Nice blog piece by Neil on Leadership
It is always exciting when our most urgent need and our greatest opportunity coincide. In both the public and the private sectors we have an urgent need for great leadership. Not just any old great leadership, but authentic, great leadership.
Firstly – What is Authentic Leadership?
In my rather varied career in employment I gained a great deal of experience in job interviews. One of the most common questions was “what is your leadership style” – to which my standard answer was “from the front.”
I realise now that not only did I not understand the question, or the answer, the interviewers didn’t either.
In fact I was probably something of a natural leader. Whatever natural aptitude for leadership I had it was not nurtured and was left to fester into impotent rebellion. I was even expelled from one school, specifically for exhibiting signs of leadership.
Eventually I became fascinated with the whole idea of leadership and studied it carefully. When you look hard, what you notice is that there are different levels of leadership.
Autocratic Leadership relies of force and fear to lead, at one level you can think of Kim Jong Il at another you can think of gang leaders and even some teachers and business leaders. Autocratic leaders rise to the top through bullying and stay there the same way. People follow because they are afraid not to. The only beneficiaries of autocratic leadership are the leaders themselves and their acolytes – although the position of acolyte is seldom secure.
Hierarchical Leadership relies on status, title or even a uniform. Hierarchical leaders are appointed by someone senior to them who wants someone unthreatening beneath them. You can think of Gordon Brown, the old style park keeper beloved of comics of the 60s and 70s and many business managers. People follow because it is the norm to do so.
Hero Leadership relies on force of personality. Hero leaders rise to the top because the responsibility of leadership is normal to them and because most other people would rather let someone else take that responsibility. Think of Churchill and Shackleton and some inspiring business leaders – like Steve Jobs. People follow hero leaders because they are inspiring and because they make their lives easy by taking the responsibility. Hero leaders are extremely effective in narrow and specific circumstances – outside those circumstances they can be quite dysfunctional.
Authentic Leadership is the highest level of leadership currently available. Authentic leaders rise to the top because their support of others encourages outstanding performance and results. Authentic Leaders empower and encourage those around them to take responsibility and be brilliant. Like a Zen master their, their greatest achievement lies in the success of their proteges. Authentic Leaders outperform all others because they maximise the potential of those around them. Think of the Obama election campaign. Authentic Leaders are effective in a wide range of circumstances because their focus is on team effectiveness and on encouraging leadership within the team to be dynamic, flowing to where it is most relevant in the moment.
Secondly – Why the urgent need for Authentic Leadership?
It is becoming increasingly obvious that earlier levels of leadership are not sufficient to tackle the urgent challenges we face in government, business or public service. All three of the earlier levels of levels are primarily based in ego. It is difficult to solve the kinds of problem we currently face from an ego based position because the solutions require collaboration. When we come from an ego position it is very hard to truly collaborate.
Authentic leaders have the humility to take full responsibility and to serve everyone at the same time. This is the path to success in overcoming todays challenges in business and government.
For more information on Neil and his work take a look at his website.
The Incisal Edge 