Cory’s style of leadership

By Dr. Bernardo M. Villegas, The Philippine Daily Inquirer

UNKNOWN TO MANY, THE LATE CORAZON Aquino was cited, in a book, as an example of virtuous leadership by a European expert on leadership. She was in a short list of outstanding leaders that included Pope John Paul II, Ronald Reagan, Lech Walesa, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Robert Schuman, and Francois Michelin. The author of the book is Alexander Havard, who is the Director of the European Center for Leadership Development (www.ecld.org) and resides in Moscow.

Havard quotes Cory Aquino on collegiality in decision-making in politics: “The ability to work well with others, to listen to different points of view, to credit such views with a sincerity equal to one’s own, and to have the flexibility to accommodate the valid concerns of others: this is an important quality for anyone who wishes to serve the people. It is an expression of the spirit of service. Indeed, how can anyone claim to have a genuine spirit of solidarity with the people in general, if he is incapable of an operational solidarity with those he must work with closely?”

These words of the late president of the Philippines struck a strong chord in me because I strongly believe in collegiate government. In every organization I have worked for as part of the management team, I have always tried to foster collegiality in decision-making. As Havard writes, collegiality is the virtue of prudence in action: five people working together see farther and more deeply than one person working alone. It is also a manifestation of the humility of the leader who is aware of his own limitations and desires to serve his colleagues by developing in each of them a sense of freedom and a sense of personal responsibility. All members of the management team participate in making decisions.

Collegial government is very much part of what is known as Management by Missions as developed by IESE Business School professor Pablo Cardona. The leader focuses the attention of the management team on the mission of the organization. He is a servant of his team, as a collective, and of each one of its members, as individuals. He does everything in his power to deepen the commitment of the team members to their shared mission. He does not demand personal loyalty. He motivates everyone to own the corporate mission.

It does take humility on the part of the leader to truly practice collegial government because he must be ready to renounce his judgements (unless principles are at stake) when the group decides against his position. The test of his humility is even greater in the event the group decision leads to disaster. The leader does not say, “I told you so. This wouldn’t have happened if you had listened to me.” He participates enthusiastically in the implementation of all decisions and shares personal responsibility for them with his colleagues.

What collegial government avoids is dictatorship, which always stems from pride. The dictatorial manager thinks wrongly that he is master of all he surveys. He overestimates his professional and moral capabilities and underestimates those of others. He is hard to deal with because he is oversensitive and tends to mistrust others. One-man rule is inefficient and ineffective: co-workers learn nothing of the art of governance and fail to develop a sense of freedom and responsibility. Those who are seriously campaigning for Noynoy Aquino to be the next President of the Philippines should make sure that he has learned the collegial style of government from his late mother.

Dr. Bernardo M. Villegas is senior vice president of the University of Asia and the Pacific. For comments, his email address is bvillegas@uap.edu.ph.