The discussion at this meeting of the Former Aspen Junior Fellows got underway with the observation that leadership, unlike management, is not a matter of technique. It is thus a rare quality, and, in the view of some the participants, difficult to instill. Nevertheless, by anticipating the future and capitalizing on past experience, leadership is crucial for progress. The historically-enduring values of leadership are well-recognized, namely: credibility, integrity and responsibility. It was noted, however, that other values have lost their meaning in a globalized world with an ever-increasing pace of change – in short, in a world of wider horizons but condensed time. This is the case, for instance, with loyalty to a single firm, once a necessary precondition to “getting ahead”, but now a value replaced by employability, fueled by geographic, intellectual and interfirm mobility.
It was stressed that a modern leader must know how to encourage an interplay between different worldviews, schools of knowledge, and cultures, and be able to educe value from complexity and interdependencies. He or she must be realistic, and therefore avoid indulging in nostalgia of the past (such as the replication of models that are no longer current), or drifting towards utopian visions of the future. Several participants laid emphasis on the need for leaders to be able to express the truth, whilst others pointed to the risks inherent in transparent communications of the truth in a society fraught with media manipulation.
The discussions then turned to a consideration of the question of whether leadership is an innate quality or one that can be instilled through education and training, and if the latter, how this might be achieved. Humanism and the honing of critical faculties were seen by the participants as two key resources in the training and development of any modern leader, who must have a cross-disciplinary approach in dealing with complexity and making contentious decisions. It was felt that Italy’s specialized senior high schools have a pivotal role to play in this regard, representing as they do a level of educational excellence that stands up favorably to European comparison. One shortcoming of the Italian education system acknowledged by those in attendance is its limited capacity to recognize (and hence single out) leadership or talent showing leadership promise. A further limitation identified as regards the development of responsible leaders in Italy is the consensus trap: leaders (whether business, political or professional) are obliged by stakeholders to achieve objectives with a short-term pay-off, at the expense of long-term reform and improvement. The participants called for a more cooperative and less competitive leadership, capable of also breaking down the glass ceilings that limit women’s participation in senior management decision-making. In conclusion, it was noted that there remains a dichotomous tension between the two great contemporary values of equality, on the one hand, and elite leadership stemming from competitive selection on the other. It was suggested that this tension could be mitigated by the accountability of leaders and the role model they provide.
