“Without freedom, autonomy is a racehorse without a track: power with no space to use it.”
Part One
Recently, my Honours group was tasked with an essay into leadership in Design; more notably with a focus on effective management styles and characteristics. While leadership itself has an elusive definition, ironically, because it is different to different people, this hasn’t posed too much of a challenge in the world of business leadership. Leaders have their own styles (even while some may be similar than others) and people work with them for their own reasons — which can also be fairly elusive.
We might not need to agree on one singular definition, however helpful it may be, though. As long as those relying on leadership positions understand the interpersonal relationships that make them function effectively, different leadership styles can be useful.
The essay I wrote, which will soon be available to read on my website in its entirety, focused on leadership styles and characteristics regarding leadership in general, as well as a slight leniency towards Design leaders with a results-driven approach to management. Before sharing the full essay, however, I wanted to flesh out some of the concepts I wrote about leading up to my main takeaways with you first.
This will be the first of two parts. I hope you find them useful in some capacity.
Autonomy and Freedom
By most accounts, leadership is a function of action and guidance, often a combination of the two. A leader is someone who usually begins the work of those who then would work with them, and facilitates work through guidance, inspiration, and often action on the leader’s part. However, this is by no means a full definition. Still, there is a level of guidance that plays a role before something more profound can be applied and utilised effectively: autonomy.
Autonomy is defined as “the right or condition of self-government,” often referred to as ‘freedom,’ but it isn’t always so simple. Autonomy can be further categorised into three individual concepts and variations; “self-organisation”, “functional self-organisation”, and “informed autonomy”. With autonomy, however, in every variation, there is a central theme of ‘identity.’ Autonomy relies on the ability of an individual to be able to discern the difference between their individual system and the environment they are currently in, to modify the system, and to course-correct to achieve the desired end-goal. This is where ‘freedom’ comes in. Once autonomy is established, freedom is necessary for autonomy to be effective.
This freedom often takes the form of emotional intelligence and the ability to understand the context of both external and internal factors contributing towards something, and having the freedom to act accordingly with intention and without restraint. Also, where autonomy is essential within the success of systems and organisations, control becomes a significant factor alongside freedom. This control does not only exist in a structural sense but also a cultural one, deeply reliant on the individual.
This is important to understand because an effective leader is an individual who understands this autonomy and freedom, and how it contextually contributes to success within their organisation. They can then motivate and facilitate this autonomy within those whom they lead. While this may not be possible at times — resulting in a more hands-on approach to management — an effective leader can adjust to the required management style of the individual.
Guidance and Trust
While the success of an organisation relies on the ability of its individuals, the role of the leader is to both facilitate and develop this ability in the individual. While this is practical, as with control and emotional intelligence, a great deal of emphasis can be placed on the culture of an organisation and how it either conflicts or reinforces the cultures of the individuals.
Effective leaders understand the value of culture and the contextual position of the individual and how this affects both workflow and personal success. Here is where the role of guidance takes centre-stage, as a leader is in a unique position to offer both professional and personal insight in order to solve a particular problem from the individual’s perspective. One such instance came to light during an interview I conducted with a leader within the South African Design industry.
This particular leader referenced a pivotal moment in their personal and academic career where they were on the verge of failure. In an act of desperation, he had a difficult conversation with someone in a leadership and mentorship position above him to quell his immediate concerns and accept defeat. This mentor, however, would have nothing of it. They told him what he didn’t want to hear, but what he knew he needed to hear: that things were going to get harder.
It was not an act of ignorance but of guidance. Of a hard truth to communicate that what one believes is difficult — often too challenging to continue pursuing — is where real growth is achieved. Where the challenge is enough to become a learning opportunity. While this proved to be accurate in hindsight, oftentimes one needs the immediate guidance of a leader who has already experienced adversity (and is thus righteously in a position to lead others through similar adversity) as inspiration and motivation to persevere.
This particular experience became so ingrained in him that it became a tool he forever uses when he encounters similar adversity and uncertainty, as those who lead inevitably do. Without the guidance from his mentor, difficult to hear or not, he would not be in the position he holds currently, and a great deal of challenges may never have been successfully overcome.
Guidance can be argued as two-fold. As guidance is given from the leader to the lead, trust is thereafter reciprocated. Without trust in the guidance given, one may not fully see the potential in it. And so those who are lead must trust those who lead to do so with their best interests and motivations at heart, for the betterment of both the team and the individual.
While a great deal of this is geared towards organisations and leading teams, one could argue the benefits this could have on yourself, as someone who is either part of a team or an organisation of one (freelance) as most designers are.
I hope you enjoyed this first part as much as I did while researching it. After writing this essay, I feel I have far more insight into how some people lead and how others are lead, neither of which being lesser than the other. I hope you can feel the same. I’ll see you next week for Part Two.
Sources
Daykin, S. (2020). [Personal interview]. August 19. Durban.
Feldman, S. (1989). The broken Wheel: the inseparability of Autonomy and Control in innovation within Organizations. Journal of Management Studies, 26(2), pp. 83–101.
Grint, K. (2010). Leadership: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/actrade/9780199569915.001.0001
Konstandakellis, K. (2020). [Personal interview]. August 19. Durban.
Lexico. (2020). Autonomy. https://www.lexico.com/definition/autonomy
Moreno, A. (2004). Auto-organisation, autonomie et identité. Revue internationale de philosophie, 2(228), pp. 135–150.
Morris J., & Feldman D. (1997). Managing emotions in the workplace. Journal of Management lssues, 9(3), pp. 1–14.
Robert, J. (2012). Organizations, Autonomy and Leadership: the importance of the context. In V.M. Autio (Eds.), A. Akihiro, & P. Juuti. Contemporary Corporate Culture, JTO School of Management. pp. 149–158. https://hal.archives-ouvertes. fr/hal-00717237
University of the People. (2020). Why Leadership is Important for a Great Life. https://www.uopeople.edu/blog/why-leadership-is-important-for-a-great-life/
