Jan-Benedict Steenkamp, Knox Massey Distinguished Professor of Marketing and Leadership in the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School, on the history of leaders.
Jan-Benedict Steenkamp believes his interest in history and leadership may be genetic. As a child and preteen growing up in the Netherlands he was already fascinated with history and interested in learning about world leaders. His favorite book was a biography of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who is a very important figure in the Netherlands due to his role in ending Nazi occupation of the Netherlands during World War II. Steenkamp read FDR’s biography eight times and had largely memorized it by the time he reached adolescence.
His early years spent reading biographies sparked a lifelong interest in leadership, history and economics. Today, Steenkamp’s research and teaching focuses on branding and leadership. He has taught an undergraduate business course on global branding and various other branding and leadership courses, where he teaches Carolina business students how to grow as leaders.
How do we define leadership throughout history, and how can the trait be cultivated in aspiring leaders?
STEENKAMP: Leadership is the ability to get people to do what you want them to do, and to do it well. Leadership itself is morally neutral, in the sense that we have many examples of impactful leaders (such as Hitler or Putin) who clearly have terrible morals. As I study leadership, I take my cue from people who have some degree of morality in their leadership, though even these people aren’t saintlike, and there are usually large segments of the population who dislike them or disagree with them.
All leaders have a few things in common. First, they must have grit. Grit is the emotional and psychological ability to continue to do something even if it is very hard and fraught with disappointments and failures. In all my research, I’ve never come across an example of an impactful leader who didn’t have grit. The second thing that all leaders need to possess is a clear vision. Ideally, this is a vision both of where to go, and how to get there with the resources at your disposal. Though some leaders excel at knowing where they want to go without having a realistic sense of how to get there, and some are very effective at getting things done without having a clear picture of their end goal.
For those who aspire to lead, it’s important first to think strategically about the future and identify what they want to achieve in their lives. The second step is then to identify the skills, resources, and action steps required to achieve this goal. It’s important for aspiring leaders (such as students) to have a realistic view of themselves and their strengths and weaknesses.
There are seven different leadership styles – adaptive, persuasive, directive, disruptive, authentic, servant and charismatic – that have been exemplified by different leaders throughout history. In my leadership courses, students take an assessment to identify their natural leadership style and receive guidance on how to make their personal style work best. It’s important to know one’s leadership style, because a person can improve upon the leadership style that comes naturally to them, but it is very difficult to develop a leadership style that doesn’t come naturally.
There are leadership opportunities on campus, in churches, in volunteer organizations, and at every level of a company. Anyone who makes their way to the top of an organization had to prove their ability to lead over and over again at each step along the way to the top, so it is never too early to begin cultivating leadership. Our students, for example, can begin today, if they haven’t already done so!
As told to Audrey Smith
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