The Senior as a Leader | Continuum Foundation

Who can – and who should – be a leader among seniors in a local community? Here is the chapter we wrote for the guide „Przestrzeń dla seniorów” (Space for Seniors), published by Fundacja Mapa Pasji (the Map of Passions Foundation).

We hope this publication will help and inspire seniors to take action for their local communities – including during the difficult times of the COVID-19 pandemic and after it.

The full guide, „Przestrzeń dla seniorów. Poradnik aktywnego seniora” (Space for Seniors: A Guide for the Active Senior), can be downloaded from this link. Enjoy reading!

Over thousands of years of evolution, humans as a species have come to dominate the world. We did not manage this because we are particularly strong, exceptionally fast or because our senses are unusually sharp. Elephants are much stronger than we are, cheetahs are faster, owls have better eyesight and dogs a better sense of smell. And yet it is we who have made the world our own. Our success as a species was decided by other traits. One of them is the ability to cooperate.

For centuries, people have joined together in communities and groups in order to undertake shared ventures and pursue common goals. We start families to bring up children, to keep ourselves safe, to support one another and to find fulfilment in closeness with another person. We set up businesses to earn money by using our skills and ideas. Every association or foundation is also a group of people who have come together to achieve something jointly: to protect nature, to improve the quality of life of people with disabilities, to heal the sick, to advance a field of science or culture… Our social experience tells us that every group that wants to achieve a goal needs a leader. Seniors’ organisations and communities are no exception.

Even if the people in your community meet mainly for pleasure, to spend time together, the need for a leader will appear as soon as you want to carry out some kind of undertaking – be it a group outing, a trip to the cinema, organising a name-day party or raising funds for a worthy cause. If you are active in a foundation, an association or another organisation, the need for a leader is all the more evident.

Who is a leader?

Being a leader among seniors is essentially no different from being a leader in business or politics. Although every environment, team or group has its own character, the role, attitude and competences of a leader are similar.

Leadership

The English word leadership comes from the Old Saxon lithan and loedan, meaning to travel together in one direction. The Polish translation – przywództwo – does not fully capture the meaning of the word leadership. Przywództwo derives from Old Slavonic words for reins, so it suggests governing, controlling and imposing a direction rather than travelling together. Ken Blanchard, the leadership guru, writes in his book “Leading at a Higher Level” that leadership “(…) is not something you do to people. It’s something you do with people”. Leadership is “the capacity to influence others by unleashing their power and potential to impact the greater good”.

In organisations, the person who is the leader often also holds a formal position, e.g. chair, director or project manager. However, a formally assigned position is not necessary to be a leader. Nor is a formally assigned role on its own enough to make someone a leader. So who is a leader? A good leader is someone who can awaken in people the motivation to act and the desire to grow, and who is able to build mutually supportive teams.

The role of a leader shows itself in a range of activities. According to Bob Kaiser and Robert Kaplan’s concept of “versatile leadership”, effectively “being at the helm” requires a balance between four dimensions:

strategic management (creating an engaging vision and goals),
operational management (managing finances, projects and day-to-day activity),
enabling leadership (unlocking motivation, creating conditions for individual and team growth),
forceful leadership (setting expectations, allocating tasks, holding people to account).

A good leader combines all these dimensions in a balanced way. Balanced means that none of these areas is neglected, but none of them dominates either.

2. The leader and the team – what can we learn from wild geese?

The greylag goose

During migration, the greylag goose can cover around 2,500 kilometres. This is not only a matter of individual stamina and an anatomy adapted to long-distance flight. Equally important – perhaps even more important – is the way geese organise themselves in flocks during migration.

Wise geese:

pursue their goal consistently, even though they sometimes have to correct their route,
overcome adversity – they have no weather forecasts! Wind, rain and temperatures take them by surprise!
are determined – they do not turn back,
cooperate – they communicate in flight, warning and informing one another,
pace themselves – they alternate between active flight (which requires more effort) and passive flight (during which they recover their strength),
look after one another – when one bird grows weak or falls ill, two healthy geese are “assigned” to help it,
…and take turns leading – by constantly changing who flies at the front, they save up to 70% of their energy!!!

The birds cover part of the journey in passive flight, which is what allows them to travel such great distances. The bird at the front flies actively and has to overcome air resistance, which takes a great deal of effort. That is why geese change leaders from time to time during flight – the one leaving the front position can rest by flying in a less demanding position, while the lead is taken over by a rested bird with more strength. The role of the leader of a flock of geese is to get the flock into the air and to set the direction (to make a decision and initiate action). If the leader of the flock flew at the front for the entire journey, the journey would probably end quickly, and not as the flock had intended. Possibly with tragic consequences for the leader.

