Annan: Personality Traits and Type

Annan's personality traits of upholding tolerance for different points of view, listening to others, being a team builder, and maintaining the capacity to see the big picture, place him into a flexible and pragmatic personality type. Annan fits well into the Milton Rokeach model of openmindedness, able to address cognitive complexities and the ability to seek differentiated information about others. He never really sought power for its own sake. And, once he took office he understood the limitations on his power. His motivations did not include power, but definitely leaned toward goal achievement and affiliation with his team. He used his position to promote the values of the UN, and not his own ego. He had a strong sense of efficacy demonstrated by his constant efforts at strategically advancing norms and holding state leaders accountable. He was innovative while in office, constantly creating new structures, like the Global Compact, the UN Funds to fight HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis, and the Millennium Development Goals. His efforts at reforming management within the Secretariat were to create greater transparency, better communication, remove the secrecy and the authoritarian framework of the past, and delegate responsibilities and trust. While some of these characteristics might be seen as handing off responsibility, Annan was a team player who trusted those around him. He was not distant from decision-making, but was very interested in governance and was not easily manipulated. He listened to his advisers and took their advice, but he ultimately made the decisions. He was always curious to learn about other points of view and other cultures, saying that you cannot impose a solution on people; it must evolve out of their own understandings. He was pragmatic in his strategy to build consensus and carefully waiting for the right timing to press an issue. If there is a fault, it might be his willingness to trust those around him too much and leave them do their work. In the Oil-for-Food crisis, the Volcker report accused him of not forcefully overseeing the process. But that was not his style. He trusted the leaders of the Office of the Iraq Programme (OIP) to do their jobs and he trusted the Security Council's 661 Committee to do theirs. We now know that did not happen.

As a team decision maker, Annan utilized a collegial management model. His creation of his Senior Management Group and the Executive Committee on Peace and Security demonstrate that model. Advisers like Ibrahim Gambari confirm that these bodies were really joint efforts and not just window dressing. Annan's self-confidence and desire to work as a team follows this tradition.

While understanding the formation of personality, how it is shaped, and the linkage between personality and decision making, it is a much bigger leap of uncertainty to be able to predict decisions in future unknown environments. Nevertheless, increasing our understanding can perhaps benefit how we select our leaders, deal with them in diplomatic situations, or even offer opportunities for self-examination. While Kofi Annan's dignity, charisma, and support for UN values brought him great respect among some in the international community, others resented his overreach and even defiance in the face of some Member States. On the extreme, some even hated him. Yet, his identification with the Secretariat staff always made him conscious of keeping up morale and he was appreciated for the respect he gave in that regard. On the day that he left office right before the holidays at the end of December in 2006, he announced that he would say goodbye to the staff in the large UN cafeteria on the main floor of the UN headquarters in New York. I had an office in the Dag Hammarskjöld Library at the time and intended to go to the reception in the cafeteria but when I approached the hallway to the cafeteria I was met with an overwhelming crowd of staff members coming from all directions, even from across the street on First Avenue where many of the offices were located. Lines were out the doors to the UN and filled the hallways. It was impossible, even going early, to get into the cafeteria. Security guards were only letting people in when someone came out. Finally, Kofi Annan came out into the hallway and went down the line of everyone there, shaking hands with all who came to say goodbye. Even he was overwhelmed.

Perhaps some shared the same sentiment as this person attending an off-the-cuff Q and A:

Mr. Secretary-General, first, if you will allow me, I will just make a brief comment and then I will ask a question. My comment is this -- there are very few people ever in history who are seen as embodying in dedication to the betterment of all mankind and very few people who, when they are seen as the embodiment of dedication to all mankind do it with humility and grace, but I suspect that I speak for almost everyone in this room when I say that you are that embodiment and we thank you very much.⁴¹

This comment was made in May 2001, a few months before Kofi Annan and the United Nations were given the Nobel Peace Prize in the fall of 2001. However, a shadow fell over the announcement and the award ceremony. The horrific events of September 11, 2001, had taken place only a few weeks before the announcement of the Nobel Prize and the award was lost in the media frenzy of the time. Nevertheless, Kofi Annan still played a leadership role in international affairs. Known for his skills at mediation and the respect he retained internationally, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon named Annan in spring 2012 as the Special Envoy of the UN and the League of Arab States to find a peaceful solution to the conflict in Syria. His skills and motivation to seek a mediated peaceful solution to the conflict emanate from his personality as it developed through his family and cultural experiences growing up in Ghana. He served as envoy for six months before he stepped down, saying that he had “lost his team on the road to Damascus,” referring to the divisiveness within the UN Security Council.

In summary, Kofi Annan is known for his support of the “peoples” of the world, returning the focus of the UN to the words stated in the opening to the UN Charter: “We, the Peoples of the United Nations.” His optimism and his achievement motivation enabled him tobelieve that peaceful solutions are possible but his sense of reality of the situational context also grounded him in the possible. As a proponent of human rights, he used his position as a world leader to give a voice to the voiceless and to set an agenda for the UN in the Millennium Development Goals to offer hope to the most vulnerable. As a norm entrepreneur, he has left his imprint through such initiatives as humanitarian intervention, the Global Compact to bring the business community into great harmony with the human rights goals of the UN, and his continued support for the rule of law. Through various key moments in his life, people recognized Kofi Annan’s capacities for leadership, but how he applied these skills ultimately depended on his internal absorption of these qualities and how he perceived the situational context surrounding him.

Notes:
^41. Exchange between the Secretary-General and the UN Association of Greater Boston, on May 20, 2001, in The Collected Papers of Secretary-General Kofi Annan: UN Secretary-General, 1997-2006, by Jean Krasno (editor), (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2012), pages 1490-1494.