Leadership. A term and a concept that I have often found very difficult to talk about. The reason is that many are familiar with it and many consider themselves experts. It exists in every society, in every group of people. Everyone has contact with a leader in a particular context (in fact, each one of us is also a leader at certain given moments or situations). Some very solid practices and beliefs were developed about what leadership is and how it should be done as an activity. Even if they are firmly embedded in the way organisations function and in our lives, it does not mean that we do not make mistakes with them or that there aren’t better ways available to us.
Leadership has to be done “correctly”
In my experience leadership is often understood as an utmost arbitrary activity. But in reality, it is a professional role. At times this is hard to grasp. Leadership exists naturally with the very existance of human beings (and not only that, as similar roles can be observed in other species and genera in the animal world). But the term leadership also names a research and theoretical field that is one of the most researched in all of science today. Leadership as a process – i.e. what is important and how it should be done – and also as a function – i.e. a role or contribution required of a leader by an organisation – is therefore today understood far better.
There are several reasons for high level of interest generated, but two can be highlighted: (1) leadership as a relationship is the fundamental working relationships, and (2) leadership in practice is in need of significant (even radical) change. Let’s look at both points in a little more detail.
Leadership as a relationship defines the quality of our working life
Theory categorised individuals who are part of an organisation into two general categories: leaders and followers. The term follower derives from a traditional understanding of that role. We could say it is a little more appropriate in traditional notion of leadership, where it is assumed that a leader, to say, “cut from a different cloth”, somehow special and a powerful decision-maker, while others merely follow. Today, this conception has changed (which will be presented in bits and pieces throughout posts on this blog). I prefer to refer to them simply as “leader’s colleagues”.
They can play different roles in an organisation, ranging from passive to active and from non-critical to critical. For example, one extreme or pole means waiting for tasks and carrying them out, while the other means looking for problems and solving them on one’s own initiative. One pole may mean doing things that go against our beliefs, values and essentially means working against oneself, while the other may mean testing one’s own ideas and essentially being on a path of self-exploration and self-filfillment. At one pole we learn obedience, at the other we learn decision-making and independence; not only professionally, but also personally.
Relationship with our leader is a fundamental relationship that significantly defines our working environment and our working life, our personal development, personal balance and more.
New era of leadership
As a society, we set ourselves the so-called millenian and sustainable development goals. Those encompass notions like inclusion, equality and fairness. As individuals, we increasingly value a balanced life, health, joy of work, working with purpose and meaning, personal progress and fulfilment of personal goals. (Here I would like to turn my thoughts to intergenerational differences. Representatives of older generations might have difficulty to grasp and accept such switch in expectations, but I see it as a step forwards that is essentially build on their [or yours, if you are a representative] past work and efforts.)
Traditional approach to leadership works in many ways in the opposite direction to those newly-founded expectations and societal goals as well. This has led to extensive research and work on examples and models of leadership that eventually not only better meet the new objectives of society and individuals, but also enable us to deliver better business and economic results (capitalising on elevated motivation levels that new approaches bring).
If we want to achieve these different results and build better working environments, we need to start recognising that certain leadership models and practices that are in place are from a different time and need to be radically changed. It is time to move beyond these patterns, set new rules and start looking towards new examples.
About new views on leadership
Writings in this chapter will cover the topic of leadership. Specifically, the so-called new paradigm of leadership. A term paradigm, simply put, means how something is understood in its content. Role of the leader used to be understood differently than it is today. A leader is not expected to have all the answers or to bare all the responsibility, but rather to make sure the answers are being searched for and that each member bares his or her share of that possibly quite heavy burden of responsibility.
We will look into what a leader should do for a group differently today than what was true before. When an opinion starts to penetrate and replace the previous one, we say that a new paradigm is entering society. The writings will not give prescriptions, because good, quality leadership (or followership) has little to none to do with these. They will focus on explanations. What is important is learning and understanding, knowledge and awareness. And as one learns and grows, the world grows.
Paradim 