The essence of leadership is participation. Being a leader does not mean that you have to do everything yourself, or that you must personally supervise and take care of everything that happens in your community or organisation. That would be unhealthy both for you and for the group you lead. Being constantly at the helm – managing and leading – is exhausting, both physically and mentally. Looking after your own well-being and using your own resources sensibly is particularly important for a senior leader. So your role as a leader is not to personally supervise or do everything that happens in your community. Your task is, above all, to create the conditions for consultation and discussion around ideas and projects, to facilitate collective decision-making and to ensure a balanced division of duties and responsibilities. One of a leader’s most important skills is sharing responsibility – in other words, participation.

As a leader, you need to be patient and consistent in involving other members of the community in decision-making and action. Competences and skills, as well as responsibility, are acquired gradually, and this takes time. Many bosses fear that nobody will carry out a task and take responsibility for it the way they themselves could. Such a “bossy” attitude means that the boss becomes increasingly tired, while their co-workers have no chance to spread their wings. I use the word “boss” here to emphasise the difference between this attitude and that of a leader who leads their community or organisation in a participatory way.

Food for thought:

Think about and answer the following questions for yourself:

Do you have the strength, and are you ready, to take the lead, accepting responsibility for the actions undertaken and for the people involved in them?
- Are you able – at least from time to time – to step down from the pedestal and share power and responsibility?
- How do you create space for others?
- When describing successes, do you more often say “I” or “we”?
- What about your patience and understanding – qualities essential for giving other team members time to spread their wings?
- Whose help do you want to, and can you, count on as a leader?
- What do you regard as your “strengths”? What skills, talents and motivations do you bring to the group?
- In which areas do you need support? What skills and attitudes will you develop and strengthen in your team?

3. The leader’s toolkit

There are certain traits and skills that are essential, or at least useful, in being a leader. They determine not only whether the goal is achieved, but also what the road to it will be like – whether it will be satisfying or rather full of frustration. Here are the competences and skills you will need in fulfilling your role as a leader:

3.1 Formulating and communicating goals

Most often it is the leader who is the author of the community’s goal – and the leader should certainly be its guardian. In organisations, this goal is expressed as a mission and a vision. In informal groups, these are usually not written down, but take the form of an idea with which all members identify. The mission and vision set the direction for action. Your role as a leader is to remember them and to remind others of them – when assessing new ideas, projects or changes, to determine whether they are consistent with your community’s mission and vision. The leader is the person who knows, and reminds others of, the answer to the questions “where are we heading?” and “who do we want to be?”. The leader is also responsible for developing and implementing a strategy for action. Which – as we have already said – does not mean that you will devise and develop this strategy on your own. Your role in this process will be to encourage all members of the group to engage in dialogue, to hold consultations and discussions, and to analyse the possibilities. In addition, the leader helps and encourages people to discover and name the values of the organisation or group, and points out and recognises the actions and behaviours that express them.

Mission – the answer to the question of what we want to achieve in our environment or community, or even what we want to do for the world: what we will strive for and what we would like to be proud of. For example: “A locally integrated community of older people” (Klub Trzeciego Wieku – the Third Age Club).

Values – patterns of conduct that show who we are and who we want to be. For example, commitment as a value is expressed in making an effort and seeking opportunities; tolerance means refraining from judging people and organisations with different values or ways of working, and showing a kindly interest in diversity; responsibility – in weighing up the risks and costs of taking or not taking action.

In organisations, the mission and values are often expressed in a condensed form – a motto. For example: “We are here for ourselves and open to others” (Klub Seniora Megawat – the Megawat Seniors’ Club), “We act for generations” (Wrocławskie Centrum Seniora – the Wrocław Senior Centre).

Vision – the answer to the question of what kind of organisation we want to be, who we want to be in the future and what our organisation should look like.

Strategy – the practical expression of the mission and vision, i.e. the general plan of action. It may include medium-term plans (e.g. annual ones) and operational plans (e.g. for the current week or a specific day). Here the leader mainly performs administrative, managerial functions.

3.2 Taking responsibility and sharing responsibility

Leaders are often the driving force that sets an organisation or group in motion. Most often they then, almost naturally, take over control of and responsibility for its activities. Yet a conscious leader understands that while their task is indeed to get the group going, in the later stages of its existence their role is above all to create an environment in which members and co-workers can take on – and are encouraged to take on – responsibilities and tasks. As a leader, therefore, make sure that you gradually but consistently give up supervision, making room for other people’s initiatives, ideas, actions and responsibility.

As a leader, you do not have to – and should not – oversee everything personally. The responsibility of the members of a community grows in proportion to the freedom they are given and the support they receive. A leader’s activity, presence and responsibility consist in encouraging people to:

make decisions,
have a real influence on how the organisation functions,
develop their competences.

You should, however, be aware of the risks that come with this style of leading an organisation and people. The risk is that, in the process of learning and developing and gradually taking on responsibility, people will make mistakes and will need time. This may mean that your group goes through temporary dips in effectiveness, and you may feel that time and energy are being wasted (“I’d have done it faster and better myself”). As a leader, in such situations you need to ask yourself whether your group can afford the cost of a possible mistake, or whether it poses too great a risk to the activities as a whole and you need to intervene.

