Rajeev Karki

Abstract:
This paper compares the European Renaissance to the current information driven age that we are living in, which has been called by many scientists the “Information Renaissance.” With any change in the society, the role of a leader, whether it be political or corporate, also needs to change. This paper will also discuss on how a leader might adapt to the Information Renaissance and apply the additional knowledge to his or her benefit.

Historical perspective
Most modern scholars consider the period between 1300 and 1600 in European History to be the Renaissance period. The Renaissance period was a time of exploration and learning. People started venturing outside their comfort zone, making new discoveries and inventions. The printing press, which was invented by Johannes Gutenberg during the Renaissance, was revolutionary in the way it made information available to the general public. Before the printing press, all the manuscripts were handwritten, making them expensive and accessible only to the select few. The new access to information beyond the teaching of the church made people curious, leading to an increased value being placed on experimentation and scientific proof.

The European Renaissance was an era of travel and discovery of new land. It was during this time that Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas and made it possible for Europeans to settle in this new found world. The European Renaissance also gave birth to geniuses such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo who made tremendous contributions in the fields of science and art.

In my opinion, a leader during the European Renaissance would have been expected to lead by example. People were engaged in learning things that they had never encountered before. They needed leaders to take them to these new levels, and they needed this to be done in a practical way. They had not had access to personal learning, so they were in need of mentors to actually educate them and show them what was possible. A leader would have been required to have the skills that would allow him to train his followers. People needed to learn to read. They needed to learn how scientific processes worked. A leader at that time could not just be concerned with ideas. Instead, he had to be able to work with people who wanted to learn, and to be willing to get his hands “dirty” and get the job done. A leader during that period would have played just as big of a role in mentoring the people as he would as a visionary.

Shift to information age
Currently, we are living in another period of change - The Information Renaissance. The invention of computers and more specifically the ability to network them has brought a paradigm shift in the way we think and value information and communication. We are a no longer confined by geographical boundaries. The Internet is transforming us from being a national to global community. As more countries build their infrastructure and start participating in the global market, it is affecting the world economy. Countries that used to rely heavily on industrial economy are now shifting more towards information and communication economy. This phenomenon is evident in USA more than anywhere else. Just like the pioneers rushed for gold, in this Information Renaissance era, we are rushing to gather as much information as we can. The value of information and communication is made clear by corporate giants like Google, Yahoo, AOL, AT&T, and Viacom.

As we transition into this new Information age, the leaders of our society also need to transform themselves to the new ways of doing things. They need to have a broader perspective on the world and take into consideration the impact of social and cultural values. A leader needs to be aware that the leadership values favored in the west, “i.e. a stress on individual, the confidence in market process, and the focus on managers, are not well-received in many parts of the world.” (Wren, 1995, p. 250). The strategies that have worked historically most likely will not work when applied to a global economy.

Practical use of information
In order to understand the Information Renaissance, it is helpful to get a clear definition of Information. According to Dr. Jay Gillete:

Information is a set of applied data. That is, data that are applied for useful purposes to the information user. Information is useful data. To define it informally: information is news you use. Information value is intrinsically relative to the user – that is, data in stock market tables are useless to you if you have not invested in the market. But, if you have, then data in the stock tables can be turned into information for you, if you understand them. (Gillette, 2002, p. 9)

A practical use of information usually goes through five stages:
1. Access
2. Filtering
3. Storage
4. Retrieval
5. Using

(Gillette, 2002, p. 16).

A good leader of the Information Renaissance needs to be adept in all of these steps. The following table shows a few examples of how a leader might implement these steps in a corporate setting:

In reality, these steps actually operate in cyclical fashion. When certain information is applied in the real world, the results from this step are actually stored, filtered, and accessed later for use in a different situation. The diagram below illustrates the various steps involved in information processing.

Conclusion:
Through the years we have seen leaders of every type. However, it has been essential for each of these leaders to be relevant to the time in which they lived. As the world moves from one stage to other, the leaders must change and learn to adapt.

The Information Renaissance period that we currently live in has made the world a much smaller place. It has also changed the economy of the world, bringing in more players from the East. For leaders to be effective, they must be aware of cultural differences and be able to use these differences in positive ways rather than letting differences separate people and hinder productivity.

The amount of information that we generate is growing exponentially. It is believed that one week of The New York Times contains more information than what an average person living in the Middle Ages would have been exposed to in their lifetime. In order to take advantage of this information, a leader must be able to access, filter, and store this information so that it can be retrieved and used later. Anyone not willing to change and learn will perish.

Bibliography:
Gillette, J. E. (2002). A practical framework for understanding KM. In Knowledge Management Strategy and Technology (p. 9). Boston and London: Arctech House.

Wren, J. T. (1995). Leader's Companion: Insights on leadership through the ages. New York: The Free Press.

