Leadership Criteria in the Age of Covid-19

What it Takes to be an Effective Leader Today

The dire need for capable leaders is urgent as one looks at the turmoil and confusions in various countries over the last 2 years as feckless, indecisive, and weak leaders fumbled and stumbled, often unable to transcend expedient political considerations, to govern, inspire and motivate confidence in their people of their competence to lead and prevail victoriously.

The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic should trigger a critical rethink on our criteria for developing and selecting our political leaders.

We already knew that our obsessive use of examination excellence in the selection and development of leaders unnecessarily narrows the pool of youths who can be developed for leadership positions in society in their later years. Our people excellence is measured solely by exams grades, especially A’s and 1st class honour degrees. This narrow perspective ignores the key ingredient of “impact” in the definition of leadership excellence.

Let me share this passage from President Theodore Roosevelt’s speech at the Sorbonne University on 23 April 1910 on the subject “Citizenship in a Republic”:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

The “best” students in Singapore are exam-smart and dull. They will be extremely capable technically STEM-wise, but can they lead people and their fellow Singaporeans?

The education experience in Singapore schools does not produce in our “best” students (presumably, future leaders) a penchant for community action; nor the courage to dare; nor a readiness to fail; nor a sense of responsibility for the less able; nor a curious passion to seek answers and solutions beyond the exams syllabus.

Where are all our “scholars” today? How many are in leadership positions in the private, non-statutory boards and non-government (or related) organizations? And why not? Many past “scholars” in fact work for or report to non-scholars in many private (non-government, statutory boards or government-related) organisations.

The conflation of “scholarship” and “leadership” is the seed of our failure to develop a critical pipeline of leaders nationally for community and public office.

According to the Ministry of Education in its “Outcome of Education”, potential leaders should:

· be committed to improving society

· be proactive in surmounting our constraints

· have compassion towards others

· be able to inspire, motivate and draw out the best from others

· be able to chart our destiny and lead

· be able to forge breakthroughs in a knowledge-based economy

· be creative and imaginative

· have the tenacity to fight against the odds and not quit

However, nothing in our school curriculum or education experience are in fact designed consciously to develop the above character and personal qualities. We need to apply design thinking to this outcome.

Schools and teachers are mainly concerned with teaching ie imparting knowledge, but not learning and innovation ie using knowledge; about passing exams, not intellectual and moral development.

Where our potential leaders are concerned, schooling is all about getting that 100 marks or A’s, which provide them a false sense of finality in all inquiries instead of being a learning journey of exploration and discovery into an ever-growing world of mystery and issues. Teachers prepare their best students for exams, and not for leadership.

Many years ago, when SAT, a US-based exam, was introduced as a University entry requirement (now scrapped), teachers in all the Junior Colleges (JCs) were just pumping and prepping their students with guidebooks and “10-year series” questions, instead of going through the SAT syllabus! What kind of message did this send to our “best” in the JCs? Teachers are supposed to be the role models for the desired people leadership.

Leadership development begins in the classroom and outside in the community and neighbourhood. The potential leader learns that he or she can use his knowledge for the benefit of others; and whose character development inculcates an active, empathic desire to help the weak, the sick, and the less able …. including their classmates who have problems in understanding the lessons in class.

They are best found in the active student leaders who participate seriously in sports or clubs and/or societies, and in activities and endeavours that are not part of the exam curriculum. It is in these participations that they will acquire the essential people skills, team-building skills, communication skills, organising skills as well as the public empathy, compassion, and leadership skills to lead their fellow citizens in the future.

Our potential national leaders should be selected from those service-minded youths with transformational visions who have the desire and the passion to apply their knowledge and expertise to strengthen and make better the community in which they live.

During the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, Singapore leaders have demonstrated exceptional compassion, empathy, and affinity with the pain and suffering of common Singaporeans. In the nation-wide public health crisis and sudden economic shutdown, their collective response was clearly driven by its intimate rapport with the people to embolden an authentic, sensitive, and profound understanding of the electorate as various policies, financial support, and assistance schemes as well as pandemic mitigation measures was immediately instituted to engage and remedy the unprecedented economic plight, fears, and anxieties. The people’s trust in leadership resulted from public empathy, respect, and sensitivity to empower effective policy measures to benefit the people they serve.

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