Leadership Does

“The concept to be taught and practiced is that leadership is not something deposited in a position but is instead a process that can be shared with others.” (Dyer, 63).

Leadership is a process, not a position. It is not a title or a last name. It is also not a number. But our society acts as though all these things are true. Why is this? Why does gender, race or title give automatic leadership status. If it’s not any of these things, what does leadership really mean? What does the author of this quote mean by process. Does that mean that the president is not in a leadership position but a leadership process. Why don’t we just say that. Because it sounds weird? But is that true? Is leadership a series of actions taken to achieve a particular event? The authors of Team Building say it is. They say that a leader is one who sees that some action is needed, and takes initiative to complete it. So does that make anyone with initiative a leader?

I think the world focuses too much on what a leader is, instead of searching for what a leader does. A leader is someone with leadership skills, but not everyone uses those skills consistently. In fact, I would argue no one uses their skills to the best of their ability all of the time. I think our society often gets caught up in discussing the leaders in this country and how well or not well they are leading. As if the title of leader gives them the ability to lead. Yes, you might argue they had to lead to get to that position of power, but I am not sure that is entirely the case. In reality, they were only required to lead better than their competition. And by this I mean they were required to be perceived as leading better than their competition. As long as this leader outperformed the others in at least one more situation, he would be the winner. And often times in competitions such as these that involve elimination, you end with one, seemingly the best, man standing. But is he really the best? Just because he won the last battle does that mean he will lead just as well in the war?

I have seen many situations in my life where the most vocal person is seen as leader. This person would be voted for for any position within the group and would likely be thought of as the best. In reality, though, this is not the person people look to for advice. He’s also not the person the group follows. How can it be that someone can be a leader but not be followed? I think this is the root of the issue. I would guess this gap between perceived leader and real leader is present in many groups. People naturally follow people that they view as successful. When the most successful of the group is a quiet one, his skills are often overlooked as being those of a leader. But, if you were to observe this person, it wouldn’t take long to realize that he or she sees things that need to be done and does them. Again, don’t ask what a leader is, ask what a leader does.

When the previous thoughts on leadership are combined, I think the real issue comes out. Too often, our society bases their definition of leadership on a person’s title or personality instead of on their actions. This often leads to disappointment in their chosen leader. In the end, it is not that the leader is not performing as well as he once did, it is that he was never as good as they perceived him to be. I challenge you to look beyond the face and the spoken words of a candidate, and search for what they spend the majority of their time doing. After all, if leadership is a process, then it is ongoing and takes many steps to achieve the end goal.