Leadership is a topic that comes up a great deal: what makes a great leader, how to be a great leader, the importance of great leadership in business in order for it to really thrive.
There’s a great new Twitter chat going on, started by Steve Woodruff and Lisa Petrilli around leadership. My friend Terry Starbucker writes a fantastic blog that talks about leadership and guidance a lot, and he has some wonderful perspective. Millions upon millions of books have been written and sold on the topic.
But I’ve also noticed a rather…unsettling (?) trend or discussion.
We’re demanding to be led. Or rather, we’re insisting that true change happens from the top, down. That leaders need to establish culture precedent. That they have to inspire us. That leadership is something we all must learn to do, but that those someones over there need to prove themselves worthy of being leaders in their own right. That we, the brilliant and the mighty masses, are the court of opinion that determines the value of a leader so that we might justify our discipleship.
But the true question: Are we willing to be led?
I don’t mean being passively clipped to a string and being mindlessly guided down a path. I don’t mean looking for someone to tell us what to do and blindly following where they point.
I mean are we willing to be inspired? Are our minds open to changing, to learning, to questioning? Are we sometimes willing to surrender our own position at the front of the class in order to step aside and hear what someone else has to say, share, or convey?
We can’t all be lead dogs all the time. I would submit that leadership – like so many other things in business – is a mutual relationship. One cannot lead something or someone that refuses to be led. Dictatorship isn’t a super sustainable business strategy.
But even those of us that purport to have some kind of knowledge, some expertise that we can share with others, even we need to be willing to surrender to leadership sometimes that is not our own. To have the faith or the open-mindedness to recognize that we may blaze trails indeed, but that some paths being laid for us are worthy of following. That there are ideas other than our own that need no reinvention, but perhaps simply need momentum that we can help create.
Leadership can come from within. It can come from inside the organization, or at the top of it. We can find it in the corners of our social groups and our relationships. But leaders cannot exist without those that can happily and enthusiastically follow. And if we hope to be leaders ourselves in some way, we need too to demonstrate that our ability to inspire others is balanced only by our ability to be so moved.
Are you willing to be led?
It seems like if you’re more self- aware, you’re more willing to have your mind changed and follow great leaders. We all have our habits and biases, and being able to break out of them can help an individual and a business change. I just got in a conversation a few days ago where I realized that my self image did not match what my co-workers thought of me. Do you have any advice on how to be more self-aware in general?
What a great question. How to be more self-aware. I’m going to have to chew on that, because I don’t know that I’ve ever thought it through in those terms. I’d like to think I’m pretty self-aware, but not sure I’ve ever paid attention to *how* I do that (or if I can even help it). Let me think on that one.
I like everything about this post. I’ve thought this a lot. In my organization — or any job for that matter, there is a mix of knowledge and within that mix everyone has a particular thing they know more about than other people.
In that, sometimes people get the idea that if someone knows less than they do about one subject, then they aren’t qualified to lead them. In my organization, they recently broke out of the mindset that a female couldn’t be a lead. Now we have one and she is PHENOMENAL. She has to lead me and I’m 100x more technical than her. I follow her lead without a single murmur because even if she doesn’t have all the technical knowledge I have, she is a good leader and I can see that leadership quality in her.
Maybe one question we can ask is how do we determine what makes a good leader. More often that not, I find that knowledge isn’t leadership. A title or position on the org chart isn’t leadership. It seems to be more and more a matter of having and wielding influence in such a way that people *ask* you to step up front and show them the way rather than people having to fight and usurp and grasp every little bit of “power” they can get….
… sorry about the long thought there. It’s a sensitive thing to me. Not in a negative, but just close to my heart.
Leadership can be a lonely journey within a team environment. It sounds romantic to “be a leader” and “lead the charge” but it’s not that sample as we know. The temptation of covering one’s backside or the promise of more compensation or the tug of power can cause some to get lost on their way to a business title. Some say leaders are born, others say those skills can be acquired but more to your point, are we willing to lead AND follow and that is where the corporate ladder climbers tend to stumble.
In my personal experience, very few people, if any at all, accept to be led blindly. You need to provide them evidence that your way of doing things is, most of the times, the right one. Evidence of your good actions bring authority, respect towards your persona. Those people will be gladly led by you at this point.
However, some people are too arrogant to willingly admit you’ll ever be right. Those are the people I’d never want in my team.
In grad school I took a class on “leadership.” I thought it was going to be a blow-off class but it ended up being one of the most interesting experiences i had and led to a lifetime study of leaderhip. One of the concepts in the class was the idea of being a good follower. There really is an ideal profile of a follower and it takes some leadership skills in its own right, especially if there is discord in a group. I had not thought about this for a long time until I read your post. A very interesting idea though isn’t it? Thanks Amber!
I’d say a great leader knows his/her own strengths and knows when it’s appropriate to either lead or step away and follow someone else if the situation warrants.
I am reminded of the book “The Art of Possibility.” the authors write of “leading from the back of the room”. The analogy they use is an orchestra conductor. At times, the conductor steps down from the stage and lets the orchestra question, challenge and lead themselves.
