Thursday, November 5, 2009

Leadership Defended

I had a good talk with Bryan* recently and he challenged me about the Top Down Leadership post. He said something like "It's easy to set up a straw man that everyone hates and tear it down, but there's just as many problems with avoiding leadership as there are with bad leadership."

I think he's right.

Another friend recently told me that authority and responsibility are connected. This guy spent some time in the military. He said that while people are respected and honored for the their rank and titles, the people with real authority and those who have direct responsibility to lead you (translate: serve, direct, inspire).

I think part of what I was trying to get at with the Top Down Leadership post, is that often as leaders we forget or get confused about what our responsibility is (to raise vision, challenge people to become who they were made to be, serve, humble ourselves, be transparent and willing to be changed). And as followers we make similar mistakes regarding leadership -- we expect leaders to make our lives work, or we just want them out of our hair, when they are really there to help us become what we are called to be and want to be, but are just a little too afraid, discouraged, lazy or trapped to become by ourselves. The leader should bring a context to grow into those things in, and the challenge to grow.

* http://smalltallmusings.blogspot.com/

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