Chris, that's a question with a fluid medium, and an answer that remains
relatively constant. You realize, I'm sure, that there are no
organizational norms today. We are in transition. Some organizations
look little changed from organizations of 40 to 50 years ago. Others
resemble living systems, fully adaptive with dissipative structures. Most
lie somewhere within these extremes. Leadership qualities haven't changed
overmuch--people often confuse managerial qualities with leadership
qualities. Our biggest cultural problem appears to define what it is that
leaders do--and I suspect that has more to do with confusing
characteristics of different people who have been in roles than it has to
do with defining attributes of leadership.
Leaders need to be able to lead when followers need someone to follow.
That's a way to describe emergent leadership, I guess. Usually this
occurs because they know where they're going. They can describe the
route--or at least what's at the end of the trail. They exude some
confidence in themselves, the people around them, the purpose in which
they share common interests. They can describe the common, or shared,
purpose. They dominate for some special reasons which fit the situation.
The most important quality leaders may need is the ability to appear and
then disappear at the right time--this is unextricably linked to the
concept of creative flow, I think. When a person is in the flow of
leadership--that is the right time to lead. When the creative flow is
gone, that is when that person must rely on other skills--or power--or
simply merge back into the community or organization and let the next
leader emerge.
Perhaps the most important leadership quality for this new age is for each
and every person to accept the mantle of self-leadership, to adopt
personal responsibility and accountability for their own life--for the way
their society and its' institutions work or don't work. It's tough to be
a victim when you're responsible as the leader.
This is probably not what you wanted to read. You'll have to forgive
me--I've been reading "on dialog" tonight--and it seems to fit.
walk in peace,
Doc
Chris Mathison wrote:
> What are the necessary leadership qualities for a leader in organizations
> today?
-- "It is a singular characteristic of love that we cannot hide it where it exists, or pretend it where it does not exist." -Marquise de SabliThresholds--developing critical skills for living organizations Richard C. "Doc" Holloway Please visit our new website, still at <http://www.thresholds.com/> <mailto:learnshops@thresholds.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>