By Austin Okere
Today’s leaders must be effective communicators who embrace depolarization, paradox, and
compassion—and who take action without fear.
• As society faces a range of global challenges, it looks for leaders who can create positive
change and share responsibility across sectors.
• Today’s leaders must reject black-and-white thinking, be comfortable with uncertainty,
and empathize with others.
• Leaders are distinguished by whether their actions and attitudes are influenced by
courage or fear.
Effective leadership plays a critical role in shaping the success of any society or
organization. As American author John Maxwell declared, “Everything rises and falls on
Leadership”
In our complex and connected world, society faces mounting environmental and
humanitarian crises. Leaders must help drive societal change by taking into account not
just profits, but also people and the planet. They must help society determine what type of
growth is necessary and sustainable and what type of growth we can no longer afford. To
accomplish this, today’s leaders need three essential traits:
They must be visionary. Bold, forward-thinking leaders see farther and more clearly than
others, often anticipating what lies ahead. They motivate teams to perform at their best.
They must be collaborative. Such leaders encourage a greater diversity of ideas to
flourish, and they make sure no one individual or entity shoulders the entire burden of any
task. Collaborative leaders know how to share responsibility across all sectors to solve
pressing societal challenges.
They must be willing to learn. Emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and
large language models introduce leaders to new challenges on a regular basis. Leaders
must be ready to constantly learn, unlearn, and relearn diverse skill sets to keep up with
the changes. By embracing innovation and creativity, leaders can move beyond current
restrictions and unlock more possibilities, iteratively creating new and improved realities.
Essential Competencies
To discover what qualities accomplished leaders should possess, Ausso Leadership
Academy conducted an inquiry in partnership with AACSB. The academy is a mentorship
program in Lagos, Nigeria, that I founded for executives and entrepreneurs. Our
investigation showed us that leaders must develop capacity in three areas: depolarization,
paradox, and compassion. These skills are so important for future leaders that business
schools should provide opportunities throughout their curricula for students to develop
them.
I speak about these capacities in a YouTube video on the #BusinessInsightsWithAO
channel, but here’s a closer look at each one:
Depolarization is the ability to reject black-and-white thinking, embrace complexity, and
explore alternative perspectives. It requires self-awareness, an open mind, and a
nonjudgmental attitude that allows to engage in meaningful dialogue.
A professor could teach students about depolarization by dividing them into two groups
that stand at opposite ends of the room and study a graphic on the floor. From one
perspective, the graphic will look like the figure 6; from the other perspective, it will look
like the figure 9. Students should discuss how they see the graphic from their position, and
then switch sides with their peers.
This exercise teaches students that they must learn to listen to each other, acknowledge
their different viewpoints, and find common ground. It shows them that people can create a
more peaceful and harmonious world when they come together with respect, empathy, and
understanding.
Paradox is the willingness to embrace uncertainty and acknowledge the interdependence
of opposing forces. It involves operating with a curious and inquisitive mindset,
recognizing personal limitations, and being honest with ourselves and others.
A faculty member could teach the concept of paradox by giving all students pieces of a
jigsaw puzzle that depicts an elephant. Based on the pieces in their hands, students should
try to guess what the whole image is. Those who see only the tail might think they’re
looking at a rope; those who see only the thick legs might think they’re looking at a tree.
The true image only emerges when all the pieces are put together.
Through this exercise, students are invited to explore the complexities of the human
experience. They learn that sometimes the things that seem irreconcilable can be
connected in ways that are not immediately apparent.
Compassion is the capacity to empathize with and understand different cultural
backgrounds and personal experiences. It necessitates maintaining a broad perspective,
avoiding confirmation bias, and striving to understand as well as to be understood.
Compassionate leaders radiate warmth, kindness, and understanding; they exude a sense
of serenity that eases the burdens of those around them. Quite often, a high-performance
member of the team falls on challenging times and simply needs an empathetic ear. If the
compassionate leader offers a comforting word, the team member will feel a sense of hope,
knowing that someone is willing to help.
To teach compassion, a professor can ask students what they would do if a team member
dropped the ball on an important project. The class is likely to respond that the colleague
should be removed from the team. Then the professor should remind the class that the
individual is historically a high performer and suggest that the person might be going
through some personal difficulties. At this point, students might view the situation
differently and conclude that they should support their team member through this tough
patch by showing compassion.
The Importance of Generative Listening
In addition to developing these crucial capacities, leaders must possess the ability to
communicate effectively. Communication is always a two-way track, and the key part is
generative listening, which happens when people listen intently, with curiosity and
openness, to what each person has to say. Generative listening is not about waiting for a
preconceived answer, but about creating spaces where others can feel heard, valued, and
understood.
