Leaders and Leadership
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Here is a very interesting question regarding leaders and leadership. If an alien landed on Earth, and said to you, "Take me to your leader". Who would you take them to and why?
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Great question, Robert. The first name to pop in my head was Oprah.
As Covey or Bean would say, "until we understand, we will never connect or be understood."
I always have thought the concept of "servant leadership" is the most beneficial to mankind and holds the most potential to achieve results. That would be the person I'd look for, the Ghandi, The Christ, the executive volunteering to help his fellow man somewhere in something bigger than him/herself.
From the source of all knowledge....the Wiki....
In approximately 600 B.C., the Chinese sage Lao Tzu wrote The Tao Te Ching, a strategic treatise on servant leadership:
(Quote from The Way of Leading People: Unlocking Your Integral Leadership with the Tao Te Ching.)
The concept of servant leadership in the west can be traced back, at least partly, to Jesus, who taught his disciples that
Many institutions and individuals have adapted the Servant Leadership approach to Christian spirituality. Most notably, Timothy H. Warneka has applied the Servant Leadership perspective to the Roman Catholic tradition in his book, Black Belt Leader, Peaceful Leader: An Introduction to Catholic Servant Leadership.
Robert Greenleaf is recognized as the father of servant leadership. Greenleaf (1977) described servant leadership in this manner:
"It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead...The difference manifest itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people's highest priority needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: do those served grow as persons, do they grow while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?"
Is there any doubt? I'd take the aliens to Charlie and Terry. From there, they could take the aliens to ANYONE!
Bobcat Gothwait, He could keep any one off balance.
In a spiritual sense: I will give the aliens a mirror. Leader & leadership starts from one self / within first. I believe every one has potential and should be a leader at least to themselves.
In an analytical sense, I'd probably question the aliens back "Why do you need to meet our leader or with regards to what ?" depending on that my answer will vary.
Henry Joshua
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Seth Godin is a marketing guru behind a few of my favorite business books. He recently penned this post on leadership.
Leadership is now the strongest marketing strategy
Yelling with gusto used to be the best way to advertise your wares. There was plenty of media and if you had plenty of money, you were set.
Today, of course, yelling doesn't work so well.
What works is leading. Leading a (relatively) small group of people. Taking them somewhere they'd like to go. Connecting them to one another.
It's enough if the tribe you lead knows about you and cares about you and wants to follow you. It's enough if your leadership changes things, galvanizes the audience and puts the status quo under stress. And it's enough if the leadership you provide makes a difference.
Go down the list of online success stories. The big winners are organizations that give tribes of people a platform to connect.
Go down the list of fashion businesses or business to business organizations. Same thing. Charities, too. Churches, certainly.
It's so tempting to believe that we are merely broadcasters, putting together a play list and hurtling it out to the rest of the world. Louder is better. But we're not. Now we're leaders.
People want to connect. They want you to do the connecting.
You can read more from Seth on his blog.
I' take them to "The Elders", which is the group that Richard Branson formed.
See more here: http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/07/17/africa/17elders.php
I'd make sure to take them to Neccar Island so that while they're talking I can be out windsurfing, etc.
(For those who don't know, Neccar Island is Richard Branson's personal island he purchased back in his 20's when he strted Virgin Records, etc.)
All joking aside, I'd say The Elders have a pretty good roster to handle that situation.
Andrew
The latest issue of Performance Magazine includes an article titled The Test of a Leader, by Lee Iacocca, in which he lists the "Nine Cs of Leadership." They are:
Iacocca's commentary on Courage is quotable:
A leader must have COURAGE. I'm talking about balls. Courage in the 21st century does not mean posturing and bravado. Courage is a commitment to sit down at the negotiating table and talk.
You can download a copy of the magazine and read the full article here:
http://www.theperformancemagazine.com/
Make your day magnificent!
Linda
I tend to agree with Henry. If aliens asked me who my leader was, I would simply answer, "My leader is me." Then I would ask, "How would you like to proceed from here?"
My thinking is, these people (aliens) are coming to me with a problem. Let me take responsibility for this problem. Upon learning more I could, a) solve their problem, or b) take them to someone I know who could be of more help.
Regards,
Dale Hetrick