By Dr. Paul L. Gerhardt, PhD
www.paulgerhardt.com
There is an age-older debate whether leaders are born or created. Ever wonder why some people seem to be natural leaders while others seem to never get a clue? Twenty-first Century organizations must realize that leaders can be developed well to meet the needs of this new competitive environment। Studies point out that leaders can be developed and that leadership is usually an evolving process. The act of being a leader takes place through the various interactions of people. It is not only through bureaucratic influence from the top to bottom.
Leadership takes place at all levels of every organization and is all about inspiring people to give their very best in each and every action. There are numerous theories and studies that have taken place since the 1800's, however many of the ones that leaders use today came about from studies in hard sciences which include labor, business, chemistry, biology, the military, and physics.
Complexity leadership theory is the study of intermingling agents, which act with limited data and results in interactions which can generate varying outcomes for each leader, rather than the expected of the sum of what some may expect will result if you simply added up the each of the pieces of work from each employee. It is the goal of each leader to have employees work together to meet the goals of the department and ultimately the organization. In theory, effective leaders are directing the actions of each individual, so that they understand how their specific work is necessary and does impact the success of the organization. In essence, each leader has a responsibility of leading his/her employees to a genuine feeling that they do indeed make a positive difference.
Studying great leaders and understanding how to successfully apply leadership theory is what the best leaders do. The basic leadership principles can be learned and must be at the core of every leader's decision. Failing to treat followers in a way that facilitates individual greatness, means that a leader is simply failing at being great . Administrators must do much more than focus on control and efficiency. They must genuinely inspire a sense of value and willingness to contribute greatness of each employee while the adapting to each and every hurdle that emerges. Leaders must realize that there will always be emergent leaders in every department that must be recognized and groomed to continue to grow. Likewise, each member must recognize their own value and a feeling of accomplishment in every action as it contributes to the success of the totality of its organizational parts.
A classic example, from the leadership literature is what takes place in a flock of geese. When geese fly together, each bird has a set of simple “rules” for the speed, distance, etc. in relation to other birds it flies with. The individual behaviors on part of all the birds in the flock lead to the “V” formation of the flock overall – this is something “qualitatively different” than the totality of each individual parts.
Similarly, with effective leadership in action, the combination of every person’s action is suggested to lead to outcomes that are outside of the scope of any one person. Leaders must be adaptive and recognize that leadership can occur in any role at any level in the organization and is not tied to a specific level or position. It consists of creative interaction, inspiration, kindness, and shared leadership which leads ultimately to innovation.
Great leaders should realize the complexity of their jobs. Effective leaders enable adaptive change to occur by empowering each individual to give his/her best freely. They must enable each employee to not only want to give their hand and feet freely, but inspire their minds and hearts to share abundantly for the betterment of the organization. For this to happen, there are several conditions needed in order for this to occur regularly. First, there needs to be a genuine feeling of collaboration among the all individuals working in the team and players of each external systems related to functions of each related individual. Leaders must know that excellence comes from vigorous, dynamic networks of people linked through their individual jobs that frequently go beyond the limits of a workgroup or a sub-unit within the organization. Each interaction of every employee must be facilitated by a leader to allow for the free exchange of multiple points of view and new information which may have been stifled in a traditional model of leadership.
The second condition is that there must be a genuine feeling of freedom among each of the representatives of every department of the organization. Individuals must fully-recognize the inter-dependency of their workplace, which is a natural multifaceted adaptive system. Effective leaders must realize that Interaction by itself is not enough. Leaders must be an active-driving force which nurtures information exchange and enables the development of newly formed and inspired to be great--realities.
Smart leaders know that the third condition is that healthy tension is needed in order to provide inspiration that successfully motivates individuals to enact and create adaptive-positive change. Internal tension can be created in situations of diversity, wherein systems, communication, personality dynamics varying constraints and interdependency tend to nurture creativity. External tension may be created through actions of differing levels of leadership.
The bottom line about effective leadership is that it is an active process and there must be intentional and thoughtful actions from each leader. Leaders must inspire greatness and model it with integrity of every action. Every employee must be empowered to be his/her very best, while given the tools and autonomy to deliver success. Leadership greatness can be developed through training and on-going studies. It should be nurtured everyday intentionally and positively.
Copyright © 2012 by Dr. Paul L. Gerhardt. All right reserved.
