Big, Bold, Brave – Barmy? Jonathan Jansen
Toward the end of last year we had some spectacular national examples of the challenges of being a leader, illustrating why leadership is not everyone’s idea of a good time. Jacob Maroga (ex-CEO of Eskom, South African public power utility) – out. Bobby Godsell (now also ex-Chairperson of Eskom) – out. But it’s the extraordinary example of the Rector of the University of the Free State, Jonathan Jansen, his leadership and what can be learnt from it, that grabbed Louise Parr’s attention.
Jonathan Jansen’s Inaugural Lecture at the University of the Free State was a powerful opportunity to take the lead publicly. He used it to herald his philosophy and to give the University, and South Africa, a taste of his style and impact. He took it with two strong hands and a very stout heart. And it’s the leadership evidenced in this speech that gives me the opportunity to think about the stature of great leaders.
An Inclusive Vision that Engages the Mind, Heart and Soul
If leadership is about anything it’s about introducing a “new order of things”, but as Machiavelli wrote in The Prince 600 odd years ago “there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success”. While managers are entrusted to get things done properly, leaders are expected to reveal undreamt horizons, and to facilitate the change required to create something different and better. Inevitably they shake old assumptions and certainties, sometimes to their core. They’re not meant to make us feel safe. Jansen’s image of the UFS being a place of racial reconciliation and healing, a place of forgiveness and social justice is gloriously ambitious. Its appeal is palpable. It holds out the hope that we can overcome our tired old prejudices and dead-end demands. Who among us doesn’t long for such an outcome? It resonates deeply with the universal human spirit, unlinked to race or class or religious faith. And I believe he was talking to the country, he was enrolling every South African or he wouldn’t have used the platform afforded him by being the first black Rector of UFS at his Inaugural Lecture. This leader is ambitious and he’s not averse to risk. Great leaders have big dreams and clear, strong words to describe them.
A Sound Assessment of Current Realities
If great leaders need imagination to articulate a compelling image of a distant future, they also need to have their feet planted firmly on the ground. And be respectful of current realities, including such intangibles as people’s sensitivities and their worldview. Did Professor Jansen ignore this principle? The fierce response he’s evoked around the country suggests that he may well be guilty of this. It’s always tempting to airbrush the deadweight of human resistance out of your image of the world. On the other hand, it’s clear he’s not expecting a miraculous transformation. He knows that change will be the result of “steadily eroding” negative cultural practices. He has a profound understanding of the South African political and social context, but he rejects the idea that people are destined to be shaped by it forever. His lecture shows him to be sympathetic to the complex problems facing his students, their families and communities but he suggests ways of positively and practically re-framing their thinking. What is extraordinary is that he appears to be undaunted by the difficulties of helping them do so, or at least not defeated by them.
And he certainly reveals a firm grasp on the need for action to turn his vision into reality. He has devised multiple, mutually reinforcing ways of achieving his purpose. He promises to set unprecedented standards of academic excellence. He’ll invite scholars from around the world to share their thinking and to lend their support. He’ll establish large-scale university-school partnerships in poor communities to enable first-generation students to succeed. He wants all students to learn each others languages and complete a social sciences programme aimed at developing “compassionate human beings, critical citizens and ethical leaders”. He’ll transform the residences by racially integrating them to enable students to learn about and understand each other. Leaders will be developed in all the residences with the emotional maturity to challenge thinking and shift the juvenile behaviour that etches such a deep racial divide in the university. Decisive action is what he’s after. I hope he gets it.
Changing mindsets and patterns of behaviour is a leader’s highest and least certain calling. He’s clear about the behaviour required for his dream of a university characterised by social justice – it’s tolerant, sober, hard working, inclusive and respectful of diversity. Professor Jansen has obviously either never heard of, or completely disagrees with, the dispiriting phrase “politics is the art of the possible”. This man is busy shifting the goal posts of a nation.
A Deep Commitment to People and Purpose
Any leader’s spiritual and emotional energy and the insight he brings to his relationships, will determine his power to influence others. What can we tell of Professor Jansen’s value set, his approach to people and his concern for relationship with them? His driving philosophy is obviously humanistic, so his concern for people must be central. He urges his students to take responsibility for themselves and to care for each other, particularly for those who need it most. He reveals his approach to personal relationship in the way he openly and so warmly expresses his affection for his family. And he’s prepared to allow us to know him more intimately, by giving us a glimpse of the source of his spiritual well-being. Clearly his relationship skills are well developed, as he later proved by unexpectedly winning the support of so fierce a critic ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema. But he is also unafraid to ask a lot of people. He assumes that they have it within them to rise to the occasion. That’s empowering for those who have the consciousness and inner authority that allows them to question inherited wisdom, and those who have reserves of compassion and self-control that enable them to let go of the pain of the past. But for those who can’t or won’t rise to the challenge? I’m not sure he wouldn’t give them pretty short shrift. And I’m guessing that that would be ducks’ water (sic) for him.
The Courage to Hold Fast
Professor Jansen’s lecture shows him to be a man of vision, a man well-braced to confront the practical realities around him and a man quite capable of building relationships. Does he have the courage to sustain himself and the people around him in the politically difficult and emotionally dangerous days ahead? What a very uncomfortable stretch he’s facing. Easier really, to stick one’s head in the sand. Much safer to tow the party line. More profitable, probably to board the gravy train.
Ultimately the quality that distinguishes a great leader from the rest of us is that they have the resilience to thrive under pressure. They don’t need much personal affirmation to feel good about themselves; they stand resolute for what they believe in; they take risks; they use their power consciously but with conviction. Most importantly, they do not allow themselves to be manipulated to meet the needs of others or to assuage their own neediness. Professor Jansen is going to need all of these resources. It’s so easy, when the leader’s call to action makes people feel afraid, to rob him of his authority and to stop the process of change. People just have to shame their challenger, question his motives, derisively label him naïve, or opportunistic and grandiose. For if he lacks credibility, then his vision must lack substance and his strategies will certainly lack legitimacy. The status quo will triumph and people can all relax and go back to doing what they always did. And the leader is left looking ridiculous. Unless your ego is firmly under control, that kind of exposure can cripple you for life.
Professor Jansen has already shown that he has the humility and inner authority required of great leaders. He’s put himself at great risk – professionally, politically, and personally. He is courting trouble and he continues unrepentant. But does he yet have the credibility that ultimately comes with that kind of strength and integrity? Can he, with any hope of success, ask people either to give up so much or take on so daunting a quest as he has in mind? For people to be willing to do so, the leader probably has to have iconic status. Mandela has it, Ghandi had it. Does Professor Jansen? I believe he knows that he’s scripted himself a long-term project and that he understands that anything really worth doing cannot be achieved in a single life-time. My belief is that he’ll keep at it for as long as it takes, and when he can’t any longer, there will be those he’s inspired, who will.