Leadership Excellence: Who has it? How do you get it?

Leadership Excellence...what is it? Is it attainable? Do YOU have it?

Isn't leadership excellence what the political campaigns going on all over the U.S. are all about? Aren't we looking for really good, no...GREAT... leadership in our President as well as all other members of our political process? Does great leadership come with the territory - is it something you LEARN or something you're BORN with? How do you know if the person you're depending on is a great leader?

Well, I Twittered the question this morning and got some interesting answers.

Anthony Russo of Great America Networks Conferencing said this,"When the people you lead excel beyond levels that they thought were possible, but you knew they could reach."

Slipdown (from Five Rainbows, a publishing company) said, "Easy.. Leadership excellence is when people willingly follow...repeatedly...and are enthusiastic about it."

Good friend, Diane Danielson of Downtown Women's Club, said, "Leadership Excellence = when you stand up to leave the room, everyone wants to follow."

Local blogger, Chuck Simmins, of NorthShore Journal, said, "People follow without feeling like they're following."

I couldn't help but notice how followership appeared in three of the four replies. Great leaders, it would seem, have faithful followers. My good mentor and client, Lee Thayer, says as much in his blog, The Leader's Journey, and goes further to say, "Are you Event Driven or Purpose Driven?" in his post, Leadership Self-Analysis.

I bring him into the conversation not because he's a client, but because he has been "in the trenches" for such a long time, as he likes to say. He's a bit over 80 years and still going strong. His teachings are profound...and not for the faint of heart. I challenge you to read his blog and engage him in conversation. You will be glad you did.

As November looms on the near horizon, I find myself pondering the leadership question over and over. I view it from the female perspective (MY female perspective; which may not be the same as Hillary Clinton's or Sarah Palin's perspective), and from a non-gender perspective (as much as that is possible, given that I do have a gender), and I always come back to Thayer's point of view:

"We don't have a shortfall of leaders. Ranging from adequate to horrible, we are overwhelmed with people ready to be seen as "leaders." What we do have is a shortage of followers --whether as citizens or as thinkers. So far as I know, there are no courses in B-schools (or elsewhere in universities or corporate training programs) on "followership." One pundit observed that we have 25,000 books on managing and leading, but only four on following. If we define "following" as learning the competencies for providing leadership, we would have a glimpse of reality. A competent follower always trumps an incompetent leader."

Therefore, the coming election will say more about us, as followers, than it will say about McCain or Obama as leaders. Yes?

How do you lead? Is a business leader different than a political leader? Should we all be practicing good followership, before we adopt the mantle of 'leader'?

Which group seems more compelling - those 25,000 books on managing and leading, or those FOUR on following?

And so, to turn the question around: What makes a good follower?

Comments

[Diane K. Danielson]

Love the collection of comments. Thanks for including me! As to what makes a good follower, I think it's having a solid sense of self so that you choose wisely who to follow. As for leaders, I actually think it's a good thing to not always know where exactly you are going. In fact, those leaders who are so completely definitive kind of scare me. It means they're not open to different ideas.

I remember a conversation I had with a very big leader in the women's community in Boston back in 2003 because I was trying to decide whether I should fold the Downtown Women's Club (which at the time only had 300 members in Boston). This woman told me: "You have 300 people following you and that makes you a leader whether you like it or not -- even if you have no idea where you are going. If I were you, I think i'd ask them where the heck you should be headed." And, that's exactly what I did and something I continue to do today of our 11,000 members.

[Miki]

There is nothing in "leadership" that predicts the direction the leader will take.

If you judge leadership by the eagerness of the followers then Hitler and bin Laden qualify just as much as George Washington and Mother Theresa.

Today's politicians of all flavors achieve their leadership by spouting the rhetoric that attracts like-minded followers.That doesn'tmean that they have a vision worth folowing.

Unfortuantely, Americans seem to be more into form than leadership.

(Please excuse the additional link)

[Anthony Russo]

Thanks for the mention in the blog. A lot of good points in there. The pride a good leader gets in seeing their followers achieve is not unlike a parent seeing their children achieve. It makes that extra effort you put into them, so worth it.

Anthony Russo
Conferencing Consultant
Great America Networks Conferencing
arusso@ganconference.com
www.ganconference.com
Skype: anth.russo
Twitter: @AnthonyRusso