Leadership IS a Relational Concept!
Yesterday, I facilitated a workshop on Leadership for a group of managers from a financial services business. One of the questions I asked this group was, “what does leadership look like in your organization? In other words, I wanted them to identify the key characteristics of successful leaders in their organization , characteristics that could form the basis of leadership competencies.
Items that emerged from their small group conversations were characteristics such as integrity, high degree of ethics, being able to articulate a compelling vision, the ability to connect with people, being a good listener to understand the motivations of others, etc. After I captured these items on the flip chart, I asked the group what they noticed about the list they had just generated. After a brief pause, one of the participants said somewhat surprisingly, “there is nothing on the list about being an expert or being technically competent , it’s all about relationships!
Yes, Virginia, leadership is a relational concept. It is extremely difficult to play a leadership role if there are no followers , unless, of course, you believe you are legend in your own mind. To be sure, a leader needs to possess the task relevant competencies to understand the context in which they are leading. However, that expertise, while perhaps necessary for the personal power that a leadership role requires, is not sufficient for good or even great leadership to be present. And this fact is what seems to escape educational institutions and to a certain extent business organizations that focus on developing the content expertise of the individual and just assume that the leadership competencies will emerge when necessary. I am not the only one who believes that there is a void of leadership in many settings. And unless we take a proactive stance that void will continue to the great detriment of all concerned.