Here we go again, after two weeks of “holidays”. I look forward getting back in the saddle and start again with more leadership discussions and learning. I also look forward to hear your thoughts and learn from your experiences and ideas. So this week the theme will be “leaders in different situations”. The reason why I felt this topic was important is because when people think about leaders, in many cases a picture of a business leader comes in mind. Of course this is not the case for everyone, but after talking to some people about this I felt that it is needed to look at leadership from different angles and in different situations. And by doing so, we might learn about similarities or differences leaders in business, or in civil society and from there, develop our abilities to be the best leader we can be. So where to start? I think I will start by introducing few “situations” or different aspects I want to analyze leadership through. First is Business or corporate leadership. Second is political leadership. Third is religious leadership. Fourth is leadership within the creative/arts and the last one is what I want to call civil leadership, which would include for example Gandhi, and others fighting for enhanced living environment for the society in general. So what will this article focus on? I want to start by analyzing each situation/aspect by itself. I think it will give a good insight into what kind of leaders might be needed and will thrive in those situations. And also, why is it important to develop leaders within different aspects of our societies? Most of my leadership theories I have read and reviewed talk about leaders from a business or organizational perspective. In a way it makes sense as my background is within those subjects but I believe that much can be learned from viewing leadership from other perspectives. Business leaders can learn from civil leaders, civil leaders can learn from creative/arts leaders and I could go on and on. We have now discussed many characteristics of leaders, what they have to embody, how to behave and what to say. But in many cases we talk about business leaders when we think of these terms. So does the same go for the other perspectives? If we look at the civil perspective, a leader who wants to create the right movement, drive certain changes, empower the people needs to know its environment, know the problem/challenges the society is facing and understand where it is coming from. That person needs to be courageous, because not everyone likes to have the status quo challenged. Speaking out against current situation can be more challenging than we think. I also believe that a civil leader has to have a vision, where does that person want to take the society and how will they get there. And that person has to be charismatic and authentic. If that person wants to get enough movement going, that person has to have the ability to get people on board. Many more things can be mentioned but due to limited space here I want to keep this brief. So when we read over what has just been written here above, these things are extremely similar to the ones we have discussed about business leadership. One of the biggest differences is the target group those leaders are aiming to reach. And those people require different messages. And that is a challenge for leaders as well. How to align their messages based on the target group they are aiming for and how to make sure people interpret those messages in “the right way”? When we look at the other perspectives, political and religious leaders need to have the same abilities and characteristics as business and civil leaders. They also have to have a vision (for religious leaders that vision might be “forced” on them from their religious books and objectives), they have to know the environment, the people they are aiming to lead and why they should be led. They also have to be charismatic to gain votes and new members of the congregation. Political leaders might strive to be authentic but due to the nature of their game that ability (sadly) often is left behind in order to negotiate and create the right alliances for the right political outcome. That is maybe something political leadership should focus on in the future. People know if you are being fake, we talk about it and we (hopefully) vote for someone else next time. So being authentic might actually bring you more votes and by that give you the legitimacy to get the right outcome without losing your authenticity. This is just my thoughts as I am not the biggest fan of politicians. I believe there are many good people who enter politics but because of the nature of the game they lose part of why they actually joined politics in the beginning. Last perspective I wanted to discuss is a perspective I do not associate with leadership too often and maybe that is a mistake. The creative/art world in our societies is growing in a fast pace and the people within that area have enormous influence on our daily lives, with and without our awareness. Many of these people try to be a role model, to empower their fans and share with them their vision of the world. They are charismatic and many are authentic, sharing with their fans their hopes and dreams and their life stories. So based on these things, would they not be considered leaders within their own field of expertise? I think so. I think we have many courageous people within this perspective who are driving positive change (and we have many who I believe are doing the exact opposite). Based on what I have written here I find that we have leaders in different areas of our societies but all have to have the same abilities, behave similarly and be authentic in order to reach their goals. Some become leaders without really thinking about it, based on their personal activities and beliefs. Others see some challenges and needs they believe they can meet and overcome. I think what is most important when it comes to this topic, is that people who become these leaders are aware that different situation might require different approach to leadership, so being multi styled will help. But all those different approaches come from a similar background and just need a slight adjustment based on what is the end goal. The message they should be portraying are different, based on the target group, that is, the followers. And I think we have to be careful and aware of that. That there are some kinds of behaviors for leaders but different perspective needs different messages conveyed in order for the leaders to be effective. That is my opinion at least. The aim in next article will be to compare leaders and see if there are differences and/or similarities we can learn from and take to different perspectives of our lives. Hope you enjoyed!
Posted on: Tue, 18 Jun 2013 15:41:40 +0000
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