As part of my enquiry into leadership – I have been reading ‘Tribes’ by Seth Godin. Some of you may recall that I mentioned this book on the blog back in July this year. As an original thinker, you may not be surprised to hear that Seth has some interesting observations around leadership:
“Most of us,” he says, “are stuck acting like managers. Stuck in industries that not only avoid change, but actively fight it. Stuck in fear of what our boss will say, stuck because we’re afraid we’ll get into trouble. Most of all, we’re stuck acting like managers or employees, instead of like the leaders we could become.
Managers manage by using the authority the factory gives them. You listen to your manager or you lose your job. A manager can’t make change because that is not his job. His job is to complete tasks assigned to him by someone else in the factory.
Leaders , on the other hand, don’t care very much for organizational structure or the official blessing of whatever factory they work for. They use passion and ideas to lead people, as opposed to using threats and bureaucracy to manage them. Leaders must become aware of how the organization works, because this awareness allows them to change it.
The irony is that all of this fear used to be useful. Fear of change is built into most organisations, because change is the first sign of risk. Today though, the fear that used to protect us at work is now our enemy, it’s now the thing standing in the way.
Leadership doesn’t always start at the top, but it always manages to affect the folks at the top. In fact, most organizations are waiting for someone like you to lead them.”
Interesting thoughts – I will come back with some more observations as I continue my enquiry – but would be interested to hear from anyone who has any comments on what Seth has to say on the subject of leadership.
2 comments
The psychology of leadership and management is quite fascinating and can be traced back to our earliest days. Managers who suck up to their bosses are just re-enacting their fear of not being loved by their parent (a proxy for authority).
Those willing to truly lead are a rare breed who have overcome this feeling of dependency and are willing to create their future, along with those of their team. The truly inspired leaders are secure enough to invite their team members to add their inspiration into the mix.
To evlolve into a truly great leader usually takes a good deal of self-examination using tools like NLP or energy coaching that can erase their redundant subconscious programming.
The more someone does this, the more they become open to Soul-led inspiration, the only question being whose Soul is leading?
In a business, ideally it would be the Soul of the business, as Soul energy is the substance many call God that pervades everything in the Universe. It operates at the level of the individual and the group, waiting ever patiently to be noticed and for its influence/energy to be allowed into our game.
Thank Murray,
What is starting to show up for me is that in terms of leadership – or life in general, the limits to our potential are mostly imagined. Because of our obsession with how leaders behave and with the interaction of leaders and followers, we forget that in essence, leadership is about learning how to shape the future. Ultimately, leadership is about creating new realities.
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