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Is "leadership" dead?

Guest post by: Douglas Long

Article Overview: "Leadership" now seems to be a catch-all term (a bit like "communication"). That being the case, has the time now come when we should be considering whether the term "leadership" has lost its impact and whether we need to radically rethink the whole concept by moving out of all the traditional concepts like "servant leadership", "situational leadership", “contingency leadership”, “leadership habits” etc that are based on attitudes and behaviours?

Is "leadership" dead?

In 1943 Nietzsche rocked the Christian and theological establishments with his assertion that "God is dead". A few years later (1952) JB Phillips continued this "rocking" in his book "Your God is Too Small". Once the shock and horror from the establishment had abated, these works (and others like the writings of Karl Barth, Rudolf Bultmann, Dietrich Bonheoffer, Paul Tillich etc) lead to many questioning their faith and, for some it lead to a new and deeper understanding of what they believe and why. [More recently, of course, the shock was continued by people such as Bishops John Robinson and John Spong]

Is “leadership” dead?

Just as Nietzsche, Barth, Bultmann, Bonheoffer, Tillich, Robinson, Spong and others forced the Christian and theological establishments to re-examine their beliefs and concepts, has the time come when we need to seriously reconsider our leadership beliefs and concepts?

No matter what any person’s personal views relating to Julian Assange, the current furore around Wikileaks provides a focus for this question.

When I talk with people at any level of virtually any organisation I invariably hear that the problem they face is “leadership”. (A few years ago it was “communication”.) When I ask for clarification I get a shopping list of issues and concerns such that it would wear out a series of magic wands if they were all to be addressed.

It seems to me that "leadership" now seems to be a catch-all term (a bit like "communication"). That being the case, has the time now come when we should be considering whether the term "leadership" has lost its impact and whether we need to radically rethink the whole concept by moving out of all the traditional concepts like "servant leadership", "situational leadership", “contingency leadership”, “leadership habits” etc that are based on attitudes and behaviours?

In “Third Generation Leadership: how to develop commitment and accountability in the 21^st century” I suggest that the 1980’s brought about a seismic shift in the way leadership operates. I say in that book: “Gen Y finds rigid reporting structures and narrow sources of information to be a foreign concept. Their whole life has been lived in a world of personal computers, mobile phones, the internet, social networking, and the like. They have learned that by using the internet and the search engine of their choice they can find out almost anything about anyone at any time – and some of what they find out will even be accurate! Gen Y has an expectation that information will be readily available and that they will be involved in determining the accuracy and utility of such information.”

I wrote that long before Wikileaks was forefront of international consciousness but recent events demonstrate how accurate I was. “Leadership” as it largely exists today pertains to power and authority. In such an approach the ownership and control of information and knowledge is a very effective power base that can be used for good or evil but, almost always, to further the ambitions and desires of the leadership elite. This is as true in families as it is in organisations and nations. I suggest that much of the reaction against Julian Assange and Wikileaks relates not so much to what is being released but the very fact of this power base now being eroded. Fear of a new era is extant in the leadership elite!

If this forces us to reconsider the whole concept of “leadership” perhaps its not totally a bad thing. Outside of the power brokers, the broad international response to the whole Wikileaks saga is that many of the people on whose votes and support various Governments and power sources (across the whole political spectrum) usually rely now see many of those in authority as “the opposition”. The blocking of access to sites such as Mastercard and Visa almost certainly was orchestrated but the fact that such broad mobilisation to block major internet sites was even possible further indicates new limits to traditional leadership approaches and power bases.

Again, in “Third Generation Leadership: how to develop commitment and accountability in the 21^st century” I suggest that there is a difference between “leadership” and “leaders leading”. I argue that there is “…a potential problem for leaders who continue to operate in a First Generation Leadership or a Second Generation Leadership world – including many of the leaders in the older, established religious faiths (as well as those in the newer denominations, sects and cults) in which compliance with their interpretation of what is in a Holy Book or what they believe is Divine Inspiration or “the way”, is de rigueur. Gen Y sees as being automatic the right to question and to seek alternative answers. Unless they are involved in discussions relating to matters that involve or concern them, and can explore alternatives Gen Y and many others today may well reject even that which is most worth retaining. The fighting of rearguard actions by those in authority – no matter what the sphere – only serves to further alienate those people whose commitment is actually critical to survival.”

From this I suggest that we need to distinguish between the individual leader and the existing common understanding of leadership.

I suspect we are on the cusp of something that was unexpected just a few years ago. I suspect we are being confronted by a new social order – an order in which “the leader” is more important than “leadership”. In other words, we are being confronted by an order in which it will be the extent and quality of an individual’s ability to engage his or her followers that will become more important and have more influence than will governments, organisations, societies, etc. In this new order we may well find that corporations, national borders and traditional approaches to management, security and governing are seriously challenged. I also suspect that only those who are able to grapple with these new realities will prove to have long-term futures. Part of that grappling will require that we jetison outdated leadership concepts and practices.

Are you ready to deal with this confrontation in a functional way – a way that enables you to move onward and upward – or do you face the potential of this confrontation with trepidation and fear? The works of Nietzsche, Barth, Bultmann, Bonheoffer, Tillich, Robinson, Spong etc forced Christianity and the theological establishments to confront new views about faith and religious concepts and practices. Some people avoided the issue by either throwing their faith away or refusing to consider alternative thinking from their own. Others moved on to a new and stronger future. The same alternatives apply now – only this time they apply in relation to that much abused and, certainly over used, concept “leadership”.

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Article Tags: Change, Leadership, Personal Development, Power and Authority, Third Generation Leadership, Wikileaks



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