A Different Way of Looking at the Leadership Environment
Looking for the “Leader” Button
Article 2 in a Series
By Two Guys From Stillwater, Minnesota
John Buettner and Bob Molenda
What do you think are the requirements for being a leader? If there was a test, how would you know that you passed it? How old do you have to be to be a leader? Are Leaders born that way or can they be made? Maybe we can just click on a button and create a Leader with AI?
Let’s think about this for a minute. There must be some logic to help figure it out. (Sometimes the professionals make things more complicated than they really are.)
If anyone is going to lead “Anything”, they will need some Followers. Will having one follower make you a leader? Then there is this “Anything” that we mentioned earlier. You must be thinking that if we don’t have “Anything” to do, it is not likely that we will have any followers. That’s it! If we did the math, a Leader needs “Something” to do and at least one follower! The “Something” that needs followers and a leader has got to be a task that is worthwhile to accomplish for all of us and the enterprise, whatever the enterprise happens to be. Wow! You must be thinking, “This is Minimalist Leadership at its Finest!”
“What does this Leader look like”, you say? Well, they have to work with the followers and they have to know what they are all supposed to be accomplishing. That means that the Leader has to have Characteristics that Motivate and Fit the Followers and other Characteristics that Help to Get the Job Done (Mission Orientation). That’s all that is needed.
If there are no followers and there is no mission, then you must also be thinking that nobody would need a Leader, good or bad.
So, if we know our ABC’s, all that we need is;
A. An Important Mission.
B. At least one Follower.
C. A Leader.
When we think about it, every activity that involves two or more people needs one of them to make things happen. We need leaders to create a Vision for their followers of what things may look like when they complete a Mission of Importance for their enterprise. It starts off with a “Mission Statement” and a shared destiny of importance for the entire team, its leader and others in the enterprise when it is completed, including the stakeholders. This is like showing a poster of where the cruise ship is going and what to expect along the way, before anyone boards the vessel.
This is the seed of another way of looking at Leadership. That is to say, we might be able to simplify the Leadership role and understand it better if we focus on just three things:
1. Leader Characteristics and Habits
2. Leader Mission-Oriented Characteristics
3. Follower(s) (often missing from the Leadership mix)
Do you think you’re not a leader? That’s interesting! If you are a parent, you already are a leader. Think about how you are there to serve and protect your children. Think about how you respond when your children are in danger. If you have more than one child, you probably had to deal with conflict in a fair manner. That was part of your leader’s job. As a child, you might have played a game called “Follow The Leader” or “Simon Says”. (Some of us still play those games today.) In either of those games, there was a leader. What were the qualities of a good leader in those games?
What are the characteristics of a good parent? Is there a difference between being a Boss and being a Leader? Do you play baseball? Did you ever show someone how to throw or catch a baseball? When you were just beginning to play baseball, what were some of the qualities of a good leader who showed you how to catch a ground ball with a glove and how to throw the ball to first base? Did you practice a lot so that your skills got better with time? Does a Leader ever need to be a Follower?
What do you think the characteristics of a good leader should be? If you are a parent, what do your children expect from you as their leader? What did you expect from your teachers in school? As a follower of these leaders, what do they expect of me? Holy Cow! It’s simple, but there is a lot going on with A,B,C and 1,2,3. We Need a Leader Button to Push!
It seems like we have to have Leaders, Followers and some kind of Mission or Goal. We should think of it as a Rigid Wooden Triangle, holding the Enterprise together.
Next Time: Article 3
Anyone Here Want to be a Follower?
Previous Article 1: A Different Way of Looking at Leadership
