On Life and Leadership

A lot of ink has been spilled about leadership. Some of it helpful and worth reading, some of it not really worth the paper on which it is written. Leadership is the process of motivating people to action so that together you can achieve a goal. Those who lead do this by helping shape the beliefs, thinking and values of those who follow them. 2500 years ago, the Chinese sage Lao Tzu said: “A leader is best when their work is done, their aim fulfilled, and the people say: we did it ourselves.” I really like that idea.

And I think that this is the ultimate aim of leadership: the best leaders are able to bring people on the journey with them. But leadership is not easy. It’s hard because it’s about people.

I recently read an article about all the things leadership is not. It was called Zombie Leadership. The article took aim at all the undead ideas about leadership that walk among us. Ideas that should be dead. To clarify, the article is about zombie ideas rather than actual zombies. I know, it’s much less interesting now that you know that, but I am not sure what we would learn about leadership from zombies, although they are good at converting people into followers.

The zombie ideas about leadership – ideas that should be dead but are still walking around, are as follows: 1. that leadership is all about leaders, 2. that great leaders have specific qualities, 3. that they do specific things, 4. that we know great leaders when we see them, 5. that all leadership is the same, 6. that only some people have leadership skills, 7. that leadership is always good for us and 8. that we can’t cope without it. So, eight zombie ideas about leadership that we need to put to rest, and now four ideas about leadership that should remain alive and kicking for all of us.

The first. Leadership is relational. Leadership is about others more than it is about you. And the second is related to the first. You can’t be a leader unless you have followers. And the third is related to the first two. Leadership is relational, and you need followers, and leadership is bringing them with you. Leadership is more about getting people to want to do things than making them do them. And the last one is a reminder of the first three. Leadership is a group thing. It is not an individual thing, despite much of what has been written about great leaders as individuals. That’s because it’s easier to study one person than the web of interconnected interactions they might have.

Former Governor General Sir William Slim said that leadership is the mixture of example, persuasion and compulsion by which you get other people to do what you want. As much as it is in your power, use example and persuasion. The more you use them, the more they grow. The more you use compulsion, the more it shrinks. And some tips for all of those who want to lead, whether you have an official position or not, because we all lead, in our own lives, our families, our friendship circles, our classrooms, our work. At some stage, you will show and use leadership even if it feels more like persuasion or example than something as grand as leadership.