On Leadership, James Shelley

[nikki]

(Source: Ideas, Footnotes & Revelations)
(http://www.jamesshelley.net/2011/04/lead...ey+Blog%29)



Leadership
by James Shelley, April 21, 2011


This is one of my favorite napkin doodles:

I draw a circle to represent “a goal.“
Another circle to represent “the people.“
An arrow pointing from the “people circle” to the “goal circle.”

The question: what is leadership?

What does it mean to move people — the rather finicky creatures they are — to actually do something together?

Push

Some leaders get behind the “people circle” and push it towards the goal. Well, they call it “encourage,” actually. Nelson Mandela said, “It is wise to persuade people to do things and make them think it was their own idea.”1 Classic push-leaders also find second careers as motivational speakers: “Yes, you can do it!” is their primary message.

Pull

Some leaders get in front of the “people circle” and pull everyone along, in a way that conjures up the stereotypical image of an alpha personality, perhaps something akin to a face-painted William Wallace persona. In less euphoric times these are the leaders who (in the words of John Naisbitt) settle for “finding a parade and getting ahead of it.“2 When they are actually sitting still they are busy fine-tuning endless drafts of vision, purpose, objective and mission statements.

Insiders

Some leaders like to dive into the “people circle” and “lead from within.” Disciples of Dale Carnegie and John Maxwell come quickly to mind. These are the people who are out to save corporate America one coffee appointment and “checking in on you” email at a time. Of course, we all love these kinds of leaders—and we know full well that these leaders love for us to love them too.
Or Not…

I must admit that I have burned out on these abstract concepts of leadership. If I am the crunched up end of a coffee stir stick, bouncing around the metaphorical napkin of leadership, I find myself most in sync with my convictions when I just ignore the “people circle” altogether and move myself toward “the goal” circle. Trying to manipulate and alter people’s thinking (not to mention their habits) is hard work, in fact it is an never-ending pipedream into which one can easily flush all the years of one’s working life.

Ironically, most of the leaders who we revere as our idols were individuals who did not invest their lives into trying to subvert the conscious landscape of the “people circle.” No, the greatest leaders in history have just gone after the goal because they believed in it.

And people cannot help but notice an individual with passion.

In fact, humans are almost lustful to follow an individual with an audacious, personal commitment to practical action.

Since we instinctively want to trust leaders who are really going to “make it happen” there is no leader more enticing than the one who is already doing it. We all know that the leader who cares the most is the leader who will die for the goal even if nobody else is following. Paradoxically perhaps, these are the people who become the magnetic centers of movement, change and accomplishment.

The adage is as old as the hills: if nobody follows you, you are not really a leader. The problem is that most people who call themselves leaders do not really know if anyone is following them; they are too busy trying to create alignment (something about getting the people on the bus in the right seats…) in the “people circle” in the name of “leadership” that nobody is actually doing the task. “Leadership” has become more of a psycho-persuasion exercise than doing an action that other people repeat, mimic and respond to in turn.

Doers

As an alternative to general push, pull and insider models of leadership, I want to suggest a third: go and do it and see who follows you. To really test your leadership capacity quit trying to lead people and actually try doing “the thing” you want others to do. If people come along then you have followers; then and only then are you truly a leader anyway.

The first concern of the leader is the “goal circle,” not the “people circle.” Yes, you should care deeply and genuinely for your followers — caring for those around you is indispensable — but don’t confuse your “followers” with people who you are merely trying to coerce into doing something that they would never find you yourself doing.