The crisis is that there is too much focus on trying to turn morons into leaders. Some people were never meant to lead - they were meant to follow. And if everyone has a shot at being a leader, who's going to follow?
But there are too many fly-by-night leadership organizations popping up offering to turn your marginal managers into exceptional leaders - for a price. These are the organizations who are dumbing-down leadership.
You talk about leadership more now than you did 5 years ago as though it is something everyone MUST aspire to. No it isn't.
Example - Sean Connery's character in the movie Finding Forrester said, "Writers were meant to write for readers who were meant to read."
Leaders are meant to lead the followers who are meant to follow. Even the animal kingdom has the Alpha. And no amount of money, reading or instruction will ever turn a worker-ant into a queen.
Sorry, but you don't become a leader in exchange for money - no more than you become a Ph.D. from buying a diploma on the Internet.
The leadership crisis is:
- that you have become far too preoccupied with leadership;
- that you are so busy reading any and all of the 350,000 books on leadership;
- that you are so busy following everyone else's idea of what leadership is that you are actually following (think about it);
- that you have conversations about leadership only to try to find a place for yourself in it;
- that you ask the same questions each day on the bulletin boards as though no one has ever answered that question;
- that you are aspiring to be a leader because it's fashionable - for the next couple of years anyway;
- you think that if you don't talk about leadership like an expert then you will be perceived as being a mere follower;
- that managers don't manage anymore - it is beneath them to do hands-on management because they are leaders;
- that you force yourself into delusional thinking that yes, anyone can be a leader;
- that you use "leader" in your titles now only to prove your own ego-driven arrogance;
- that you are following the advice of either your peers or self-anointed leaders (which means that the real leaders are likely sitting back, amused at your feeble attempt to find leadership).
Leadership is a life-long commitment to personal excellence (not perfection). It doesn't happen overnight or in a week. It's not a quick fix. It is a lifetime of self-examination, self-acceptance, self-study, self-esteem, self-confidence and self-"consciousness." Leadership has nothing to do with leading - that is simply a by-product of the process. Leadership is about taking control of your own life, your own affairs and your own purpose/mission on this Earth.
Emerson said, "What you are sir, speaks so loudly that I can hardly hear what you say." Now that's leadership. When someone says that to you, only then will you be ready to lead others. Only then will others readily follow.
Leadership is an Attitude. It is NOT a position. It is not a series of traits to be checked off like a grocery list. It is not power. It is not control of others. It is not better than management. It is not being the CEO.
If "leadership" identified a position then you wouldn't need to use the word "position" (as in, she is in a leadership position) behind it would you? It would be understood - but it's not. Because leadership is not a position nor a measure of success.
Leadership is an attitude; a state of mind; a state of being; a life-concept. Until you grasp the difference, never will you ever fully attain leadership in your own life.
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