[font=Arial, sans-serif]I am a Leader Development Specialist-it's my job to read just about anything I can get my hands on about leadership.[/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif]It's a predictable task- I come across all kinds of material; the obscure and/or highly theoretical, the truly transformative, the mainstream that is either too elementary or just plain useless, and the ever perplexing "leadership as trait theory" which I have long ago renamed "Leadership as Hero Worship."[/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif]I recently came across another one of these gems. Within the first 5 paragraphs, the author listed exactly 103 traits that effective leaders have apparently nailed. It seems that everything they think, feel, reveal, manage, delegate, execute, communicate, envision, create, collaborate (and so on) has been mastered. Given that this book was written by a pretty "big name" in the leadership arena, I was taken aback at how commonplace this has become: the tendency we have to offer up leaders as "Heroes"-insinuating that in order for the "rest of us" to demonstrate "real" leadership, we must become Heroes too. [/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif]I know you have read this kind of thing before-the alignment of hundreds of mastered traits to the average Joe, who then,can no longer be on our level but has risen above the "rest of us" leaving us to know that we need to aspire to master these things too in order to powerfully influence. Ironically, however, I don't know anyone who can specifically name any leader in their world who infallibly wears the Cape.[/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif]I am not disputing that effective leaders do these things-I am just arguing that the way we depict the mastery of such traits is contributing to the idealistic and ultimately unhelpful conversation around how real leadership emerges. I don't know anyone who feels they have mastered all of these traits-so if you feel like you're in the same boat, know that there is hope for the "rest of us"![/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif]Here's why:[/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif]1. If they are "Heroes", they weren't always like this. Leaders who seem to really know what they are doing and get effective results most likely learned some valuable lessons in the School of Hard Knocks-you may have heard of it. Missed opportunities, bad calls, Candid Camera moments, epic failures...all of these things have probably happened to these folks. All they did was capture the priceless lesson in each event. got up, dusted off their bruised egos and did something different the next time. Is the difference between "Heroes" and the "Rest of us" just one mortifying moment away? Well, that's up to you.[/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif]2. They aren't like this all the time. I don't know anyone who doesn't make mistakes. I don't know anyone who doesn't occasionally feel like telling someone to "shove off", or doesn't lose their cool at an inopportune time or make a judgement call that doesn't flop-so can we please stop talking about "Hero" leaders as if they can do no wrong? Even the best of the best are not on their game all the time-this is important to "the rest of us" because it is easy to feel like we are not making progress when we aren't living up to such high expectations. I work with thousands of people a year-many of them are figuratively throwing in the "leadership" towel because of such comparisons. We can't have that. [/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif]3.Who told them they were Hero worthy anyway? Let's put a good dose of reality into this conversation: for every "leader/Hero" there is someone out there that thinks he or she is a jerk. Remember-the impact of someone's influence is subjective and unless a leader is asking everyone in their sphere of influence if they are the "end all be all" leader, how do they know that they are that good? Even the best leaders, possessing all those fabulous and "worshipful" traits that authors applaud, have a dissenter in the crowd who just isn't buying it. The point here is that we must be careful to realize that there isn't a point, specifically, that we are looking to get to where everyone will agree we have "made it". Instead, focus on constant development and tip #1 and #2.[/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif]4. Leadership is the process of discovery, not just in the results. One of the gravest mistakes we make is not seeing the leadership opportunities in the process of developing into great leadership. If leadership is fundamentally about the process, methods and results of influence, the truth is, you are influencing someone at all times. If you are intentionally working on your leadership impact, then you are leading in the here and now even if you are not "Hero Worthy" (yet). I get the sense that many people are waiting for the moment when they have learned how to be and demonstrate all those glorious traits, or when they hit a certain level in the org chart. It's presented to us, through the various leadership resources, in such a way that it seems like real leadership comes when you attain all these things but nothing could be further from the truth.[/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif]There are many theories as to why we have a tendency to over-idolize the concepts of leadership or even, certain people in our professional circles. Some of those theories involve dangerous possible outcomes such as the surrender of our power by placing total trust in someone when it may not be warranted-the most critical consequence of "Leadership as Hero Worship". But in most cases, our intentions are good: we just want to identify what traits make positive, authentic and effective leaders so that we can learn what we must do and become in order to be truly transformative, but often, understanding this as an imperfect process gets lost in translation. .[/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif]If we examine this good intention, we will also find that we aren't really talking about a person-we are talking about traits, concepts and ideals all lumped together in a neat description of what a person should aspire to develop over time. Our exposure to these "lumps" without dialogue and inquiry leads us to believe that doing or being anything less means we are falling short. It can make us feel like being an effective leader is something we will become in our future- and nothing could be further from the truth.[/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif]You lead NOW. Everything you do-the good, bad and the ugly. So lead as wisely as you can and go change the world...you Hero, you.[/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif]What do you think? Share your story here![/font]
[font=Arial, sans-serif]Allison McClintick M.A, is a Leader Development Specialist and the owner of FlightLead. She can be reached at www.flightleadconsulting.com[/font]