Posted by Rajeev Karki at 11:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The people that we consider leaders tend to vary by culture, time, and circumstances. Looking at the history of the world, there have been leaders that fought battles and also leaders that prevented battles. We have made leaders out of people that have run multibillion dollar companies, but also out of people that have lived a very simple life helping the poorest of the poor in third world countries. Mahatma Gandhi is one of those people that breaks the stereotype of what people today often view leaders to be. His non violence movement to resist against the British occupation shows that leaders may be born not only because of their action, but also from their lack of action against the opposing force.
This paper tries look at Gandhi’s leadership role in the non violence movement in India and shows how he is different from most others leaders that we have seen throughout history. It will also define leadership and present a model that might fit most leaders

Leadership in History:

When I think about leadership, the people that come to my mind are the CEOs and CFOs of the Fortune 500 companies that have been successful in running a profitable business. They create niche markets for their products and services, making them stand out from the competition. Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Rupert Murdoch are prime examples of such people. I also think about strong political figures like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, who played very instrumental roles in shaping the history of this country.

A search on Google revealed the top 20 leaders that have shaped the political and social fabric of our times. Some of the more famous (and obvious) nominations included Ronald Reagan, Franklin Roosevelt, Nelson Mandela, and Margaret Thatcher. The list also went on to include some people that I didn’t know, like David Ben-Gurion, Lech Walesa, and Margaret Sanger (Leaders and Revolutionaries, 1998). Among the more controversial names in the list were Adolf Hitler and Ho Chi Minh. All of these leaders have something in common. At some point or the other, these leaders have campaigned for power, trying to convince people to follow their lead. Some used their charismatic qualities while others used force to get people to rally behind them. Mahatma Gandhi, who also made the top twenty list, was different from the rest.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born in India on October 2, 1869. He was raised and educated under British rule. Gandhi attended University College London where he studied law. Gandhi spent the early part of his career in South Africa working as a contractor. Gandhi returned to India in 1915 and became involved in the issues and politics of the Indian people. “His causes included gaining independence of India from Great Britain, Hindu – Muslim unity, and the end of untouchability” (Wren, 1995, p. 72).

However, it was not what he did as much as the approach he took to the problems he faced that made him loved by so many people. Gandhi believed that “the politics of passive resistance nonviolence should be effective in any situation” (Rushdie, 1998). He used this nonviolent approach to resist and “fight” against the British occupation and opression. Millions of people were inspired by his example and tried to emulate him. Instead of building onto this success, Gandhi disclaimed followers. He also disliked holding power in an office and asked his people to avoid it unless it was clearly for a greater good (Wren, 1995, p. 75).

Gandhi’s approach is clearly opposite from the advice that we would get from most leadership textbooks and yet he was a very effective leader. So, what really is leadership and what are the qualities of a leader?
In my opinion, a leader is a person who has the power to influence people to make them believe in a shared vision. This decision by the followers has to be made freely without the use of threat or pressure. When a person uses threat to make the people follow him, that person becomes a tyrant and not a leader.

Corporate Leadership:

In a corporate world, a leader is the momentum behind the company. The leader provides magnitude and direction for the company. A good leader also has the ability to make his people think beyond their personal success and work for the greater good of the company. An effective leader also knows how to manage the people below him. A leader needs to know how to work with people, “keeping them bonded and eager to move forward. That means setting a direction, communicating it to everyone who will listen and keeping people psyched when times get tough” (Robbins, 2002).

Leadership and Management skills are hard to separate. Yet, I am of the belief that one is not necessarily a subset of the other skill. All leaders have some form of management skill. Similarly, all managers play, to some extent, the role of a leader. The following diagrams will help us illustrate this better:

Instead of trying to fit one role inside the other, I believe that there are some traits that are shared between the two (Figure 1). An ideal leader, in theory, would contain all the traits of a manager and hence the two circles would overlap. In the same way, an ideal manager would also have most of the leadership skills, so the circles would overlap again (Figure 2).

A leader or a manager is not static. They can also change their roles based on the circumstances. So, it is also necessary to add the circumstance as a variable to the model (Figure 3). Given the right circumstances, the manager or leader can assume more or less of the role of the other person.

Conclusion:

Leaders come in all shapes and forms and there is no list that can describe all the qualities of a leader. Historically, we have seen our leaders using various methods to corral their followers. Though the characteristics of a person’s leadership may vary, a common trait is seen in successful leaders; they are able to motivate others to be a part of their vision. This is seen in a business world when a CEO is able to encourage employees to take action that lead to the financial profitability of the company. It is also seen in the life of Mahatma Gandhi who, despite having no desire to be put on a pedestal, became an inspiration to millions of people who participated in the non violence movement to free India from British rule.

Bibliography

Leaders and Revolutionaries. (1998, December 8). Retrieved January 21, 2008, from Time: http://www.time.com/time/time100/leaders/#

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. (n.d.). Retrieved January 21, 2008, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi

Robbins, S. (2002, November 18). Difference between managing and leading. Retrieved January 16, 2008, from Entrepreneur.com: http://www.entrepreneur.com/management/leadership/article57304.html

Rushdie, S. (1998, April 13). Leaders & Revolutionaries. Retrieved January 21, 2008, from Time: http://www.time.com/time/time100/leaders/profile/gandhi.html

Wren, J. T. (1995). Leader's Companion: Insights on leadership through the ages. New York: The Free Press.

Posted by Rajeev Karki at 08:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)