I am my mother’s daughter: early developmental influences on leadership

European Journal of International Management

Volumn 2, Issue 1, 2008, Pages 6-21

  Adler, Nancy J ^a  

^a MCGILL UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

Author keywords

courage; generosity; leadership; wisdom; World War II

Indexed keywords

EID: 84969446240     PISSN: 17516757     EISSN: 17516765     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1504/EJIM.2008.016925     Document Type: Article

References (106)

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77. As cited in Franck et al. (2000, p.273). Note that article title echoes the title of Roberts’ book, We Are Our Mothers’ Daughters (1998).
78. The global leadership seminar the executives were participating in was “The Art of Leadership”. See Adler (2006) for a description of the seminar and the emphasis placed on reclaiming one’s courage. Also see the work of Whyte (1994, 2001) along with the recent work of leadership scholars Kouzes and Posner (2006) on courage as a core aspect of leadership. Gardner (1995) demonstrates the importance of storytelling as a leadership technique as well as a powerful method for understanding the nature of leaders’ lives.
79. Leadership scholar Murphy (2007, p.4), citing the work of Schneider et al. (1999) and studies conducted at AT&T in the 1950s and 1960s (Howard and Bray, 1974; Howard, 2001), documents “early life history experiences to be predictive of later leader success”. Shamir et al. (2005) have documented and advocated a life-story approach to leadership. Jaworski (1996), CEO of the American Leadership Forum, for example, uses this approach to describe his own life-story as an inner path to leadership.
80. Books and articles with varied approaches to leadership and leadership development abound (see for example, Adler, 2007; Antonakis et al., 2004; Bennis, 1989; Bennis and Nanus, 1985; Conger and Riggio, 2006; Dorfman, 1996; Gardner, 1995; Goleman, 1998; Kotter, 1988; Northouse, 2006; Riggio et al., 2002, among many others). Murphy (2007) suggests that over 2000 books are currently in print on best practices and insights for developing effective leaders. This article, rather than attempting to present a comprehensive review of leadership theories and leadership development approaches, describes one specific approach that is particularly powerful.
81. In his seminal book, Leading Minds, Gardner (1995), presents the developmental life experiences of a set of prominent world leaders. It is within that tradition of scholarship that Liselotte’s story is offered. From a methodological perspective, Liselotte’s story is an extreme case and therefore fits into the growing literature on the use and value of extreme samples and extreme case studies to elucidate organisational and human phenomena (among others, see Yin, 2003).
82. For a discussion of wisdom and maintaining hope in an organisational setting, see Adler’s (2007) “Organizational metaphysics: global wisdom and the audacity of hope”.
83. Both the psychology and organisational studies literatures have long recognised sense-making as a crucial aspect of leadership (Weick, 1995; Weick et al., 2005). It was not, however, until I heard Klugger (2001) speak and read her book, Still Alive, that I realised how profoundly different my mother’s own sense-making was from that of another Jewish child who was born in Vienna, had experienced the Nazis’ occupation of Austria, and survived the holocaust.
84. A earlier version of this description of Vienna appears in Adler (2005).
85. The SS, in German, stands for the Schutzstaffel, the “protective squadron of the Nazis. The Nazis regarded the SS as an elite unit, the party’s ‘Praetorian Guard’, with all SS personnel selected on the principles of racial purity and unconditional loyalty to the Nazi Party. The SS was distinguished from the German military, Nazi party, and German state officials by its own SS rank structure, SS unit insignia, and SS uniforms”. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS.
86. From a theoretical perspective, Liselotte, here and in subsequent situations that are described, demonstrates a high degree of learned optimism, a belief that her behaviours can lead to successful outcomes, even when probability appears strongly against her (Seligman et al., 1996). Learned optimism, according to Seligman (1998), is a core component of leadership.
87. Yad Va Shem, the memorial to the Holocaust in Jerusalem, honours many non-Jews (righteous gentiles) who risked their life to save Jews. One particularly important story is that of Irena Sendler, recently honoured by the Polish Government, who saved 2500 Jewish children by smuggling them out of the Warsaw Ghetto (Lucas, 2007).
88. See literature on self-efficacy and youth leadership (Murphy, 2001, 2007).
89. In my search for leaders who have made a difference in the world, I chose to study women who have served their country as president or prime minister and/or who have served their company as CEO or managing director. For a summary of research on women leaders, see Adler (1996, 1998, 2002, 2003) and for a similar summary of research on developing women leaders, see Adler (2007), Adler et al. (2000, 2001) and Adler and Izraeli (1994).
90. Conger and Kanungo (1999) discuss the importance of situation-sensing for leaders in moving individuals from the status quo to a better future. Among others, see Goffee and Jones’ (2006) in-depth discussion of situation-sensing.
91. Roger Martin, the Dean of the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, has presented his theory of management as design, with an emphasis on abductive logic (the logic of what might be) and integrated thinking it takes to create new options (Dunne and Martin, 2006). Similarly, Boland and Collopy (2004) stress that managing in the 21st century is designing. Note that the specific phrase, “the audacity of hope”, was first popularised by Barack Obama in his speech to the Democratic Party Convention (“Everyone Loves Obama”, 2004) and later became the title of Obama’s autobiography (Obama, 2006).
