Recently one of our lead facilitators forwarded me an article asking for my thoughts as it related to one of the programs we offer at Eagle’s Flight.
The article was titled: Is Heroic Leadership All Bad? I provided my facilitator with my thoughts, and I wanted to share them on my blog as well.
When it comes to leadership style, my personal bias is not to categorize leadership into one style or another, but rather to recognize that great leaders are truly chameleons. They need to adapt to the circumstances in which they find themselves.
Sometimes the leader is working with a team that is not experienced, and so needs to take more of an authoritative position; sometimes the leader is working with a highly skilled team and can rely more on gathering input and shaping a decision.
In my opinion, the challenge of wearing the mantle of leadership is less about having a style, or an approach, but more about being able to evaluate the situation in which the leader finds themselves, evaluating the strengths of those being lead, looking at the context in which the leadership must occur, and then adapting in order to optimize each individual’s performance within those circumstances.
My thinking would be to focus less on the kind of leadership that is necessary in today’s world and more on the kind of behaviors that are critical in those who are being led. The emphasis should shift to optimizing their potential to contribute to the leader in any circumstance; and then equipping the leader to take the best advantage of that potential within the circumstances or situation that they find themselves in.
With that thinking in mind, the actual qualities that define great leadership are many and varied, and all may come into play in greater or lesser degrees depending on the situation.