I have noticed an overwhelming obsession with leadership in recent times. Don’t get me wrong. I too am a student of leadership with a Doctoral degree in leadership studies. I do understand its importance; at least I think I do. But as I reflect more and more especially on the major underlying themes on sites like LinkedIn which focus on professional networking and leadership development, I have noticed the slavish fascination with leadership and its tagged corollary, “success” almost to the exclusion of other vital roles in personal and organizational life.
Everyone it would seem wants to lead or to be an expert on leadership. We have seemingly made leaders and leadership a religion where we believe that leading “right” always brings with it ultimate success, personal aggrandizement and great reward at both the personal and institutional domains. Now, these leadership theories and expert insights may all have some element of truth but like any “cult”, focussing on any one aspect of truth to the exclusion of all others, is just not enough! The current obsession with leadership ignores the bigger picture and instead focuses on what is popular and in keeping with the self-focus of the 21st century digital, social media age, where one’s brand (not necessarily one’s reality) can be cleverly crafted with a few choice posts and well-chosen images.
We have made idols of well-known “successful” leaders and have de-emphasized the need to find one’s individual path, which very well may have nothing to do with leadership or anything like it. One’s individual leadership path may also be far from ideal and may be a lesson in pure drudgery or survival. Leadership’s complexity, I notice, is often being ignored or trivialised, as leadership is reduced to a few choice quotes or to a series of five, seven or ten steps as touted by today’s gurus. Refocusing leadership as influence, while valuable, also carries some danger as all influence is not necessarily a good thing. Leaders may bring a type of “influence” to organizations or to scenarios that may sometimes be to the detriment of those involved. For example, leaders on an ego trip or self-serving, narcissistic leaders may use their influence to steer an organization down the wrong path. In other words, leaders are imperfect, fallible human beings who make loads of mistakes and whose actions are not always motivated by the greater good.
Who wants to hear the real truth about leadership minus the lights, cameras and action? Who wants to hear that leadership is a tough place; a lonely space, a place of personal conflict and self-doubt, of unpopularity and rejection, a place of non-appreciation, a place where one runs the risk of being misunderstood or of even being nailed to a literal or figurative cross of condemnation and shame, no matter how good one’s intentions were- remember Jesus Christ?
I agree wholeheartedly with CIO.com’s position (2006) that the idea of a leader’s unfailing optimism can lead to a “disconnection with reality when things get bad” which in turn can produce a “deep cynicism among employees.” This trend of thought maintains that “relentless optimism is akin to manipulating your employees like they were children or criminals, not to be trusted with the truth”. This pseudo optimism which is being touted as a core trait of 21st Century leadership, never sat well with me because it is built on a fake narrative of what it means to truly lead people. It caters to the idea that to experience “success” one must always be in a state of either near euphoria or of personal mastery.
At the other end of this leadership spectrum, is a vital question. If everyone leads every time who will follow? What happens in organizations where people feel forced or pressured into following the path of leadership because of current organizational or even popular culture? Who will acquiesce and support from the sidelines? Who will serve without the entitlement of promotion or recognition lurking in the background of their motivation? Leadership dominates current business discourse and is so much an assumed corollary of personal success that everyone is encouraged to jump on board!
The human need to be better, to self-actualize, to grow, develop, change and achieve is to be encouraged. I think these needs are critical to what makes us transcendent human beings. I, however, think we have made a serious mistake in contextualizing these needs mainly within a construct of leadership and the trappings of external success. This is why everyone talks about leadership because we have mistakenly made life and upward mobility almost exclusively about leadership and influence. Our worship or mythologizing of leadership as referenced by some, places on leaders a larger-than-life expectation and subsumes the leader with a superhuman aura of strength and know-how, which is often unrealistic and fallacious.
Our worship or mythologizing of leadership . . . places on leaders a larger-than-life expectation and subsumes the leader with a superhuman aura of strength and know-how which is often unrealistic and fallacious
Dr. Denise J Charles
Leaders themselves suffer because they are pressured into maintaining this image of success (arms folded, chests puffed up, wide smiles for the camera) instead of admitting their own deficits, shortcomings, or need of support, and even need of direction from others. I am amazed at the similarities emerging in so many leadership stories, as if leaders feel pressured into borrowing each others’ narratives. Which leader has the guts to own up to his/her truth, especially when it is unpopular or departs from the well worn narrative of thriving as a leader?
Uncannily, an imbalanced focus on leadership can also disempower an organization at the macro level as individuals can fail to see the power of their own agency and ability to influence company policy or plans from where they are currently placed. So within this paradigm, nothing gets done as employees adopt a wait and see approach until the real, duly appointed leader shows up.
There is no denying the power of great leadership but it should not be the be-all and end all of experience. lt is but one element of the personal journey and but one facet of the organizational, development paradigm. If we develop the courage to dethrone leadership, then perhaps we may see the real power of the collective emerge.
FUTURE LEARN 2.0 