Large and In Charge

When you think of leadership, what are the key words that come to mind?

Most will make a list that includes: Powerful, Capable, Confident, Ambitious, Risk Taker, Effective, Charismatic, and so on.

The discussion continues on blogs and in articles about what constitutes effective leadership, what we need to include in effective leadership training, and what to look for in mentors, coaches, and managers who can qualify as leaders of choice.

There is the “great man theory of leadership” which exemplifies leaders who have been the stuff of books or make it to the top of any Google page on leadership. There are the leaders who talk a great game and then may lose out on follow-through that is often not seen for years. There are the leaders who seem bland and boring who, like the tortoise, come from behind and make things happen in the last inning.

We spend so much time wanting a cookbook easy, simple recipe of leadership, that we forget that behind the word is a complexity of human emotions and challenges that need to be considered and addressed.

Leaders who are worth the name are those who really don’t covet the title. They are the ones who, throughout their lives, are ready and willing to make deep-seated changes rather than hold on to old beliefs. They are those who value freedom and are willing to give up the front row seat for someone else to have a better view. They are the ones who can take the long view and understand that tough decisions of today, the ones that may be unpopular, are just exactly the ones that will have a positive impact on generations in the future, who may never even know their names.

Executive leadership development programs that help us define real leadership are those that force us to ask the important questions about who we revere and what makes these people so remarkable.

Real leaders are pioneers who help us all understand the long view, taking into consideration:

• Everything is connected to everything else and social situations, politics and ecological realities are part of the same piece of cloth.
• There is no such thing as a free lunch and we need to consider best use of resources as we make decisions about what to build and buy for the sake of the future.
• Powerful ideas can come from anyone if we are just willing to listen.
• Continuous growth leads to disaster and anything that has runaway growth can become like a cancer.
• A profound shift is required in how we perceive our relatedness so that competition can give way to collaboration in all business sectors.

Effective leaders of this century are those who know that leadership is a collective contribution, rather than a man or woman who wins awards. The smartest people in the room are those who know that too much of anything, including oxygen, becomes toxic and that to stand in the middle of the fire of commentary and continue to help us take the long view and not run away, is a master mark of true leadership.