A633.1.2.RB_Burns

  • Has your own attitude toward leaders changed in your life, and if so how?
  • If we take as a starting point the attitude to those in authority/leaders as held by your grandparents, and then look at those attitudes held by your parents, and then by you, and then by the younger generation, is there a changing trend? If so, what is it?
  • Why do you think that this has occurred?
  • While we live in a world with more information about leadership and leadership practices why is it that we have an apparent gap in the quality of our leaders and how do you think we can close this gap?

As a kid my parents were my first lesson in leadership and they were the boss.  I would say that my first understanding of leadership from a child's perspective was that of a total oligarchy and whatever my parents said was the rule.  I was brought up in a Christian family, so the values of a belief system helped to shape my world view as well as my understanding of leadership and how those values should influence the actions and decisions of a leader.  As I grew older, I found that I naturally challenged and questioned the leadership of people who I did not know and were put into positions of authority over me.  I did not feel that these people should magically earn my respect and I wanted them to prove that they were worthy of if.  This is something that doesn't come from my upbringing, but from my personality that I was born with.  

Through my questioning I naturally questioned bodies of authority such as the FAA and the government and found it difficult to blindly follow the rules set forth buy such organizations.  This is something that in ways has helped me to succeed and has also hurt me at times.  I learned the hard way that we do not get to choose which rules we want to follow and that whether a leader or a governing body has earned my respect, there would still always be consequences to to my decisions, good or bad.  I think that this would be a lesson in growing pains and comparable to the analogy of a baby wanting to touch something hot even though their parent told them not to or crawling off of the edge of the couch when their parent said to stop.  We naturally test boundaries and the direction of those in authoritative positions.  

All of these life lessons and experiences have helped to form my view and understanding of leadership and what an effective leader looks like.  I went from that child's perspective of leadership to a more ego driven view of leadership.  I saw being a leader equating to being successful.  This leader looks to me like the person who is the best in a sport, the captain of a team, the popular kid in school who then becomes class president.   I think that this aligns most with a sort of aristocratic version of leadership where few lead the many.  This is an older and more traditional way of leadership and because it is aligned with ego and power it is a leadership style that is very resistant to change.  

With more life experience and less selfish motivation I eventually grew to lean more towards a more polyarchy type of leadership.  I could see that being the person that is making the biggest impression or winning the most awards is not necessarily the most effective leader.  I started to notice that many times the quietest person in the room could have the strongest influence on those around them.  I started to understand that every member on a team had an equally important role to play and just because one person is labeled the captain or the VIP, that does not make them the only leader.  In fact, they may not be an effective leader at all.  

I have met a lot of resistance when speaking up and trying to create change through resistance and have learned that a softer and quieter approach is often much more successful.  I am naturally a person that wants to stand up against things that I view as injustices and to speak against things that I feel are wrong, so this style of leadership is difficult for me.  I naturally want to step in and block the flow to create change rather than finding a way to wait and go with the flow in order to find a way to create a more natural and less resistant change.  These are difficult lessons to learn and as a new mom I know that I have a lot more lessons in leadership ahead.  

I feel that the natural progression of my understanding of leadership as I grew older is very similar to the progression of leadership over time and through the generations.  In Taoism, the symbol of the Yin-Yang is a powerful one and is an excellent example of how leadership styles are changing today.  My grandparents generation grew up with the more controlling and boss-like leadership that uses tactics like fear to lead and was focused on consumption and borders and ownership and control.  My daughter is growing up with a generation that is more focused on conservation, working together, taking down walls and focusing on each individual and their strengths.  I like the shift from Yang to Yin.  Like they say in Taoism and as quoted in the text book Complex Adaptive Leadership:

"The art of Taoism is to act within the flow in an entirely natural and almost intuitive way."

"The ultimate goal is to have a Yin-based leadership with the ability to use Yang-based processes to support it."

Perhaps we are evolving as human beings, maybe we are becoming more enlightened, or maybe we are just learning through trial and error what type of leader is the most effective.  I cannot say why this shift is happening, but I can say that it is most likely a million different things working together.  The connectivity of people through the technological revolution has changed how we interact and it has allowed access to almost any knowledge to whoever can turn on their phone or computer.  I am sure that there will be growing pains with this new learning as there were with my own learning as I grew and tested the boundaries of my world.  I also feel that this is positive change and as long as we as human beings can continue to be malleable and open to learning then we will keep on moving in the right direction of leadership style.  

There is still a strong resistance to change and a lot of ineffective leaders out there.  As I described earlier, I believe that the style of leadership that is few leading the many is very self-serving and ego driven and therefore is the most resistant to change.  It will take time for us to see the older generations accepting this shift and I wouldn't be surprised if many of that generation never do come around.  Change takes time and peoples' world views are at the core of who they are and their life experiences and we cannot expect that to change overnight.  As we get older our minds become less elastic and even more resistant to change so I feel that all of these factors help to explain why we still see such a gap in the quality of leaders today, despite the advances in what we have learned about leadership.  
   

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