Thoughts on Leadership

My first memory of leadership has to be when my older brother of nearly 5 was the leader marching around the house trailing Cheerios along his path, with my twin sister and me following behind, shrieking and laughing while stepping on and crushing as many of those little circles as we could!

Yet, is anyone who has willing followers really a leader? Does simply having followers make for an effective leader? I daresay that my mother probably thought that my brother had been very successful when our actions caused her to continue to find cheerios in the depth of the couch pockets for a long time afterward. But what is authentic leadership about?

There has to be something within the leader that urges them to express themselves by speech, written words, pictorial vision, stance, or action that demands a reaction from others. And they have to do it without fear of consequences. By doing so, that confidence in their belief is often the attraction to draw others to them. Sometimes that connection with others is short-lived, mainly if a problem or situation has been solved. Other times, conflicts without resolution can go on forever without an agreeable ending in sight.

Most good leaders develop a sense of power that is positive when used for the benefit of others. If not, their influence can lead to negative behavior, such as when it affords them financial gain at the expense of others or their power creates a blindness to morality or the code of ethics, thereby expressing a sense of entitlement that has no bounds. We see this when many engaged in politics and sports cross those lines. As a whole, we as a society equate leadership with power conveyed as money power. That limits us from viewing leadership as a whole, making that role less than an excellent thing.

Those of us that consider someone else a true leader usually can relate and agree with the leader’s philosophy in some way. For me, our world’s true leaders are those who recognize that we are all one—each the other—and go about their business in a less showy manner—for example, Mother Theresa.

The most significant concern I have is seeing our supposed leaders in the media with a plan of their own who respond to any contrasting ideas in an accusatory, unkind, and disingenuous way toward others who disagree with them. There is a broadening sense that being uncivil about opposing views is okay, which is anything but what a true leader is or has been in the past.

According to Susan Tardanico, CEO in Residence at the Center for Creative Leadership, the Common Traits of a Courageous and Effective Leader are the following.

1. Seek feedback and listen.
2. Say what needs to be said.
3. Encourage push-back
4. Take action on performance issues.
5. Communicate openly and frequently.
6. Lead change.
7. Make decisions and move forward.
8. Give credit to others.
9. Hold people (and yourself) accountable.

When I consider these various traits, I wonder if they also need to be applied to become a Courageous and Effective follower. What do you think?