He confirms through research what my experience and observation have
taught me.
"What I discovered after reading hundreds of books in management,
psychology, sociology and theology, was that leadership development cannot
happen apart from the motivation and initiative of the individual."
This was a common theme in the large group I mentioned. Someone became a
leader when they had a deeply held passion or conviction about something.
One person said that leadership for her was born in a moment of deep
caring. For her, it was very true that friends, mentors, and loved ones
were very important in her ability to become a leader. Interestingly,
these important people were not there "in the moment" when her leadership
was born. On the contrary, most people urged her at that moment not to
get involved. These people were there earlier in her lie when certain
values and beliefs were being formed. Personally I think these values and
beliefs can be formed at any time, but they require an investment from the
person.
Ed says, "I cannot underestimate the requirement of personal initiative
for the development of leadership." This was a second key message from
the large group I mentioned. For many people, their moment of eadership
was a scary step. Frightening. It took enormous courage for them to step
forward. Actually leading turned out to be easier than the first step,
that big decision, that moment of deep caring.
So, among perhaps a dozen variables, 2 universal themes were deep caring,
and enormous personal initiative. Another key point that bears repeating
was what was not on the list. Among those in the room, were all levels of
supervisors from president to front line. 600 stories of leadership. Not
one suggestion that a title of VP had something to do with it.
Of course, encouragement from higher authorities can be helpful, but that
also was not on the list of a dozen variables. It is nice, but not
critical to the process of becoming a leader.
So if you want to be a leader, don't look in the head office for
permission, look in the mirror. What do you care deeply about? What do
you feel energized about? Where will you take the initiative? It's no
one's decision but yours.
And it will be a lot more fun.
--Rol Fessenden LL Bean 76234.3636@compuserve.com
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>