Recently I participated in a session
about leadership experiences which drew from the rich experience of
the people in the room, not merely a lecture by the person in front
of the room.
The facilitator would set up a business
situation and asked the audience of executives to share their
experiences. I have found that listening to what others have faced
and overcome is quite instructive and real.
A colleague sitting beside me grumbled
at the conclusion of each topic - “that's not leadership – it's
management.” In his eyes, none of the eight topics discussed that
day passed muster as addressing leadership.
Although it was distracting to hear his
continuing negative comments, I came to realize a couple of
enlightening elements about leadership.
- There is a very fine line separating a management action and a leadership action when trying to catalog the act. But this is like trying to determine how many angels can fit on the head of a pin – who knows and does it matter? Was the solution successful? Did it advance the organization toward the vision (goals); did it create results? If so, Great! Next time the situation comes up, let's consider using it again. Adding a name-tag to the action adds no value whatsoever.
- My grumbling colleague spent much energy in slotting the activities, but took nothing useful away from the meeting. I heard about experiences and related results and took away many nuggets of useful information about better leadership practices. Two people, sitting side by side with vastly different outcomes.
Following the meeting, my business
partner asked me – 'what was the best thing you got from this
meeting?'
After a moment's thought, I summed it
up as follows: leadership can be learned, but it can't be taught.
Do you find that
thin line between what's leadership and what's management important?
How so?
The older I get, the more I concentrate on getting the ball over the goal line, and now is better than later. I find the concept of "managing" a hindrance when "managers" don't show up dressed to do work.
ReplyDeleteMany years ago, I was a master carpenter at EI DuPont, a union shop, where managers weren't allowed to touch the tools. Looking back, that was only to make former carpenters focus on their communication skills. Today, so much work is design and delighting customers that if you aren't contributing directly, you are wasting space on the bus.
It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life. Feelin good!