The Leadership Gap

Hi Lolly. Crazy times indeed. Maybe it’s more likely that the soulful people who get it will step up and take leadership roles, than leaders who don’t get it will change their stripes. The gap will be filled either way.

Thanks Lolly,

Yopu are so right to be provocative. Our leaders need to self disciver themselves and a transformation in the world. It is crucial. Can I recommend a very good book – The leader on the Couch by Manfred Kets de Vries.

Graham Cowle

Dear Lolly,

there is no leadership gap. Leaders, in the traditional way, have become obsolete. The new “leader” is a servant, who helps swarms of people find direction and work together.
He/she is one of the swarm, and his purpose is to give some vision of possible achievement, some guidance in finding directions, and mediation to keep the swarm together to the point where it will, for certain, split into different swarms with (slightly) different courses to different paths of acting.

The workforce will have to understand they are leading as a (temporary) collective, the “leader” will have to understand that its role is giving directive and motivational guidance to enable the workforce to stick together as long as it is mutual benificiary.

I believe that, if this is what you adress to as “leadership gap”, then you are right. But I wouldn’t call it leadership, because what is necessary is just one of the roles in the workingforce. No hierarchy, just use of natural skills and experience.

Rob.

Hello Lolly,

Thanks for the interesting article. “Leadership Gap” is a good term, It sounds like a lack of heart, a dose of cluelessness, and a sprinkle of missed opportunities for compassion.

Now I am thinking of ways I might apply the thoughts you just inspired, into action in my own practice.

Greetings from Germany,
Bill

Interesting idea! As I read this piece one phrase stuck out “Transparency and authenticity are the new buzzwords…”

I agree that transparency and authenticity are important but I’m not so sure they’re new concepts. Both words bring to mind a single word – Trust!

Leaders can be fast and they can be bold but the key is whether or not we trust them and what they say. I believe your idea is valid if the leaders use the tools available to spread the word of their organization. However, if they only seek to advertise and not inform or seek stardom without performance then speed is the least of the problems.

You’ve hit on something very unique and I’ll be interested in following the response to this topic.

Happen to work inside one of those large multi-nationals, this perspective is right on the mark….

Another good book related to this dichotomy is “Turn the Ship Around” by David Marquet.

It’s about moving from a leader/follower to leader/leader model inside of a rigid, bureaucratic environment of a nuclear class submarine in the Navy!

Lolly,

thanks for your kind reaction.

I like to add one sentence to your list of “Be’s”. 🙂
Be one of the participants in the work force, and not above it.

For: The team is more than the leader, and even more WITH the leader within.

Rob.

Hi Lolly

Love the article and love the discussion after it. I think that the whole thing is summed up for me with the phrase “Leadership is action NOT position” and for leadership to be effective the person leading has to be engaged, truly engaged in whatever it is that their people need at that time.

Most good leaders know that if they build trust their people will tell them what they need, their job is to then make sure that the obstacles are taken out of the way.

Often one of the best ways to build that trust is to be there and to be present. There is no substitution for that.

I take life lessons and I turn them into simple formulas that are easy to remember and I did one on this topic. If you’re interested in it let me know and I will post a link to the article in another comment.

Love n Hugs
Steve

Hi Lolly,
Your small article is very thought provoking..Thank you for this….I feel in today’s context what makes a leader wholesome is passion, learnability and fire in the belly…..it may sounds little different. I have learned these during the process of developing leaders and seeing them performing at the work place.

Dilep

Lolly – well said. I as we teeter on the edge of fiscal cliffs and triple dip recessions – there is indeed a gap. It’s one that leaders need to deal with for sure. Whether they can remains to be seen. Change will be required to succeed because the business as usual philosophy does not seem to be working.

In a world of of constant innovation, information, and 24/7 work cycles, value is found in the relationships where meaning is born.

It is no longer about speed, information, and innovation; these things are ubiquitous and in a sense, democratized, accessible to everyone.

It is what and how we connect that matters. That is where we distinguish ourselves.

I totally agree that there’s a leadership gap. I started out interested in bullying prevention but am now even more interested in leadership as the anti-bully. Teaching leadership from a very young age is so important. I think we have many adults in positions of power that don’t actually know what leadership is but perhaps if they started valuing leadership when they were very young, there would be no gap. This is why, along with award-winning author, Kathryn Otoshi, I’ve developed a leadership campaign for elementary school called One Can Count. “Sometimes it just takes One” so thank you for being one that is making a difference.

Great article Lolly. As a leader if we are aware and conscious of being transparent and authentic. Then there is nothing to worry about the sweet spot.

Let your heart speak, People are too anxious to listen.

Feel free to communicate, People will happily join you.

Let people find their truth in your words.

Really enjoyed your post Lolly, thank you.

I agree with what you are sharing.

It is accepted that most businesses are primarily focused on the Doing, hence the look on the Leader’s faces when you ask about the heart being the most important aspect. My take is that we need to introduce more Being into the business, (a place where heart, listening, courage, gratitude reside).

Not to replace Doing, but to engage in more being before the doing.

Doing is typically driven from the masculine (not just the male) and the Being is from the feminine (not just the female)

The impact of this will be a shift in the actions taken, the decisions made, the behaviour, the words, the images, etc., which in turn will have a shift in impact/connection with the end customer, as it will resonate with them differently.

Colin

Dear Lolly,

I’m a middle-aged South African coccatian male, I mention this only due to my perception that political, social and economic circumstances could prohibit leadership growth within an organisation in context of cultural, political and socio-economic situations of a country and an organisation.

I have commenced reading your writings on the Leadership Gap, and align and identify with many similarities in my own demons, however, in the context I opened with herein, wouldn’t you be of the view that aspirational leaders are ‘constrained’ to achieving success under these circumstances? I find as if my efforts to move up the corporate leadership scale are frustrated by these factors and difficult merchant banking type line managers.

Warm regards

Harold Miller
South Africa