3.3 Credibility

What makes people want to follow a leader is their credibility. The sources of your credibility as a leader are above all your authenticity, consistency, transparency and effectiveness.

Authenticity – means that you do not pretend to be someone you are not and you do not play a role. You show your values openly and share your resources, but you also do not hide your weaknesses, hesitations or shortcomings. This in particular opens up space for co-workers, who feel that in working with the leader they can not only take but also give something of themselves.

Consistency – grows out of self-awareness. A consistent leader acts in accordance with their own set of values, beliefs and ways of working.

Transparency (fairness and honesty) – sometimes a leader has to say or do something that is neither popular nor easy; sometimes they have to intervene when they see that the values of their community are being violated, or that projects or the achievement of goals are under threat. What will allow you to keep your status as a leader despite such actions is referring to objective, important and genuine reasons for them. Transparency gives people the sense that when making difficult decisions the leader is understandable, rational, honest and fair. This in turn strengthens the bonds within the group and, far from depriving the leader of their special status, may even become a source of their strength and credibility.

Effectiveness – even the most charismatic leader can lead an organisation astray. The measure of a leader is whether their group achieves its intended goals, how efficiently it operates and how the community develops.

3.4 Self-motivation and motivating others

As a leader, you are the engine of the organisation, so first and foremost you should get to know the sources of your own motivation. By getting to know yourself, you will gain insight into the motivational mechanisms of your co-workers.

There are two sources of motivation: having and being.

Having means obtaining benefits that are important to us. We may want to have material things (a car, money, holidays), but also to have intangible things (peace and quiet, company, social standing). Most people have no trouble identifying the benefits that matter to them. It is usually not difficult to say what we want to have and, consequently, to decide consciously what we are prepared to do to achieve it. As the leader of a seniors’ organisation, you might want, for example, better premises for your community, additional funds for its activities or more frequent study trips.

We less often think about who we want to be. We call this pillar of human motivation values. When we share certain values (e.g. wisdom, responsibility, solidarity), we look for behaviours and ways of acting by which we ourselves and others will recognise that we are indeed responsible, show solidarity or are wise.

What is optimal for human motivation is both gaining benefits and living out one’s values. In this state, people feel fulfilled and happy. Undermining either of these pillars disrupts motivation. If we can only live out our values but they bring us no benefits, our “motivational fuel” will not last long. On the other hand, if we gain benefits but in conflict with, or with disregard for, values that are important to us, we risk becoming cynical and calculating.

When involving people in activities, make sure their motivation is properly balanced – both in the area of being and in the area of having. In the area of having, this need not mean financial reward; it can be another kind of benefit (e.g. taking part in events, a certificate of recognition, public appreciation, a role in the organisation). In the area of being, people need confirmation that you see the values that matter to them behind their behaviour. Sometimes a seemingly trivial “thank you for your commitment”, “that was responsible” or “I’m glad I can count on you” is, for someone, an important confirmation that their personal being has been noticed and rewarded.

3.5 Flexibility and openness to change

One of your tasks as a leader is to ensure that the organisation develops. The ability to stimulate, plan and implement change is an important skill that you will need. Remember that taking a step forward requires leaving behind what is no longer effective.

You have surely experienced, more than once, that when starting a new stage of your life, a new project, a new job or a new relationship, you were at the same time losing something that had given you a sense of stability and security. A leader’s competences should include a particular readiness to step outside their comfort zone, and even a certain impatience and an active search for challenges and opportunities. It is you, as the leader, who through your attitude and actions should put wind in the sails of the people around you and make sure that your community does not stagnate. Although flexibility and openness to change are traditionally associated with youth and vitality, as a senior leader you have an additional power to set change in motion. That power is your experience, your connections, your maturity and your assertiveness.

There are also changes we do not plan – changes that come against our will, take us by surprise, knock us off course and disrupt our ongoing activities. Unfortunately, these are rarely changes we perceive as changes for the better. When your community faces such a change, your role will be to assess the situation – to determine what the needs are, what you have at your disposal, and what you can do, and how, in these new conditions in order to find your way in the new reality. At such times, look after the self-esteem of the people around you and help them recognise their talents. At the same time, try to put fears and anxieties into rational perspective and ease them.

The COVID-19 pandemic is precisely such a surprising and destabilising change. We write more about the threats and opportunities it brings for seniors and senior leaders in Chapter 12.

Remember!

An effective and conscious senior leader:

sets directions and initiates action,
awakens in people the motivation to act,
shares responsibility,
is credible (authentic, consistent, transparent and effective),
knows the sources of their own motivation and that of their co-workers,
initiates, plans and implements change.

The first step towards being a leader for others is being a leader in your own life. Look at how you act and think, what moves you and what holds you back.