There are people who lead others sometimes. They go somewhere (literally or metaphorically) and other people go with them. They are leading. The moment those people stop following them, they are no longer leading. And remember, they have to be going somewhere - otherwise that's "staying in one place" not "leading". Staying in one place is not necessarily a bad thing altho it doesn't have the same ring to it and probably won't get you laid: "Hi - I'm a
Why am I being so picky? Well I think there are several things wrong with the industry that has grown up around leadership:
- It focuses on "being a leader" rather than "leading" and hence deals with characteristics & qualities rather than actions. Thinking that training courses & seminars will help you lead others more than actually, y'know, trying some leading is misplaced.
- It focuses on the individual (allegedly) doing the leading rather than the mass of people moving a direction (or more often several related directions). This allows the majority of us to disown our responsibility to lead ourselves: "I can't do this, I'm not the leader".
So what do I propose instead?
- If you want to be a leader then try some actual leading. Head off somewhere and see who comes with you. It needn't be somewhere hard to get to. If no one will come then ask them why. They may have some good reasons.
- The rest of us need to recognise that everyone's a leader. "It's not my responsibility" isn't really a good enough answer, ever. One day I may even live up to this.
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6 comments:
Matt - interesting book to read on this is by Richard Hames - The 5 Literacies of Global Leadership. It "explodes many of the conventional myths and orthodoxies surrounding Western-style celebrity leadership as a fraudulent distraction, while laying open an entirely new paradigm for facilitating positive change." You can get it from Borders but it is a little pricey.
Another one more on the academic side is Gabrielle Lakomski's "Managing without Leadership". This book dives deep into the philosophy behind leadership, management and the way our definitions of culture and knowledge effect this issue.
Good post. I'm much more into the concept of coaching and facilitating than "leadership". Who said one person has all the good ideas? Particularly in "knowledge work", everbody has something to contribute to where an organisation is going. I blogged on this a while ago at: http://delarue.net/blog/2008/06/the-idea-monopoly/
Matt, an interesting piece and a good challenge... for me, it is in part about recognising the relative intevitability of 'leadership' (or should that be management) that happens to many people, even in a newly minted career... this, in part, must contribute to something towards our current leadership fetish
I agree that the importance of leadership is probably overrated in business today. Often the lack of good organisation and management mean that any attempt at leadership is futile. Good leadership and good management go together and are supported by people who are engaged and involved in the process.
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