What’s the first thing that comes to mind when I ask you about making a commitment to Leading? Leadership? Actually there’s a BIG difference between LEADING and LEADERSHIP.
Think of leading as the opposite of following.
If we’re cutting a path through the jungle, or the new world, or the new economy, and there’s thick growth on all sides, lots of congestion, it’s often hard to see where we’re going.
Maybe we’re in single file…one behind the other. Each one is leading the next.
Think about this...The only person leading you is the one directly in front of you.
Not necessarily the person who is 7, or 8, or 10 persons ahead of you.
You have your head down, working hard to make it through, and keeping in sight or at the very least close contact with, the person in front of you.
That person is leading you. And you are leading the person behind you.
Leading is something we should think of on a very individual or personal basis.
You can have an effect on someone, and how their life works out, even if you wouldn’t necessarily consider yourself a leader.
Could you be a leader? Could you be leading others? Influencing them in a certain direction? And the answer is absolutely.
Someone is watching your “leadership” skills right now. If you were in that single file line moving through the jungle, you not only could be, but you WOULD be, a leader. Maybe even without realizing it.
That is exactly what is happening today in our world.
People are leading without realizing, other people are then following without realizing it, and often neither really knows where they are going.
As a result, they both are lost. They have no idea the direction they’re heading. But lots of other people are going in that direction, so it must be OK. Right?
“Leading” doesn’t really take any courage at all in spite of what you may have heard or read. People are being led down the wrong path every day in life, or work, or… and they think they’re doing the right thing.
But leadership, true leadership, is different.
Finding your own path, going against the grain may not be popular, but if you’re in the smaller percentage group of top performers, high achievers, believers, etc. you’re leading…EVEN IF NO ONE APPEARS TO BE FOLLOWING YOU!
True leaders don’t produce more followers, they strive to produce more leaders.
Leaders who are leading and know where they are going, even if no one is following them at the moment.
Being different or independent means standing for something you believe in and have committed to, even if you must stand alone—for now. Somewhere, someone is waiting to join you, waiting for a leader.
In the beginning, the crowd is seldom right.
Popular thinking typically produces unpopular results…History confirms it.
Great minds don’t think alike (yet another MYTH). Great minds have proven to be independent thinkers.
General Patton once said “If everyone’s thinking alike, then someone’s not thinking.”
How true.
And LEADERSHIP requires both thinking and understanding.
How sad that generations of our young people say they want to be different, do their own “thing” and become independent. But their actions say they want to fit in and be like a certain group or crowd or peer.
That’s conforming, to peer pressure.
Leadership can’t be about everyone liking you or some popularity contest. That’s why true leaders create polar reactions and spur hotly-contested debates. For them, and what they stand for…or against them.
Uncommon leaders have staked out a position that cannot always be a popular one, and they will not change their position just to gain popularity.
It doesn’t mean being close-minded or stubborn, but being convinced and committed if you believe it to be the right position. Having values, morals, integrity, principles of conviction, and standing on them.
There are many “common” misconceptions on leading and leadership.
Webster defines leadership as “the ability or capacity to lead.”
Just above that entry in the new college dictionary under the word “leader” there are more than 13 references or definitions of “LEADER.”
And really not one of those definitions I found were appropriate in delivering a message to a group of individuals or to an organization that wants to truly understand leaders and genuine leadership.
I was disappointed in that discovery, but just a few entries down that same page was the definition of LEADING EDGE…
“the edge of a sail or vessel that faces the wind. The vanguard; the beginning or lead position in a movement.”
The Leading Edge…That was the picture I was looking for.
The setting of the sail, the direction we’ve chosen to go, the point at which we face the challenge and adversity ahead…the winds of change, and that leading edge individual or group that propels us through it…
Does that give you a mental picture?
It’s not a bad definition of how true leaders meet the challenge of leadership.
And true leaders can be anywhere in the organization, not just at the top.
Next time…The MOST desired quality of the MOST EFFECTIVE LEADERS.
Have a great weekend,
Michael