Leadership Fashion
by Miki SaxonI never really paid attention to leadership as an industry until I took over Leadership Turn a couple of years ago. But now I realize that it’s as pronounced and cyclical as the fashion industry.
Jim Stroup at Managing Leadership describes it well.
“Initially the gurus told us that leadership was a superlative individual characteristic reserved to the elite, then a democratically distributed attribute accessible by all… first to vision, then decisiveness, then courage, then team-building skills, then forcefulness, then empathy. It’s about looking inward to one’s core self. No, it’s about communication and connecting with others.”
The list of leadership fashions is actually much longer than Jim’s list; different looks are marketed by different leadership houses and each has a name designer at the helm with more junior designers doing much of the actual work. Every so often one of these junior people leaves and starts her own house and so the industry grows.
Along with the major houses are the small independent designers who may be aligned philosophically with a larger house, but put their own spin on the product.
Just as fashionistas drive the cutting edge (which can be pretty weird) in clothes, anoint designers, models and wearers as icons and then trash them for being out of touch or too <whatever>, so, too, do leaderistas drive what’s fashionable in leadership, hold icons up for adulation, dump them from their pedestals when their feet soften and switch when more trendy designs comes along.
The greatest difference is that fashion products are made of real stuff, while leadership products are built of words.
Consider Lao Tzu, who, 2500 years ago said,
“The superior leader gets things done with very little motion. He imparts instruction not through many words but through a few deeds. He keeps informed about everything but interferes hardly at all. He is a catalyst, and though things would not get done well if he weren’t there, when they succeed he takes no credit. And because he takes no credit, credit never leaves him.”
and
“As for the best leaders,
the people do not notice their existence…
When the best leader’s work is done,
the people say, “We did it ourselves!”
To lead the people, walk behind the.”
In 1987 The Leadership Challenge presented the 5 Practices of Leadership
- Model the Way
- Inspire a Shared Vision
- Challenge the Process
- Enable Others to Act
- Encourage the Heart
These days the hot terms are thought leadership and servant leadership.
If you’re getting tired of the leaderistas go back to Lao Tzu’s Tao Teh Ching; I have a copy that, measured in inches, is 4.5x3x3/8 in an easily readable font.
It will rev up your brain, sink into your MAP, juice your leadership abilities and add peace to your soul—not bad for a book you can put in your pocket.
Your comments—priceless
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Image credit: manbeastextraordinaire on flickr
July 10th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
I keep a copy of the Tao Te Ching on my bed side table, it is fantastic. I’d also recommend reading “The Tao of Pooh” to get a good understanding of Taoism, but more importantly a deep understanding of yourself.
Having just completed a University course titled “Leadership in Organisations” I’m a bit disenchanted by all these leadership theories. I found that almost everything in the textbook was really describing a ‘symptom’ of someone that was truely in touch with themselves and what they wanted out of life. For example, the book described ‘creative leaders’ and that creative leaders recognise opportunities because they’re immersed in ideas amongst other things. Yes this describes what they do, but does it actually help a student of leadership?
I think not. It’s just describing a symptom of what happens when you’re in touch with yourself (and the Way :). All these leadership theories confuse people. Leadership, to me, can be condensed down to one sentence. Find yourself and the rest will just happen.
July 11th, 2009 at 11:02 am
Hi Scott, thanks for a very insightful comment. You have touched on one of the great farces of the whole leadership movement. Leadership is what one does, or, as you put it, a symptom of the person’s thinking.
Your condensed description, “find yourself and the rest will just happen,” is right on. I say it differently, “know your MAP because everything you do flows from it,” But the meaning is the same.
I do, however, avoid bringing up Taoism. I’d hate to see the concept get tainted by “religion”—or anything that seems to be religion. It’s the difference between using Hatha Yoga for exercise and plunging into the rest.
July 11th, 2009 at 11:12 pm
Yeah, it is important to see that each and everything is just a tool or another lens to view a situation through. Taoism is just one of those tools.
(P.s. I started doing yoga and I love it! I stand out a bit with my Detroit Pistons singlet and football shorts though – haha!)
July 12th, 2009 at 11:27 am
Hi Scott, to a great extent ‘leadership’ is a vocabulary that you use to describe what you already did.
Pistons singlet and football shorts? Now that’s what I call leadership fashion!