Leadership
The Heart of Business – Leadership
By Craig Galati
Merriam-Webster defines leadership as:
- The office or position of a leader
- Capacity to lead
- The act or instance of leading
While I don’t want to disagree with the Merriam Brothers or Noah Webster, I subscribe to a much fuller definition of leadership. In my opinion, leadership occurs in those moments when we demonstrate our capacity to chart direction, understand situations, ask questions, connect independent thought and engage others to accomplish things greater than we can accomplish on our own. Leadership in most organizations is not very well understood. To help with this, I would like to dispel some common misconceptions regarding leadership.
- Leadership is management.
Many people confuse leadership with management. Management is the act of controlling processes, which include events, schedules, workflow, and outcome. However, people are different. People have the free will to act independently. Therefore, you cannot truly manage people; you can only manage the processes they work within. Good leadership occurs when people become engaged, perhaps even inspired, but most often encouraged towards a greater cause, purpose or vision. A good leader can clearly articulate this purpose or vision so others will choose to pursue that shared future state.
- Leadership is granted with authority.
In many organizations, people confuse authority and leadership. Just because you have the authority through position or ownership doesn’t necessarily grant you leadership. Remember, leadership cannot be present if people do not want to engage or follow the charted direction or vision. Forcing leadership through authority isn’t much different than telling our children, “Because I said so!”
- Leadership happens only at the top.
Some of the best leaders whom I have worked with were not at the top of the traditional hierarchy of their organizations. They were people who worked at many levels of each organization who could clearly see a direction, were able to communicate that direction, and engage people to get there. In his book, The Seven Habits of High Effective People, Stephen Covey tells a story of an individual who was so relied upon that the perceived leadership rarely made a decision without his advice or counsel. Who was demonstrating leadership in that situation?
- Leaders have all the answers.
In many cases, leaders do not have all the answers. The essence of leadership is being out front, usually in uncharted territory, trying to articulate potential scenarios of the future. In this place, there usually are no immediate answers. What I’ve experienced is that the best leaders are those who ask the best questions—questions that help us discover the right answer or path for our organizations. Leaders chart the way from the known into the perceived unknown. This path is rarely found by thinking we already have the answers. Next week we will explore other characteristics of leadership such as empathy, intuition, and reflection. Questions for thought:
- What have you done to create an environment for leadership to emerge in your organization?
- Are there leaders in your organization whose energy and ability is not full tapped?
Until next week . . . Craig