Leadership is easy to say something about. It is another thing entirely to talk about leadership in a way that makes it tangible and definitive. There is a fog that often surrounds and obscures the concept. Many think they know about it or can recognize it, yet the error rate seems high.
This confusion creates many problems, chief of which can be summed up with: what makes me think that I know anything about leadership? If the concept is elusive and hard to comprehend, could I not be just another person succumbed to the delusion that leadership is something which I understand or can recognize? Yes. It’s possible. You, reader, should keep a healthy skepticism about me or anyone claiming to tell you about leadership.
Here is part of my professional background which will, if not lend credibility to what I write, at least clue you in to where I’ve been or where I’m coming from. I have been in the professional workforce for about twenty years. Over the last half, I have held various leadership positions: management of public safety communications (911), noncommissioned officer in both the United States Navy and United States Air Force, and safety/security/emergency management in the medical field.
I have employed principles of leadership to effect change in organizations, teach critical concepts used to keep employees and the public safe, and actively save lives. I have made slow, carefully considered decisions and quick, no-time-to-lose decisions. Lives have been saved, in part, because of many such decisions.
Has every decision been perfect? Of course not. I have made mistakes. The important and valuable thing about mistakes is what can be learned from them. Beware of anyone telling you something about leadership who will not bare their soul and share the mistakes they’ve made. It is the ability to share hard lessons learned that serves to maintain humility and encourage others avoid those errors. Talk to me and I will share my vault of failures with you, along with what I’ve learned from them. In this piece, however, I will scratch the surface of leadership-as-a-concept.
Through countless formal leadership books, classes, and certifications, the main question is always asked, “What is leadership?” Of course, how can I begin to discuss a thing without first defining it? As I’ve stated, it’s often misidentified or misdiagnosed. My preferred definition of leadership is “the act of shaping the goals and spurring the actions of others, while demonstrating those actions.” Simply put, followers make leaders; followers, not copycats. There’s a fundamental and crucial goal-shaping that takes place. If I am going to lead you, I must convince you that your goal should be the same as the goal I declare for myself. I must cause to stir within you an innate desire to do “the thing”, whatever that thing is. If I am going to lead you, I must also demonstrate proper action through personal example.
That is what is overlooked. To be clear, what is often confused as a leader is someone wielding a title and thinking that the title confers leadership. One can hold the title of leader and do very little, if any, in the way of leadership. People often confuse the use of power with leadership. Using power to cause a thing to happen does not make one a leader. Managers do that all the time. Managers are not necessarily leaders. Beware of anyone calling themselves a leader who does not shape goals, spur action, and hold themselves accountable to the same standards as would-be followers.
I have frequently been let down by those who would be leaders, according to their title, but who refuse to lead. It’s a refusal seemingly caused by selfishness, pride, spite, or ignorance. It has been a challenge to answer the next oft-asked question in leadership learning, “Who has been a good leader in your life?” Typically, my experience is that those anti-leaders of my past teach by example of what not to do. There is one in my life who has been and continues to shape how I view leadership: Jesus Christ. I share this unironically and unequivocally. If Jesus isn’t your “thing”, I ask you to hear me out as I explain.
Reading about the life and ministry of Jesus in the Bible, I see outstanding examples of leadership. I see someone who approaches people where they are and says, “Come and follow me,” and they do! I see someone who spends time with those he seeks to lead, teaching them, guiding them, exercising patience with them. I see someone who sends followers out in teams to share the good news, providing them with instructions. I see someone who invites followers into the goal-setting, into the thought processes, into friendship. I see the tireless exercising of patience. I see self-sacrifice, even to death on a cross. I see the patient leading post-sacrifice and the transition of followers to leaders.
This paradigm, this program is what leadership is all about: call or invitation, time spent patiently mentoring and guiding, delegating and trusting with important tasks, open and transparent planning processes, relationship-building, putting the good of the followers ahead of the good of the leader, raising up leaders from the followers to replace the leader. All of this is done with the leader personally demonstrating what ought to be done.
This is what the example of Jesus has taught me. This is what my experience in the last decade has confirmed. When all aforementioned elements are in place, goals are achieved, morale is high, and things get done. When all elements are in place, the cycle perpetuates! If you are in a position of leadership, you must lead in this way. You must be continually training your replacement. If the goal is valuable, you will. However, if instead of the goal, you are the important one, no goal will be achieved.
David A. Larson 