Content area
Full text
"No one is great enough or wise enough for any of us to surrender our destiny to. The only way in which anyone can lead us is to restore to us the belief in our own guidance." --Henry Miller, author
What does the word leadership mean to you? When you think of a leader, do you conjure up an image of an all-powerful tough-guy of comic book hero proportions? Do you think of a seemingly omniscient individual blessed with unusual foresight? Perhaps you think of larger-than-life people who were apparently marked for greatness.
If any of these standard descriptions of a leader matches your own, Henry Miller's opinion expressed above probably surprises you. Over the centuries, we have traditionally imbued our leaders with a sort of superhuman quality. In recent years, it has become increasingly fashionable to decry the lack such leadership in today's world.
By these conventional notions of leadership, there is little argument that the world is deficient in this regard. As the preceding quotation suggests, however, it may be time to consider a new paradigm of leadership.
AN EMERGING VIEW OF THE NEW LEADERSHIP--In theory and actual practice, a fresh view of leadership is emerging that no longer focuses on an elite handful of superhumans. Rather, it speaks to a larger group of individuals who possess the ability to lead people to guide themselves to do what they were always capable of doing. While this approach still allows for the specialness of leaders, it also puts a healthy portion of the responsibility back where it belongs; that is, on all of us.
Before discussing this new approach to leadership, let's briefly review some of the other, more traditional concepts of leadership. (The following is intended to serve as a simple, somewhat historical perspective to give us a basis for comparison.)
TRADITIONAL VIEWS OF LEADERSHIP
An abbreviated version of the features of three views of leadership appears below. The first two, which have been labeled champion and visionary, represent commonly held perspectives, while the last describes the newer approach which has been designated here as servant.
Although this illustration concentrates on the differences, certain commonalities do exist. In all three approaches, people classified as leaders may be said to possess high energy levels,...