The greatest minds in society haven’t agreed on what leadership is, what makes a great leader, or how to develop great leaders…
Leadership is about traits and attributes, it’s about behaviours and skills; it’s about approaches and styles; it’s about relationships with others; it’s about who you are and the impact you have on others; it’s about strategic focus and knowing/sensing how everything fits together.
Also, effective leadership depends on the leader, the ‘followers’ at whatever stage of their own journeys, and the wider situational environment. So many permutations interacting and constantly changing – the leader changes, the ‘followers’ change, the situation is always changing…
So where can we find the perfect leader? No-one can be the perfect leader, no-one ever has and no-one ever will be.
So what is the point of developing your own understanding of leadership and your own ability as a leader?
It’s not about becoming a perfect leader – it’s not actually about the end result – it’s about the journey…
The leadership journey is about discovering yourself, finding out about how you relate to others and developing an appreciation of the complexity of different situations. The leadership journey travelled well is a humbling experience. We find out what we can’t do, we find out what others can do, and we develop a passion for the world we seek.
In the end, we give up on becoming an effective leader, and develop, in the words of Jim Collins, “an absolute, obsessed, burning, compulsive ambition” that isn’t about us. An ambition for a cause; for a company; for the work; for a set of values; for a community.
We accidentally develop humility, ‘an ability to channel our ambition into something bigger than ourselves’, and it is arguably this quality of ‘humility’, when infused with ‘professional will’ that makes the difference between a good leader and a great leader (Collins, 2001).
So, how do we become a great leader?
Focus on the ambition for the cause – don’t’ try to be a great leader – trust the leadership journey.