92. Based on Rourke’s (2002) article about Eli Wiesel, “His faith in peace endures”.
93. Positive organisation studies scholars, basing their research on the earlier work of their positive psychology colleagues (see, among others, Seligman, 2003; Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi, 2000; Snyder and Lopez, 2002), are now increasingly focusing on such positive aspects of leadership as courage, compassion, hope, inspiration, and wisdom (see Cameron et al., 2003; Kessler and Bailey, 2007).
94. Management scholar Delbecq (2001) has discussed the need for senior leaders to recognise the existence of evil and how it manifests itself in organisations.
95. The notion of people being capable of being good, even if they have yet to express it, is related to Avolio’s notion of latent leadership.
96. For an example from Africa, see the description of Hutu and Tutsi school children in Rwanda courageously choosing to protect each other, rather than allowing half their class to be murdered (Montgomery, 2007).
97. Adorno (1903-1969) was a German social philosopher, sociologist, pianist and musicologist; as quoted from the Jewish Holocaust Museum’s exhibit “Europe through our eyes: a holographic approach” in Vienna, Austria (http://www.flholocaustmuseum.org/exhibits/viennashow/pages/6_jpg.htm).
98. Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, emeritus professor at Temple University and founder of the Spiritual Eldering Institute, designed the “Age-ing to Sage-ing” program based on his book of the same title (Schachter-Shaomi, 1995).
99. Increasingly over the past decade, scholars have discussed the role of spirituality and religion at work, including at presentations at the annual Academy of Management Meetings (see Bolman and Deal, 1995; Conger and Associates, 1994; Delbecq, 1999a, 1999b, Vaill, 1998).
100. The Anschluss refers to the Annexation of Austria by Germany during World War II. On March 9th 1938, Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg announced a plebiscite on the independence of Austria. Adolf Hitler took this as an opportunity to take action against the Austrian State. Schuschnigg was pressed to resign. National Socialist Arthur Seyss-Inquart took over the chancellorship and formed a new government. The Austrian National Socialists took power in Austria. On the morning of March 12th 1938, troops of the German Wehrmacht and the SS crossed the German-Austrian border. On March 13th 1938, Hitler announced in Linz the legislation on the “Anschluss (Annexation) of Austria into the German Reich”. During the great celebrations in all of Austria, many potential opponents of the regime were arrested, as well as the Jews who were expropriated and deprived of civil rights. National Socialist rule was firmly established in Austria through propaganda, terror and enticements. (History of the Anschluss as described at http://www.linz.at/Archiv/nationalsoz/ekapitel3.html).
101. Avolio and Luthans (2006) describe trigger moments as being key to leaders’ development. There is no question that this was a trigger moment in Liselotte’s life. Note that an extensive literature exists questioning if and how belief in God can exist after the Holocaust (see Berkowitz, 1977; Del Cazo, 1997; Powell, 2007, among many others).
102. Gordon (2007).
103. Based on his WICS theory Sternberg (2003a), Sternberg (2003b, 2004b) posits that a person needs four crucial elements to be a good and effective leader: creative, analytical, practical, and wisdom-related skills and attitudes. Liselotte clearly demonstrates all four elements. For example, in going beyond what others have said, Liselotte’s statement to the President of Austria meets Sternberg’s (2007) creativity standard: “Creative leaders defy the crowd, seeing things in ways past leaders and experts have been unable or unwilling to see things” (Sternberg et al., 2002; Sternberg and Lubart, 1995). Liselotte’s statement to the President demonstrates wisdom-based skills in that she uses her words for the common good, balancing her own interests with those of other people and with larger interests that address the needs of the broader society (Sternberg, 2007).
104. Research suggests that asking big, important questions is a precursor to scholarly and worldly leadership success (Sternberg, 2007). As cited by Sternberg (2007), “Zuckerman [1983] found that great scientists are ones who ask important questions and deal with big problems. Getzels and Ciskszentmihalyi (1976) found the same in the arts – that the best artists were the ones who dealt with big ideas”. No one can disagree that the questions Liselotte has asked in the past, and is currently asking, are “the big questions”. Also see Adler (2008) for a discussion on global leadership as the act of giving oneself for things far greater than oneself.
105. The concept of the world needing us to create “future history” is supported by the work of such political historians as Arthur Schlesinger Jr., who stated that “But a far more grievous failing”, he said, is to ignore history altogether, especially in a nation that has so often demonstrated imperial appetites. “History is the best antidote to delusions of omnipotence and omniscience”, he said, forcing us “to a recognition of the fact, so often and so sadly displayed, that the future outwits all our certitudes (Semple, 2007)”.
106. See Gardner et al.’s (2001) Good Works: When Excellence and Ethics Meet for an excellent research-based, discussion of professionals who offer their leadership in ways that enhance both the general society and their own careers.