GIansante: “Here is the sketch of the leader”
“People are more likely to follow a leader who is committed to the group and doesn’t take advantage of its privileges.” What is the leader’s identikit? There is a stylistic figure that unites Winston Churchill e Marco Aurelio? Is there a scientific formula for outlining the figure of the powerful, loved by the people, followed, capable of involving the masses? It is the question from which he started Gianluca Giansantepartner of the communication and institutional relations studio Comin & Partners and professor of digital communication and institutional reputation at the Luiss Guido Carli University, to write his latest volume, “Leadership – Theories, techniques, best practices and false myths” (Carocci editore, 184 pages, 15 euro). Giansante is the author of various essays on communication and consensus building and in his latest work he has chosen to overturn some clichés on the subject by drawing on the knowledge of different areas of study – from social psychology to anthropology, from biology to history – to investigate a field that is by its nature complex and multidisciplinary.
Giansante, how does your book differ from other volumes on the same subject already on the shelves of bookshops?
Very often, entering the bookstore, we find essays by successful personalities from the world of business, economics and sport who dispense their secrets. In this book, on the other hand, I tried to verify what science says about leadership, that is, what are the characteristics that allow confidence to grow in the leader and those that, instead, cause it to be lost.
The figure of the leader is a theme that embraces the history of man: what is the characteristic that unites all the greats of yesterday and today?
There are various characteristics that all scientific studies confirm, but I think it is useful to underline one. People are more willing to follow a leader who is committed to the group, who doesn’t seek personal gain, someone who doesn’t take advantage of his privileges, but puts their commitment at the service of the community they intend to lead. It is a seemingly simple rule but one that we see violated very often.
Is leadership immanent? Would someone like Winston Churchill or Marcus Aurelius have the same charm even today permeated by social networks and the liquidity of information?
This is a fundamental point: there is no leadership that is absolutely valid. Every era, every community, even every single group is based on precise rules that should be followed in order to effectively carry out the role of leader. This is the main point of leadership: in order to exercise it, it is necessary to observe the shared rules, which vary according to the context. In fact, they are different if you want to lead an entrepreneurs’ association or a student collective. Certainly some characteristics, such as the courage of Winston Churchill and the humanity of Marcus Aurelius, are still fundamental today for exercising leadership.
Leadership also has a dark side, which one?
The management of power, as Pope Francis said very effectively, “is like drinking gin on an empty stomach”: it makes you dizzy, it makes you lose your balance. Several scientific studies have studied this phenomenon at a biological level. Power “fogs” mirror neurons, i.e. those responsible for empathy and therefore for understanding the other. Managing large responsibilities is therefore a somewhat “weary” job.
How can we vaccinate ourselves from this risk?
Science comes to our rescue here too: we cannot do it alone, the only antidote is to have someone next to us capable of keeping us grounded, of bringing us back to our humanity, of even saying no. For Winston Churchill, for example, the role of the wife was important, in other cases it can be a collaborator, a family member, a friend. It’s important to keep them close. The ancient Romans, as is known, had institutionalized this role. When generals, returning in triumph after a military victory, were greeted by the crowd, there was a risk that they would “go to their heads”. For this they were accompanied by one of the humblest slaves, who whispered in their ear: “remember that you are a man”. It’s an important role that shouldn’t be underestimated.”
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