Skills Approach to Leadership Theory: John F Kennedy
When it comes to leadership, more than a few people come to mind. Leaders such as Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, even Genghis Khan and Stalin were leaders. Leaders can be good or destructive as you can see, however, I will leave the determination of who is which up to you.
Today, I will be reviewing one leader from a specific perspective, that of the Skills Approach theory. The Skills approach takes a look at leaders from a behavior perspective which differs from Trait theory in that, “Skills are what leaders can accomplish, whereas traits are leaders who are (i.e., their innate characteristics).” (Northouse, 2019)
With this in mind, my review will be done on the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy. While I could most likely quote his biography verbatim, having read several books on the man, this will be an approach that will break down Kennedy’s skills – something to both learn from and possibly emulate.
The Skills Approach was advanced as a leader-centric theory for the development of leaders (developable skills) and was hoped to be something that would be widely transferable throughout organizations and people.
Robert Katz developed a Three-Skill approach with technical, human and conceptual skills needed for effective administration (Katz, 1955). Years later, Mumford, Zaccaro, Harding, Jacobs, & Fleishman (2000) and Yammarino (2000) developed a more comprehensive model of leadership that relied on a leader’s ability to solve complex organizational problems (Northouse, 2019) I will use the latter in my analysis and review of President Kennedy.
In the skills model, two of the questions commonly asked are; “How do leaders’ individual characteristics, career experiences, and environmental influences affect their job performance?” and “What specific skills do high-performing leaders exhibit?”
Here is some background (history) of JFK: Serving in the navy as a commander of a PT (patrol torpedo) boat, his boat was struck by a Japanese destroyer and sunk. Behind enemy lines, John led his men back to safety and was awarded the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps Medal for heroism. Rather than take a medical discharge, JFK returned to active command at his own request. (Britannica.com)
John’s father, Joseph groomed the Kennedy family for a place in politics. After his older brother Joe was killed during the war, next in line John took over the aspirations of a continuing Kennedy name in politics.
Returning home, JFK never lost an election, moving from Congressman to Senator to President. Along the way, JFK stood as his own man, going against several policies that had failed before with sound reasoning and championing the cause of the middle-class and the poor.
While a Senator, Kennedy had back surgery and remained strapped to a board for 6 months. During that recovery, he wrote “Profiles in Courage” (1956), a book on eight American political leaders who had defied popular opinion in matters of conscience. It won a Pulitzer Prize in 1957.
As we can see, JFK’s individual characteristics of problem-solving, motivation and personality (all components of the Skills Model, see below – (Mumford, et al, 2000), served him well, while at the same time, his career experiences helped to build the man that would become President.
Let’s review some other Skills components of John F Kennedy:
Motivation: John’s father, Joseph, instilled a “winning is everything” attitude in all his children and taught his children to be fierce competitors. John never backed down from a principle and pushed forward in all manner of things – including things others thought impossible – with much success. His sister, Eunice Shriver, founder of the Special Olympics, once said, “I was twenty-four before I knew I didn’t have to win something every day.” (biography.com) It was this spirit, instilled in John that would motivate him beyond illness, injury, or obstacle.
Crystallized Cognitive Ability (knowledge acquisition) (Pennsylvania State University, 2021): While Kennedy was not the most ambitious student, he was well read and excelled at any class that was to his liking (History and English). As an example, as John became an upperclassman, he became more serious about his studies, choosing to write a book about why Britain was so unprepared to fight Germany in World War II. His analysis of the subject was so well received, that upon his graduation, the analysis was published as a book, titled, “Why England Slept”, selling more than 80,000 copies. (biography.com)
I think I should like to save some information for another blog, but I could continue on for quite a while. I will choose to close this blog out with another trait that Kennedy had in spades, Personality.
No matter where he went, John Kennedy was well loved, fun and carried a brilliant smile. Always outgoing, his warmth and charisma – along with that intellect described above, appealed to a huge majority of people and he succeed in becoming the youngest President ever, taking the office at the age of 42.
He succeeded as a Liberal in a time of great conservatism. When possible, go online and listen to some of his speeches. Speeches such as his famous “Moon Speech”, his Inaugural Speech which brought his famous quote of, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country, and then, while Governor George Wallace blocked the entrance to a school to keep black children out, President Kennedy sent in the National Guard to remove him and gave this amazing speech. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8R8h2l35VsI
Those that do not know the man, but later learn of his character are deeply saddened at the thought of his being taken so early in his life.
I have taken a few trips in my lifetime, to some very special places, but one of the most profound trips in my memory was the trip to Boston in 2014. There I spent most of the morning and afternoon at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum on Columbia Point. Listening to his speeches and following his path through life and eventually to death, I was amazed at the man and his character, strength and encouragement of the human spirit. If you haven’t been, I highly recommend it.
References:
Northouse, P.G. (2019). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Sage Publications.
The Pennsylvania State University. (2021). Modules. Psych 485. https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2110258/modules.
https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2110258/modules/items/30985902
Mumford, M.D., Zaccaro, S.J., Harding, F.D., Jacobs, T.O., & Fleishman, E.A. (2000). Leadership skills for a changing world: Solving complex social problems. Leadership Quarterly, 11(1), 11-35.
Yammarino, F.J. (2000). Leadership skills: Introduction and overview. Leadership Quarterly, 11(1), 5-9.
Katz, R.L. (1955). Skills of an effective administrator. Harvard Business Review, 33(1), 33-42.
Jfklibrary.org/visit-museum
Youtube.com, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8R8h2l35VsI
Biography.com, https://www.biography.com/us-president/john-f-kennedy
Britannica.com, https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-F-Kennedy