Leadership

This topic has been rattling around in my head for years. Why, you ask? Several reasons.

First, it was rare to encounter good, never mind great, leadership during my career. 

Second, I spent hours in various leadership trainings and seminars, read countless articles and books on the topic, discussed the subject often with friends and colleagues, yet still failed to see the strong leadership that the "rank and file" desired, even craved.

So, as with most things, I was curious and asked myself "Why?"

I have a theory of course (shaped and influenced by my own personal experience as well as many ideas and concepts I've been exposed to over the years). It may be on the mark, or off. Not sure. But here it is.

My Theory on What Happens: Most people who rise to positions of authority or leadership in most organizations are primarily driven by their own individual motives. You know, to boil it down to the basics: more power, more control, more money. There's nothing inherently wrong with any of these as motivators (we are all human beings). Because of this, true, authentic leadership is rare.

Let's ramble together and look at each one in turn.

POWER: (A sense of or actually) Having the ability to do something or to compel others to do it for you. Seductive surely. Illusory? Perhaps for certain people in certain circumstances. Quite real, if transitory, at times for some; meaning that many in positions with inherent power can actually do things that they want, get certain things done, compel people do things whether they want to or not, etc. Once conceptualized and/or experienced, many want it or more of it. So my theory goes that it is a key motivator for many who rise to "leadership" positions. Once in such positions, with their own power (seemingly) secured, what would then motivate most people to exhibit any real leadership qualities (you know, the ones you learn about in those professional development trainings or read about in those fancy articles: emotional intelligence, self-awareness, empathy, active listening, clear communication, and on and on)? I don't have any clear answers, to this one but pose the question anyway.

CONTROL: Oh boy. One of my favorites. There are basically three things that anyone can really control: what they think, say, or do (and even these seemingly simple things can run into lots of internal and external interference). That's about it. Everything else is subject to either chaos, divine intervention, chance, time, gravity, or luck (depending on what you believe). Not to be confused with Power, Control is mostly an illusion but a very seductive one. 

One very valuable lesson I did pick up from those countless leadership trainings was the concept of Spheres of Influence (as it applies to an individual and not geopolitics). Visualize a very small circle in the middle of a diagram within two other progressively larger circles emanating from it. The small circle represents one's sphere of control, or the amount of things one truly can control (see above: think, say, or do). The other circles represent spheres of influence and concern (or something like that if I'm remembering it all correctly; I said "ramble" remember? I'm not trying to write the final treatise on any of this). What I gathered from all of this was the following: true "control" resides in the amount of (ongoing and continual) influence one can leverage with other people (hopefully based on strong relationships as well as a host of other intentional, interpersonal factors) and not by having personal control over anybody.

MONEY: Not sure what to say about this one other than it's one of the most universal, time-tested motivators for humans. And in almost all organizations, the higher you go, the more you make. It's not directly tied to one's overall emotional IQ or leadership skills. So, I would argue, once again the result is a poor alignment between hierarchical position and an authentic desire to lead.

Murky Conclusion

There are real motivators that do influence people to exhibit true leadership. And there are myriad learned behaviors that do the same.

They just seem (to me) to be less prevalent than Power, Control, and Money.

I have no idea what to do about all of this to be honest. I'm just blogging to clear out all of the crap that's been rattling around in my head for years....

And AI is not going to bail us out on this one (at least for quite a while). Perhaps human nature and the brain itself are hardwired in ways that stymie authentic leadership even within organizations with talented, dedicated people.

So that's the ramble on this one. Not sure it goes anywhere and it was much harder to synthesize than blog #1 on Marketing. Hopefully it will add just a little something to your day.