Pondering on Leadership

I have been thinking about Leadership lately. I am wondering why organizations sometimes flounder and loose momentum. There are two possibilities that I can think of: either the people in the organization are lazy and don't want to do the work that is necessary to carry the organization along, or the people are not being led by effective leaders. As I think about that idea, it is clear to me that the burden is really on the leaders all the way. Let me explain.

If the mass of people in an organization are exhibiting signs of apathy or laziness, I believe that apathy is a reflection on the leadership of that organization. I believe this is true, because I believe people generally want to be lead, they want to follow someone. This is how people typically find their identify and course in life. We don't often set our own course or define our own identity. (Perhaps through good leaders, we may change).

But, even though people generally want to follow someone, they have some rules in their makeup that tell them who they will follow. Here are the rules I have identified.

• People will only follow you if they perceive that you are going somewhere
• People will only follow you if where they perceive that you are going is somewhere that they want to go
• People will only follow you if you give them clear, meaningful, actionable directions on how to follow you
• People will only follow you if you define the cost of doing so and convince them of the worth or value of paying that cost

You see, I think people need leaders who have a destination, know how to get there, can tell them exactly what they need to do to get there and can express to them what they should expect along the journey and at the destination. Organizations begin to flounder when leaders have no destination, don't know how to reach the destination, can't guide the mass of people in the organization toward the destination, can't give the people meaningful actions to take in order to reach the destination and can't communicate the costs of going there and the benefit of getting there.

What this tells me is that leadership is a very hard task and should not be lightly undertaken.

Posted via email from Taking Heaven by Storm