Finding the power to inspire

Welcome to the 2011 edition of Portraits in Leadership. Here, you’ll find insights on leadership from 20 of Canada’s most accomplished business executives. As we prepared this package, I was struck by how certain themes repeated themselves in the leaders’ comments. Many of them spoke about the importance of listening, the value of co-operation and the need for decisive action. But the characteristic they most often claimed a leader must posses is also the one that is most difficult to define—the power to inspire others.

Not surprisingly, this is also the characteristic employees most value in their superiors. A study conducted by Randstad, a global human-resources company, found 41% of workers thought the ability to “create and share an engaging vision for the future” was the most important attribute of an effective leader, compared with just 21% who valued communication skills and 19% who felt co-operation was most crucial. Of course, saying this is an important quality is easy. Explaining how to inspire people is incredibly hard. If we each think about the people who motivated us in our own lives, it becomes clear that there are myriad ways to be inspirational, but that each leader does it in her or his own way. To mimic a cherished role model risks becoming a poor imitation of them.

Unlike other business skills, there is no clear blueprint for inspiring. It requires a mixture of savvy, charisma and intelligence that some people acquire through years of experience. A lucky handful possess it as an innate gift.

Of course, there are ways to nurture “the vision thing,” as one U.S. president infamously called it. And we’re delighted to once again have partnered on this project with the Ted Rogers Leadership Centre, which is at the forefront of developing the next generation of inspirational leaders in this country.

On behalf of Canadian Business, I’d also like to sincerely thank our sponsors, IBM, Audi and The Glenlivet for their generous and ongoing support of this editorial feature. I would also like to thank the impressive group of business leaders who agreed to share with us their power to inspire. - James Cowan, interim editor-in-chief, Canadian Business

A message from IBM Canada's Bruce Ross

Presented by the Ted Rogers Leadership Centre, Ryerson University

Leadership has never been so important or so challenging as it is today. Today’s leaders have to navigate complexity, rapid change, unpredictable markets, global interconnectedness and evolving regulatory environments as never before. That takes skill, knowledge, creativity and strength. And it requires a commitment to developing those skills in the next generation coming along. That’s what Ted Rogers believed, and that is the guiding philosophy behind the Ted Rogers Leadership Centre at Ryerson University.

The Ted Rogers Leadership Centre develops the skills that leaders need to excel in the organizations of today and tomorrow. We do that by combining academic and practical approaches, giving students opportunities to learn how they can become tomorrow’s leaders. As well, the centre provides alumni and leaders from different sectors with a forum to better understand the challenges and opportunities that define our modern economies, and what it will take to drive even greater success in the future.