Where friends are few, many may suffer

Quote

“Many forms of Government have been tried and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”  Winston Churchill, November 11^th 1947.

 

News
As protests continue to destabilise Libya, analysts and commentators find it hard to predict how it will end.  The context of Libya is more extreme than neighbouring Tunisia to the west and Egypt to the east.  In the 40 years Colonel Gaddafi has been in power, he has banned all political opposition, weakened the army and other institutions, established local paramilitary councils, and built a personality cult.  Even more than in neighbouring countries, this has led to a lack of organised opposition, and Gaddafi’s demise would leave a power vacuum.

Although the Libyan leader began in 2003 to restore relations with the outside world, his maverick style has left him with no friends in the Arab world or elsewhere.  Only mercenaries from across the Sahara have come to his aid in recent days, as too few Libyans were willing to open fire on unarmed protesters.

This means that Gaddafi has nowhere to flee to, leaving his only option to try and hold on to power at all costs.  The tide of popular uprising spreading across the Arab world makes his overthrow almost inevitable – but it will probably be at great cost in protesters’ lives. 

One conclusion that political leaders should draw from this is the vital importance of personal friendships and mutual alliances, which serve multiple purposes: as well as providing national benefits in the form of trade and investment, they offer the possibility of greater personal accountability and course correction, and help to provide an exit strategy if things go badly wrong. 

What is true at the head of a state is also true in organisations – leaders can become tyrants.  We’re all aware of the stresses of leadership, and the danger that power may corrupt, but every society and organisation needs leadership.  The challenge is how to create or maintain an effective system of accountability – and so to avoid the infinitely more costly fight to be rid of a despotic leader that no one really wants.

Read on...

Chapter 7 of The Relational Manager by Michael Schluter and David Lee is about Relational Systems; it explores ways of bringing more relational accountability into organisations.  You can download the excerpt here.

Walk the talk

Leaders need accountability – no matter how talented, convincing, articulate or charismatic they are – for one reason alone: they are not infallible.  If you are leading an organisation, or working closely with such a leader, is there a danger that a lack of accountability might mean unwise decisions are left unchallenged?  If so, what steps might you take to increase accountability?

The last word
From the Bible, Proverbs 29:1 “Whoever remains stiff-necked after many rebukes will suddenly be destroyed – without remedy.”