Generative listeners are not just waiting for their turn to speak, but truly seeking to
understand and learn from each other. They offer words of encouragement, support, and
affirmation, making each person feel safe to share their thoughts and feelings. They reflect
back what they hear, ask thoughtful questions that deepen the conversation, and create
spaces of respect and authenticity.
To become empathetic listeners, leaders must quiet the voices of judgment, cynicism, and
fear and open themselves to the expectation of learning something new. They must step
outside themselves, realizing that the truth is more conditional and experiential than their
lone egos can fathom. Sometimes leaders are so arrogant that they are fully confident in
their own incorrect views. Their need to be right trounces their need to learn what is true.
But truth is the essential foundation for producing good outcomes.
A professor can teach generative listening by having students imagine a mathematics
classroom for children. In this class, the teacher presents an addition problem to a young
student named Mary: “If I give you these two apples and then I give you two more, how
many apples will you have?” Mary confidently replies, “Five.” Instead of chiding Mary for
her incorrect answer, the teacher should ask how she came up with that number. At that
point, the teacher would learn that Mary already has an apple in the lunch bag that her
mother packed.
Professors also can show students the power of generative listening by inviting them to
share their experiences and learn from each other.
An Analysis of Leadership Attitudes
As a leadership consultant and an entrepreneur-in-residence at Columbia Business School
in New York City, I spend a great deal of time considering the traits that distinguish leaders
from each other. I have determined that one critical quality is their attitudes toward
delivery (producing the desired goods and services) and accountability (taking
responsibility for how the work gets done). Are their attitudes influenced by courage or by
fear?
Delivery. Fear-based leaders seek reasons outside of themselves when things go wrong and
they can’t deliver what they’ve promised. Their language often is punctuated by the phrase
“because of,” as they seek to explain why something is not their fault. These leaders often
accept commendations for success but avoid taking accountability for failures. Their
attitude can discourage learning and promote a culture of excuses, resulting in subpar
performance from their employees.
Conversely, courage-driven leaders prioritize action and performance when it comes to
delivering goods and services. Instead of seeking excuses, they go above and beyond to
achieve their goals. Their conversations often include the phrase “in spite of,” and they
serve as examples to their teams by delivering exceptional performance.
Accountability. Fearful leaders tend to avoid accountability by attributing failures to
external factors. Instead of taking responsibility for their own actions, they blame others,
sometimes even using team members as scapegoats. This creates a culture of passing the
buck and prevents the team from learning and improving.
By contrast, courageous leaders take full responsibility for their actions, even if they
delegate tasks to team members. They recognize that accountability cannot be delegated,
so they take an internal approach to fault-finding. By modelling this attitude, they
encourage their teams to take ownership of their work and learn from mistakes, leading to
continuous improvement in performance.
One way faculty can highlight the importance of courage-based leadership is to conduct a
class poll that asks students, “To whom are you most accountable?” The multiple-choice
answers might include customers, shareholders, suppliers, employees, the community, the
organization, and the government—but one choice should always be myself. After the poll
results are in, the professor should explain that myself is the most appropriate answer for
courageous leaders who take responsibility for their actions.
Leaders often feel obligated to the people who nominated them for certain positions or to
the governing boards of their universities. Because of this sense of obligation, leaders could
be tempted to align with certain groups when it seems most expeditious to do so. But the
best way for leaders to be fair to all stakeholders is, first and foremost, to be accountable to
themselves.
To make the point even clearer, professors can share one of the famous sayings of West
African scholar, writer, and political leader Usman dan Fodio: “Conscience is an open
wound; only truth can heal it.” This quote speaks to the importance of living with integrity
and being true to oneself. It helps students understand that when they act against their
own consciences, they create internal conflicts that can be resolved only by facing the truth
and aligning their actions with their values.
Bold and Compassionate Leadership
Fear-based leaders often spend so much time feeling anxious and worrying about what
others think of them that they have little time left to deal with actual adversities. But
courage-based leaders inspire trust and high performance not only within their
organizations, but also in society at large.
It is crucial for leaders to be authentic and brave, focusing on accomplishing goals rather
than seeking affirmation. They should value significance over security and long-term
sustainability over immediate victories. By doing so, they can lead their organizations and
society toward a better future.
Austin Okere is a thought leader, and business mentor. Currently an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at
Columbia Business School, New York, Austin has also facilitated at the United States International
University in Kenya and consulted for the Sustainable Development Goals, Africa Centre in Rwanda.
Austin was appointed to the Advisory Boards of the AACSB International and the Global Business School
Network in recognition of his contribution to the development of business education and knowledge
transfer in Africa. CWG Plc, the company which he founded has been recognised as a ‘Global Growth
Company’ by the World Economic Forum and is the largest security listed in the Technology Sector of the
Nigerian Stock Exchange.
Published on Brandfit.
Leave a Reply