The Personal, Interpersonal and Professional Leadership (PiPL) Perspective

The PiPL perspective is a relatively new leadership paradigm which was developed by Prof David Smith over a period of 20 years.  PiPL acknowledges the holistic nature of human beings. PiPL does not focus primarily on the outer dispositions of a leader (charisma and personality). It strives to discover the essence of an authentic leader and of effective leadership. The Personal Leadership domain of PiPL focuses on authentic self-expression that creates value. It proposes a principle-centred, character-based, inside-out approach to change and leadership.

The PiPL perspective reiterates the truth that there are universal laws and principles which govern one’s natural and social existence. These principles are an integral part of every individual. Honesty, fairness, dignity, service and excellence are examples of such principles.

Inherent in the PiPL model is an element of constructive progression. It includes the interdependent nature and the development from personal mastery to interpersonal and consequently professional mastery. Thus, the essence and nature of PiPL can be encapsulated in Personal Leadership, Interpersonal Leadership, and Professional Leadership. These three PiPL pillars, with all their complexities, form the basis of a person’s natural reality.

THE CHALLENGES AND STRUGGLES EXECUTIVES FACE

PERSONAL CONTEXT

1. Self-confidence and assertiveness

2. Continually learning, growing and improving

3. Worry about retirement

4. Spirituality

5. Time management; over-commitment; handling stress and burnout

6. Being authentic

7. Health Problems/Wellness

8. Depression

INTERPERSONAL CONTEXT

9.   Relationships and family; balancing life tasks of love, work and friendship

10. Communication ability; listening skills

11. Building relationships; trust and mutual respect

PROFESSIONAL CONTEXT

12.  Being strategic in the midst of details (phone, fax, email)

13.  Succession planning

14.  Managing conflict; dealing with emotions

15. Delegating and empowering others to solve problems and seize opportunities

16. Letting go of control

17. Self-doubt about leadership abilities

18. Retaining and developing key contributors

19. Developing leaders

20. Performance of self and team; mobilising commitment

21. Maximising staff effectiveness while avoiding micromanagement

22. Balancing work and personal life (balancing head, heart and hand,  self-care).

23. Helping others to grow; unleashing creativity, resourcefulness and talent of workforce

24. Developing and sharing vision

25. Building an organisational culture characterised by flexibility and continuous improvement

26. Creating team spirit among departments amidst conflicts, politics, and hidden agendas

27.  Feeling that work is meaningless; job not leading anywhere; nothing to strive for anymore;

they ask “Is this all there is to life?”

The overall outcomes of facilitating the PiPL leadership model,  would include one or more of the following:

• Giving people new and useful perspectives on things that matter.
• A deeper sense of meaning and purpose in life.
• Becoming a life-long learner in the context of a learning organisation.
• An enhanced ability to balance work and personal life.
• An enhanced sense of success, significance, fulfilment, satisfaction, happiness, fun, security, and peace.
• Wholeness, or integratedness of all parts of their nature.
• An enhanced sense of wellBEing.
• Improved quality of life.
• Confidence.
• To enter a virtuous cycle of personal and professional growth.
• Resiliency and greater capacity to manage stress.
• Self-facilitation.
• To become a better leader, and not merely a ‘presider’ over a company.

Conclusion

One can see then that the PiPL approach deals with the personal side of leadership. PiPL recognises that life can be hard. It acknowledges that one must be tough to meet life on its own terms.

The role of PiPL in business and in public life is to support:

• those who make the important decisions and hold the big accountabilities,
• those who require the big buttresses in managing the harshness of life and the need they themselves have to be fortified for making the hard decisions to defend their hard choices, and to assuage their consciences.

Personal Leadership and change starts with the individual and is based on the philosophy that ‘you’ are the only person which ‘you’ have  total control over or can exert control over. So, if change is inevitable, start with yourself, your own attitude and your own (dis)comfort zone.  Personal Leadership in the context of PiPL serves as a foundation for interaction with people. Enduring and happy interpersonal and professional relationships and ultimately leadership and influence, depend on the degree of personal leadership or personal mastery attained. As Covey (1994) says, “It is futile to put personality ahead of character, to try to improve relationships with others before improving ourselves.” Personal Leadership requires awareness of and the intention to understand who we really are and what we stand for. It is directed at the discovery of where we want to go. It

also includes insight into personal problems of existence and the behaviour and values we choose in coping with these realities. The personal leader is aware of what and how s/he thinks, feels and behaves and how that relates to one’s essential self, one’s temperament and personality, one’s past and present realities, the purpose and meaning of one’s life and harmony in one’s major life dimensions, i.e. spiritual, physical, emotional, mental, social, career and finance. Authors such as Meyer (1996, p. 2), Smith (1994), Quinn (1996), Pierce and Newstrom (2003), Manning and Curtis (2003), and Skiffington and Zeus (2003), support the views stated above and add to these that an authentic personal leader should demonstrate:

• direction and purpose
• proactive behaviour
• response-ability, i.e. not to blame, to be a victim or to be reactive
• value-driven time and life management
• a burning desire and commitment to achieve one’s goals
• determined action to realise one’s potential
• principle-centred and an inside-out approach to life
• a win-win attitude to interpersonal relationships.

The Interpersonal leader would, for example, ask the question: “How can I figure out how to be free to live my life the way I want to live it and still get along well with the

people I need?” (Glasser, 1998, p. 5). For decades sociologists and psychologists and even mainstream society aligned themselves with the notion that self-actualisation was the ultimate in human achievement. PiPL however, via its interpersonal and professional wings, embraces the notion of self-transcendence as the pinnacle of optimal fulfilment and achievement. Service, caring and altruism constitute the ultimate virtue in our social reality. In Interpersonal Leadership the emphasis is on the essence of effective relationships, how to be a person of influence and on adding value to others (Smith, 2005b).

Professional Leadership, in the context of PiPL, combines character, caring and a positive attitude with professional competencies. Therefore, the PiPL view of Professional

Leadership represents a departure from the traditional view of professional effectiveness. Traditionally, professional leadership was synonymous with status, power and output

(production at all cost). Professional Leadership in a PiPL context is based on the precepts of spiritual fulfilment at work, relationship building, teamwork, mutual respect, appreciation, empathic listening, commitment towards a common vision, win-win, synergy, conf lict resolution, professional effectiveness and other related principles and values.

In the context of change management, PiPL is concerned with change from an outside-in to an inside-out life perspective. This requires a change from a blaming to a

personal responsibility attitude, a reactive to a proactive lifestyle, a ‘what’s-in-it-for-me?’ to a ‘how can I add value?’ approach, a ‘want-to-have’ to a ‘want-to-be’ attitude, a critical to a constructive team member, from win-lose to win-win agreements, and lastly from a telling and prescribing to a seeking to listen and understand attitude.

Hence, a PiPL perspective entails a study of the awareness of the fundamental problems facing mankind in the context of their personal realm, their relationships with people, and their professional environment. PiPL confirms the ability and potential of all human beings, irrespective of race, colour, gender or creed. Humans can excel and succeed, in all

dimensions of life – be it spiritually, physically, emotionally, mentally, vocationally, ecologically or in their relationships with people. Their freedom of choice, along with willpower, can unlock inner

potential. The source of, and the utilisation of one’s potential, can be viewed from a theocentric or a humanistic perspective. Whichever one chooses is a personal choice.