What shape is leadership in?

It’s probably true to say that never before has this planet put so much emphasis on leadership and leadership development. Yet, as humankind, we are still having as much fun bashing our current flavour of the month as we did during the Crusades and in Hitler’s time and, yes, as always, we still have good and bad leaders and a whole lot in between.

But what shape is leadership in? Much has been said about the command and control type leadership of the twentieth century and the rumour that it is a thing of the past. I like to think that this rumour is true but, whilst there are business and political leaders around us that clearly endeavour to influence their environments with more effective philosophies, these appear to be in the minority and even many of these will knee-jerk back into command and control when things get tough – you know the saying, “when the going gets tough, the tough get going”!

Yet, there is a growing minority that walk the talk that they need to lead people – that is that they need to find a way for people to follow them – in a way that empowers the people rather than themselves. And, of course, there are a whole lot of leaders in between control and command and what we might call influential or effective leadership. At the same time, there are a range of examples of leadership that stand out, not necessarily for good reasons, around the world. We need only think of the Obama’s and the Mugabe’s, the McCaw’s and the Smit’s, the Mandela’s and the Gandhi’s, not to mention the Bin Laden’s and the Gaddafi’s, the Zuma’s and the Malema’s.

Funny that often it’s the name of men that seem to roll off our lips when we speak of leaders. And not so strange to come across a quote by Marilyn French, as I coincidentally did today on my traditional weapon (ie laptop), that “most women I know feel like outlaws”. Do we men really appreciate what it has been like to live in such a male dominated world? And what has been the impact of the fact that the opinions of women may well have been ‘outlawed’ in so many respects?

Equally coincidentally, my favourite TV show of yesteryear is ‘Commander in Chief’. For the uninitiated it’s a story about the first woman president of the United States. Now I know it’s fiction but, for me, its special interest lies in two things – how different her approach to leadership is and how she constantly tries to balance her work and family lives.

I am not sure that we have begun to appreciate the richness that diversity brings to debates and discussions. For many, diversity is a political necessity, sometimes a necessity that brings us some discomfort as we experience differences of opinion we previously did not have to experience in our monastic, old school tie, same-thinking teams of the past. But next time we are in a diverse environment, be it social or work, and a discussion breaks out, try sitting back and listening for the diversity of thoughts being put on the table and the potential this brings in terms of what could be.  I think every time we do so we will marvel at the possibilities – after all, we are all uniquely different people no matter what gender, race, religion, culture etc and we all bring a uniquely different frame of reference with this uniqueness. And when we marvel at the possibilities, we might just see the immense probabilities that may arise from helping people design their own futures.

Imagine what it could be like if we started learning to proactively draw on this diversity, all of it, in a way that optimises our decision-making and our problem-solving. Imagine the influence and leadership we might begin to shape. Imagine where this might take us on the continuum away from control and command.

Finally, a sincere thank you to my friends and family in New Zealand for their warm and generous hospitality during my stay. It certainly made the absence of the Boks more bearable!

Best wishes

Lauron