Here is a question – what do leaders do? DUH – you say?
Seriously. I’m not talking about big charismatic, follow-them-to-hell leaders. I’m talking about people who take leadership/overall accountability in a group and help drive success.
I recently participated in a workshop where this issue surfaced and was the subject of some discussion.
Assignments were given out and each group went off to solve for X. Being politically correct, most of the clusters ignored the issue of who should drive; probably didn’t look each other in the eye and just as probably swirled around the issues – finding it hard to come to resolution as no one was really in charge.
So here is the question. Do you need a leader? How does a leader add value? How do you choose one? Is it always the same leader? Are all leaders equal?
Let me get you started on your answers with this thought:
A committee can make a decision that is dumber than any of its members.
~David Coblitz
So maybe by virtue of being able to decide more quickly, a leader gets more chances at not being dumb…
What do you think?
This reminds me of the last time I flew Southwest. They’d recently subdivided their letter system with numbers. Basically, you lined up based first by letter (A-C), then by number (1-60). While I’m sure that individually, the majority of people there were reasonably intelligent, it seemed that less than 10% could figure out that you were supposed to wait for your letter to be called, then line up in numerical order. It was chaos and took about 20 minutes for each group to figure out what was really a pretty basic system. If only a Southwest agent were there to instruct people in person.
Whatever leaders do, there are a whole lot of things they should not do. They should not do what the members of the team are there to do. Their vision is broader, and their role is to recognise important decision points, and opportunities and make plans, ie, be strategic. If they get buried in detail or meddle with team roles, they won’t have the visions, and they will lose the team’s confidence. How do they know what is important? Krishnamurti said that it’s important to determine what is important. That’s what the leader does.
Leaders help to set the agenda — determine the priorities and motivate the troops — who then help develop new opportunities and so it goes –
What do leaders do? Leaders inspire.
AMEN!!!!!
1. Leaders should lead by example / action and not by WORDS only.
2. Leaders should not ask one to do something that they would never do.
3. Leaders inspire one to inspire
4. Leaders walk the talk and not talk the walk.
and by doing do nurture future leaders
Oh yes — inspiration is critical. Literally the breath-of-life for any team. You know the old saw about nature abhorring a vacuum? Applies to leadership equally well. If the nominal leader is not particularly effective, frequently a de-facto leader will emerge, either from within the group, or else externally. No person or team can work indefinitely without feeling motivated.
To become a good leader you should have knowledge, rather say more knowledge than your team member. so you will be able to solve their problem and guide them safely.