Rol,
Good Day to you,
Yes, I have read some of Kouzes and Posner, Credibility and The Leadership
Challenge. I do not have their definition at my fingertips, but I have
seen Jim Kouzes give a presentation the the Second Annual Leadership
Development Conference last June In San Francisco. I was there giving two
presentations as well.
Before I make Comment let me make a couple of notes so that some
background to my words will be on the table so to speak.
Here is a quote I find so rich and meaningful, It was made by William F.
Foster, who used to be part of the leadership program at the University of
San Diego, and who is now at Indiana University.
"Leadership, in the final analysis, is the ability of humans to relate
deeply to each other in the search for a more perfect union. Leadership is
a consensual task, a sharing of ideas and a sharing of responsibilities,
where *leader* is a leader for the moment only, where the leadership
exerted must be validated by the consent of followers, and where
leadership lies in the struggles of a community to find meaning for
itself"
Foster goes on to say the a leader is an embodied individual and
leadership is a shared and communal concept.
Interesting, Peter Drucker says the only common thing about leaders is
that they all have followers, Ron Heifeitz of Harvard, says that to do
leadership alone is tantatmount to committing suicide. So we know that
Leadership is really about accomplishing things in some sort of collective
dynamic, so what don't we credit the other people in the dynamic for thier
involvement. I mean this is exacly what the concept of the learning
organization tries to do. But industrial writers are forevery talking
about leaders as though they are gods from Mt. Olympus, who we find so
captivating we will follow them to the ends of the earth. Well that might,
and I say might have been true for the industrail revolution but we are a
much more informed, and critical society today. Wouldn't you agree?
One way to unmask whether or not a person is, shall we say industrial or
postindustrial is to ask the simple question "According to his or her
ideas where does leadership reside?" Or try this one, In this leadership
model, "Who owns leadership? If you ask these questions, I think you can
uncover quickly the essence of the message, According to Kouzes and Posner
and just about everyone else the Leader owns leadership, it resides in the
deeds of the leader as the sole active member of the leadership dynamic.
AS I have said before followers in these models are just that followers.
In fact, inplied in these ideas is that the term followers is pejorative.
Oh by the way, be careful of what I call, the Leadership "flip-flop" game.
Many leadership writers, talk a good game about leadership for the
communal good, but when you tear away the mask, what you find is the only
person who is bestowing this communal good is the leader, the others are
just there to receive the goods. I don' t believe that, I believe everyone
has a right, obligation and actively seeks a sense of meaning to their
work. this is not something reserved to the elite group called leaders.
This is one of the reasons that in the collaborative leadership concept I
espouse or the postindustrial leadership perspective Joe Rost espouses we
have changed the term followers to collaborators or partners. It
represents an equity and equality among those in the leadership dynamic,
because leadership is really about what those in the collective dynamic do
together. By the way visit my Website and the splash page has a picture or
graphic of collaborative leadership as I have integrated the work of
several writers including Senge, Rost, Foster and James MacGregor Burns.
(please do not interpret this as a shameless plug)
Ok so there it is my opinion.
Let me know what you think
My Best to you
JD
At 08:04 PM 4/16/98 -0400, you wrote:
>Your comments on leadership are interesting.=A0 Have you read Kouzes &
>Posner?=A0 Do you have an opinion of their definition of leadership?
>
>Rol Fessenden
--"John P. Dentico" <jdentico@adnc.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>