Leadership – President’s Address at CSSA Awards
Humans are no different from the rest of nature's creatures. Mostly, we live and work in groups. We are born into a family; we live in a home, a street, a village, a town. We are dependent on each other for survival – to share the labour of hunting and gathering, of creating shelter and clothing, and the other necessities of life.
These small groups, these communities, do not exist in isolation - they interact with neighbouring groups and often coalesce into larger communities. Not much different from herds, prides, schools, gaggles, swarms, or flocks.
And each group thrives or dies according to the success of its cooperation in finding food and shelter and in raising the next generation, which implies the success (or failure) of its structure and organisation. How does that structure come about? Sometimes, it just seems to happen. We have yet to fathom how fish communicate, for example (pardon the pun). But very often, a leader emerges. This may be the queen bee, the matriarch, or even the lion king. The leader establishes the rules of behaviour, sets the direction and provides (or organises) protection.
Although we often try to deny it (“level playing field”, “equal rights”), humans naturally seek leadership. Some seek to be leaders, others prefer to be led. Being the perverse creatures we are, we have turned the simple need for structured, functional communities into myriad complexities of monarchies, dictatorships, democracies, plutocracies and every flavour of socialism, communism and capitalism, layered with legacies of traditions, beliefs and norms.
The driver for all these methodologies is survival. If we were not organised, not sharing the tasks essential to get through today and to assure tomorrow, there would be chaos, anarchy, and destruction. The ecosystem that is this small delicate planet provides the resources and the environment – and all of nature’s creatures have to find the balance that preserves the food chain. If we don't eat, we die. If what we eat dies away into extinction, we don't eat and we die.
So, we have been blessed with the ability to refine the model. To take the best examples of how nature's communities live and work together for mutual assured survival. And what do we do with that ability? We screw it up. In a big way. Greed. Power. Wars. Pollution. Mad.
Why? Because there are not too many hurdles to becoming a leader. No compulsory SAT scores, no exams, no aptitude tests. A little charisma, some muscle and you are set for life. Which means, of course, that we get some bad leaders along with the good. In spite of what some of them seem to think, no leader lasts forever – they all have a sell-by date, no matter how excellently they may be serving their community.
Leadership is a privilege. It is not a right. Leaders should have no trappings beyond the resources needed to carry out their duties, the tools needed to inspire their constituents and gain the respect of their peers. Their mandate should be up for review continuously.
Every community is the reflection of its leaders. Saints or sinners, the leaders set the culture, the policy, the direction, the behaviour. Bad leaders abuse power, abuse citizens, abuse the environment and care nothing for the legacy they leave behind. Good leaders head successful, sustainable communities through selfless application of wisdom, guidance and discipline. Great leaders do so through inspiration and sacrifice, through listening and caring. Such leaders never forget that they are the custodians of tomorrow; they never forget their duty to train successors to carry on the highest ideals for the next generation. The greatest leaders are not elected – think about that.
We are here this morning to honour some of those leaders. People whose communities have benefited from their ability to see the big picture, to harness the talents around them and to enable a group of human beings to excel themselves. They may not see themselves as winners, as shining examples, as ambassadors, but let's trumpet their achievements loud and clear – so that others can be inspired to follow in their footsteps.
Adrian Schofield
President
Computer Society SA
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IT Personality of the Year
