I am reading a book called The Ladies Lending Library by Janice Kulyk Keefer. It is about a group of women who, along with their children spend the summer of 1963 renting cottages along a lake in Canada. They spend the week reading, gossiping and wishing they lived the lives of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. While they drink gin and swap stories on the beach, their children plan and scheme and get into harmless trouble. I haven't finished the book yet but the children in the story got me thinking about something I have often wondered. Are leadership qualities something we are born with or something to cultivate as we get older?
In this book, as in life, there are certain children who take the lead in games, sports, music, school and well...everything. They are the ones who had the ideas to build the fort or climb the tree. They were the ones who, when going for the bike ride, would lead the group. They delegated the tasks when building the sandcastle. When the sandcastle was finished, and the waves took it away, they were the ones who lifted our spirits and told us that we'd always make another one tomorrow. I always thought that in the pecking order of children's games and lives, they were the "leaders".
Looking at their lives now, many have had successful careers. Some are doctors, some teachers; some own their own businesses and some are senior leaders in organizations.
In the training classes I give, I often ask the participants if they led the group on the bike ride or if they were in the pack. The responses I receive often reaffirm the characteristics I see from their behavior in the class. Those who "led the bike pack" are often more vocal and offer more suggestions and encouragement. Those "in the pack" are a bit more quiet yet insightful once they get going.
I'm not trained to study human behavior but I've been doing learning and development a long time and think that leadership is an inherent quality. We can train leadership skills but those "in the pack" may take a little longer to pick up and apply them.
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3 comments:
Choice 3. Don't follow the leader or the pack but find your own route. Probably an innovator's profile rather than leader.
Frankly when I was a child I avoided those insufferable bores who wanted to be in charge of everything we did. I'm never sure why we treat leadership with such reverence. Of course it's important for someone to set the direction but where would a leader be without a compliant pack? If we were all leaders all the time the result would be chaotic. We've all be in meetings where two or more 'leaders' try to take charge - what a nightmare! Maybe there should be as much emphasis on 'followership skills' as there is on developing that small number of 'natural' leaders.I like to think that I can lead when necessary and follow where appropriate.
Leading effectively involves a set of skills that can be learned, practiced, honed, and improved. I agree that something genetic may give some people a greater talent at it, but I do feel leading can be -- and must be -- learned and practiced.
I also agree with the earlier comments in that we don't need a world full of leaders, without any followers. It is the followers, the pack, who accomplish everything. Truly effective leaders acknowledge this and pass the creit to those who do the work. Yes, we need effective, visionary leaders to inspire the pack, but the pack accomplishes the goals.
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