Anticipatory Leader
Introduction
There are several definitions of leadership and leaders. According to Lao Tzu, a leader is someone who makes others perceive his or her vision with their own eyes. According to him, people revile a wicked leader but revere a leader who is good but a great leader is the one makes people say about him as ‘we did it ourselves’ (Palmer & Elizabeth, 1996, p. 36).
Leadership is not just about personality. Leadership is best defined in relation to management as leadership and management are two different and complimentary systems of conduct and governance. Their functions and characteristics are different and both are necessary for a successful outcome of one’s endeavour in a world that is increasingly complex and volatile. Management and leadership cannot replace each other, but many organisations are over-managed and under-led. The basic difference is that management is about coping with complexity whereas leadership is about coping with change. Kotter says that leaders do not make plans, solve problems or organize people but prepare organisations for change and help them cope with it. It therefore leads to the suggestion that leadership is about anticipating the future (Ratcliffe & Ratcliffe, 2015).
This paper seeks to make a case study of anticipatory leadership in banking field by first critically examining the principles of anticipatory leadership and applying them in a banking organization. New leadershipIn the quest for new form of leadership, several themes have emerged: the collaborative nature, value-based leadership with an emphasis on sincerity, genuineness and transparency, need for robust governance, increased appreciation of risk, complexity and systems thinking and anticipation which is a new perspective for creative leadership. It has emerged now that leadership is not confined to an individual but it is a relational phenomenon that requires a leader, followers and a shared purpose (Ratcliffe & Ratcliffe, 2015).
An effective leadership should have three components. They are wisdom, intelligence and creativity that are combined together or synthesized (WICS) as an expertise that is fast developing (Stenberg, 2003). This WICS model of leadership in organizations posits that wisdom of an individual serves to use his intelligence, creativity and knowledge to achieve a common good through balancing of intrapersonal (self) , interpersonal( others) and extra personal (larger) interests in the long and short terms through fusion of values so as to shape and select environments. Organisations aiming at sustainable competitive advantage reflect on three basic queries on a regular basis. That is, “where they come from, what they are doing there and where they are going”. Accomplished leaders responsible for improving the conditions of others constantly learn to link the past, the present and the future. Conscious leadership is required to shape the future with vision and courage (Renesch, 2014). It gains significance as all are connected with one another in the global systems and small events can result in big consequences. The most effective leaders are able to identify the different ways of people’s thoughts about time and deploy them in …
