three buttons were simply labeled ‘X.’ As the confederate kept getting answers wrong the subject was asked to apply stronger shocks. Of course, the trainee was not actually getting shocked; as the subject continued up the shock device, the trainee’s reactions got more strident. First yelling, then saying he wanted out, that he was in pain, that he was experiencing heart problems. Finally, the trainee stopped responding to questions or making any sounds.

Milgram wanted to know when the subjects would say they’d had enough.

How many of the 40 subjects do you think went all the way to a potentially lethal shock? Milgram’s original hypothesis was less than 2. But 26 people obeyed orders and went all the way to the end.

Shockingly (pun intended), these results were replicated in multiple studies, with different types of people, and the results held. People did what the authority figure asked them to do. Read more about the Milgram studies.

Leadership is important.

New Research on Leadership Qualities

Of course, there has been much leadership research since Milgram and Bennis published their works.

Of interest to us in our current mess is the research on authoritarianism and how it appeals to people who feel fear and threats in their lives. Researchers have found that people experiencing mental distress feel better under authoritarianism because their fears are alleviated. What I found interesting is that these threats that cause psychological distress are not necessarily life-threatening. For people living a comfortable life, the danger of having any resources taken away can cause anguish.

Bennis described how values and justice are integral to leadership, but that these terms attract or repel followers. This is still the case now, where we see differences in liberals and conservatives in the ways they view patriotism. Conservatives tend to value spirituality, purity, and virtue. On the other end of the spectrum, liberals tend to value diversity, freedom, and nature. Each side may look at the other as being unethical because of their focus.

Summary

Bennis died in 2014 before he could see that his predictions came true. I don’t think he would be surprised, though, because things haven’t changed. In 2009, psychology Jerry Burger replicated Milgram’s study to see if people would still shock another person. Although current ethical guidelines for how we treat research participants prevented a full replication, he saw similar results.

Leadership is important. Make sure you vote.

[Get The Happy Activist and its companion, The 5-Step Activism Path Workbook.]

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Bennis, W. The Challenges of Leadership in the Modern World. (January 2007) American Psychologist. Vol 62 (1), 2-5.

Burger, J. Replicating Milgram: Would People Still Obey Today? (January 2009) American Psychologist. Vol 64 (1), 1-11.

Milgram, S. (1963). Behavioral study of obedience. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67, 371–378.

McLeod, S. (2017) The Milgram Shock Experiment https://www.simplypsychology.org/milgram.html

Onraet, E., Van Assche, J., Roets, A., Haesevoets, T., & Van Hiel, A. (2017). The Happiness Gap Between Conservatives and Liberals Depends on Country-Level Threat: A Worldwide Multilevel Study. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 8(1), 11 19. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550616662125