Power, Rank and Authority maybe; but not Leadership

Australia’s parliamentary and public debate has plumbed new depths of enmity, having been reduced to pernicious personal attacks and the promotion of fear, hostility and a sense of foreboding within the electorate at large. This was poignantly observed during the five week election campaign culminating in the Federal Election to determine the members of the 44th Parliament of Australia on 7th September 2013. The election campaign was preceded by a controversial minority Labor Government, the faltering survival of which spawned a daily ‘Question Time’ permeated with agonising vitriol and endless brain numbing carping. A perpetual slanging match; debasing the debate to a desperately low level, a dispiriting process infecting the Parliament, the media and the community, with a debilitating intellectual malignancy.

Some may argue that such behaviour is not new. “Your memory is too short”. “Hasn’t it always been thus? Doesn’t every age complain about its politics (as it does about the young) and compare it to a mythical golden age in years past? Have we become so despairing of our public discourse that we no longer expect that it should be civil and honest; respecting, not insulting the intelligence of the Australian people”.¹ The politics of fear and divisiveness is now formulaic; the distillation of political psychology from ‘Niccolo Machiavelli’² to ‘Game Theory’,³ is complete. It has been refined into the definitive manual for political success; ‘the secret recipe to the attainment of power and authority’. To those that resort to this well worn psychological path of fear and division, communicated both overtly and subliminally, success is oft times their prize. Whilst this manic lust for power and prestige at all costs is seemingly rewarded it inevitably undermines the protagonists and hinders the advancement of our society.

“Most Australians believe we need an honest, informed policy debate. Yet I don’t see many people who believe we have that. Instead, we all hear again and again that Australians are ashamed of the parliament, that they see it as nothing more than a forum for abuse, catcalling and spin”.¹  We are denied a contest of values, philosophy and ideas. We are denied enlightened leadership. We are denied a national vision. The losers are the nation and its present and future citizens.

This constant verbal battle is all about power, rank and authority but it is not about leadership. Looking to authority on high to show us the way will inevitably bitterly disappoint. Experience demonstrates that such figures rarely deliver the goods having been seduced into a mantra of the ‘over-promise’ and the ‘over-simplification’ in the face of constituency pressure, short-term performance appraisal and ill-informed expectations. The legacy of such masquerading ‘leaders’ is that they ‘take the money and run’ and more painfully delay the inevitable day of reckoning to be faced by those left to address the unresolved and intensified challenges.

The dearth of effective and inspirational leadership is a function of our individual failures to take responsibility; a propensity to withdraw within a culture of dependency and reliance upon others to do the heavy lifting. A propensity to demand solutions and quick fixes from those in authority and then to readily bring them down and caste them aside when they fail to deliver within the immediacy of our ‘24/7’ real-time response culture.

We surely get the leaders we deserve. “This idea of seeking beyond yourself and deciding that we need better than a politician is abrogating your responsibility as a citizen. So when you cry out for a leader look at yourself. When you say this democracy doesn’t work look at yourself. We get the leaders we deserve”.⁴

We have without doubt many intractable challenges ahead both within Australia and globally. “Making progress on these problems demands not just someone who provides answers from on high but changes in our attitudes, behavior, and values. To meet challenges such as these, we need a different idea of leadership and a new social contract that promote[s] our adaptive capacities, rather than inappropriate expectations of authority. We need to re-conceive and revitalize our civic life and the meaning of  citizenship”.⁵

“The focus on one leader, usually male, with expectations that he will solve our problems, while at the same time maintain our comfortable way of life, is past its use-by date. This expectation is impossible to fulfill and keeps us in a position of dependency”.⁶ Instead we should embrace and support those amongst us with the courage to stand up and take on the considerable challenges of adaptive leadership. Those that are prepared to face up to the large and intractable problems for which there are no simple, painless solutions; those that have the capacity to shepherd their respective constituencies on an adaptive pathway that requires learning enlightened ways to thrive in the face of new and dynamic constraints through collaboration, compassion, experimentation and innovation.⁵

We must all take up the responsibilities of citizenship and engage in adaptive leadership at every opportunity within our spheres of influence. “It requires people coming together on issues that are important to them and their organisations and communities, uniting in a shared purpose and starting the work of co-creating a better future, not waiting for the fantasy leader to arrive who can solve our problems”.⁶

Now is the time to be more demanding of ourselves. “The era of the messiah is over”.⁷

1. Turnbull, Malcolm, ”Republican Virtues: Truth, Leadership & Responsibility”, The George Winterton Lecture 2012, University of Western Australia, 5th September, 2012
2. Machiavelli, Niccolo, “Il Principe”, 1532
3. Lupia, Arthur & Menning, Jesse O., University of Michigan, “When Can Politicians Scare Citizens into Supporting Bad Policies”, American Journal of Political Science, Vol. 53, No. 1, January 2009, Pp. 90-106
4. McInnes, William, “The Great Debate: Australia needs leaders, not politicians!”, Brisbane City Hall, 7th September, 2013
5. Heifetz, Ronald A., “Leadership without Easy Answers”, Harvard University Press, 22nd July 1998,
6. Aigner, Geoff & Skelton Liz, “The Australian Leadership Paradox, What It Takes To Lead in the Lucky Country”, Allen & Unwin, 2013
7. Bill Shorten, Federal Member for Maribyrnong, First Debate in the Campaign for the Leadership of the Australian Labour Party, University of Technology – Sydney, 24th September, 2013