I’m willing to learn and I’m willing to follow. But no, I do not see myself as ‘being led’ – that implies the person leading is commanding me.
I *choose* to follow. But I’ll never give up my freedom to make that choice.
Same idea, different viewpoint…
Honestly, that sounds like more of an issue with you, there is nothing wrong with being led, if you want to follow. I am not a follower of drones, but I will take advice from those with more experience and knowledge.
With a staff team of over 120, I often feel that I am led all the time. One of my greatest lessons in creating a culture that we can all thrive in is consistent behavior. An individual cannot necessarily create a culture, it takes consistent behavior founded in an articulated and oft communicated vision from which a great culture grows. Of course inconsistent behavior or consistent negative behavior results in a culture that stagnates, refuses to grow or in poor customer experiences. A seasoned leader knows when to step back in the pack — let them shine, struggle, grow, risk, feel, succeed, stumble, fail, and lead. Organizational sustainability can be nurtured and curated through leadership experiences rather than some lame org chart.
So looking forward to your book. Great post!
With a staff team of over 120, I often feel that I am led all the time. One of my greatest lessons in creating a culture that we can all thrive in is consistent behavior. An individual cannot necessarily create a culture, it takes consistent behavior founded in an articulated and oft communicated vision from which a great culture grows. Of course inconsistent behavior or consistent negative behavior results in a culture that stagnates, refuses to grow or in poor customer experiences. A seasoned leader knows when to step back in the pack — let them shine, struggle, grow, risk, feel, succeed, stumble, fail, and lead. Organizational sustainability can be nurtured and curated through leadership experiences rather than some lame org chart.
So looking forward to your book. Great post!
With a staff team of over 120, I often feel that I am led all the time. One of my greatest lessons in creating a culture that we can all thrive in is consistent behavior. An individual cannot necessarily create a culture, it takes consistent behavior founded in an articulated and oft communicated vision from which a great culture grows. Of course inconsistent behavior or consistent negative behavior results in a culture that stagnates, refuses to grow or in poor customer experiences. A seasoned leader knows when to step back in the pack — let them shine, struggle, grow, risk, feel, succeed, stumble, fail, and lead. Organizational sustainability can be nurtured and curated through leadership experiences rather than some lame org chart.
So looking forward to your book. Great post!
I see that willingness to be led comes from trust. I mean, what doesn’t come from trust? But often, we say we’re more than willing to have someone come and show us a better way or share their expertise for us to use and be guided by, but where we get lost is in trusting that their ideas actually *are* better than ours and *will* succeed. And THEN, that falls into the arena of control — we don’t trust because we don’t want to lose control and/or fail. So, trust, and letting go of fear or failure and loss of control are all part of the mix. And, of course, ego.
And on the other side, there’s the unwillingness to lead (or fear of leading?). You’re a natural leader, and it’d be interesting to hear your thoughts on folks who struggle with leading. How do you (meaning, the collective “you”) handle those people? I have more questions and thoughts, but they’re still mushy and unclear. Maybe I’ll bug you sometime at a later date about them. 😉
Fantastic post, Amber.
Love this topic. In my “leading & organizing media companies” grad school class at this week, Professor Owen Youngman of Medill spoke of his success in leading by taking a position of ambiguity (he worked at the Chicago Tribune for nearly 30 years). He said that instead of leading by telling, he states the problem he is trying to solve, admits he doesn’t know the answer and asks for a solution. This way, people he is managing are more eager to please and aren’t just trying to come up with an answer he wants to hear – they are open to every possibility. It really resonated with me and many of my classmates.
It has been said it be a good leader that you must 1st be a good follower. I think because so much can be learned about leadership from followership. I have been able to take many lesson’s whether they are good or bad and put them into practice. Thanks for the thoughts
Amber, what really resonates for me is the idea of being open to others, to new ideas. Once you have been leading it is all too easy to become comfortable, for lack of a better term set in your ways. True leaders inspire but I believe they are also great facilitators they bring the best out in others. And this makes us all better. By the way I think you actually do this well. Thanks for sharing.
Joe
In rapidly growing and changing groups, the participants should be willing to be led and set a standard early on that they are not willing to be misled.. The best communicators I’ve worked with were not able to scale the message(s) beyond around a thousand people- once you see that you’re growing beyond say a hundred people, you need to set up natural sized groups of under 125 people that revolve around a common cause. Then, the group leaders can manage the message and you can set policies, look ahead and plan, which separates around 95% of the leaders from the rest.
Most “leaders” are likely to tell you that they aren’t setting out to lead, but rather setting out to serve others and that the result of doing so is regard for their leadership. Your article seems to suggest this, but I would argue it is more about service to others than “being led”. Good stuff.
IT’s like that saying…in order to be a leader we have to be willing to be lead. First we must learn to follow before we can lead followers. It’s really easy to want to rush out there and take center stage, but there is a reason we need to follow first, learn the ropes, get our feet “wet”, get grounded…and then when we have the wisdom and maturity to be a leader it comes naturally as people naturally gravitate toward us. Good post!
you can’t ever lead what you are not willing to serve.. It’s an attitude and a conscious decision to submit to leadership. But it will be one that will humbly promote you.