Hello people,
if you are like me and regularly reading articles on the web about business matters, you will for sure have checked articles that deal with leadership. Most articles are “Top 5 skills a leader should have”. “if you want to be a leader, you have to do so” etc. Skills and characteristics that usually come up are foreseen the future, knowing how to choose his/her colleagues, dynamism. crisis management and many more.
For me a leader should first and foremost inspire the people who work for him/her and make them exceed their limits. But it’s not only this attribute. I was recently reading an article about Aristotle and his three modes of persuasion or rhetorical appeals: ethos, pathos and logos. While reading about these skills it occurred to me that not only a great rhetor, but also a great leader should have these skills, which encapsulate many other usually referred skills. If Aristotle reads this post, I hope he will agree with me 😀
So what do these skills mean exactly?
Ethos means, in plain English, morality in Greek. Everybody has heard the words ethical, unethical, so ethos is the noun that all these words derive from. But ethos also includes the characteristics of integrity, credibility, honesty etc that make a great leader. Someone can argue that most CEOs or politicians are not ethical at all and that’s true, I couldn’t agree more, but this doesn’t make them great leaders. For example, if a company is doing badly, has losses and decides to lay off 1000 workers and the CEO gets a salary of a couple of millions, how does this seem to the employees? Is he in the front line? Is he ethical towards his subordinates? Can they trust them? I don’t think so.
Pathos means passion is Greek and includes the characteristics of being passionate about your work, determined and committed. Many people argue that a leader should inspire, know how to select his partners, lead by example and be in the frontline. All these attributes are included in being passionate about your work. If you lack passion and see it just as a job you have to do, then you lose interest and can’t be a leader in your field. When choosing a career, you have to think deep and understand what are you really passionate about, because this is the only way you can go the extra mile and shine. Certainly not all of us are passionate or could follow their dreams and desires, but at least trying can elevate you and inspire others to follow you.
Logos is quite difficult to translate in English. Logic derives from it, pathology, criminology and many more. Quite simple it’s the use of words, the verbal communication skills. The term is so broad but let’s keep to the way people express themselves. Now a great leader must be able to convey his message to his people. That’s fundamental and the most difficult skill to have. There are many people who are great writers but can’t utter a single word in front of a crowd. A leader has to be ready to talk to others and persuade them. And this can be done not by using “sterile” corporate speeches but words that can appeal to the audience. Just imagine Winston Churchill giving his famous speech before the Battle of Britain. If he used today’s corporate and sterile words, would he be able to convey his message and boost his country’s morale? Being able to master the art of being a rhetor is very difficult but it can be done for sure. The first step is to write your own speeches and not count on others. If you are not able to do it by yourself, you can’t regard yourself a true leader.
Being a true leader means having many skills and characteristics but personally I think that only three are needed: ethos, pathos and logos. Aristotle used these skills as modes of persuasion and I agree. However, I truly believe that these are key skills for a leader too. I would love to know what you are thinking of it. Please leave your comments and I will try to answer them all.
Having talked so much about leadership, succeeding etc I haven’t elaborated on the reasons of failure for many companies. This will be the topic of my next post!
Savvas Kosmidis 