Читать книгу Inspirational Presence - Jeff Evans - Страница 15

You can’t teach what you don’t know, and you can’t lead where you won’t go.

—Rev. Jesse Jackson

Although we talk about leadership as if it is a new science, it is a topic that has been explored for millennia. Many different approaches to leadership have been well documented and studied. When you begin a deeper study of the subject, you will find that there are numerous starting points. Some are based on the ability to manipulate others (à la Niccolò Machiavelli) or to lead armies to victory (à la Sun Tzu); some focus on skills and behaviors (à la Kurt Lewin); some look at the motivational ability of the leader (à la David McClelland); some are based in power (à la John Kotter); and some are based in authority (à la Max Weber). Each of these has its success story and obviously makes sense in some context. This approach to leadership is a combination of two groups of skills: individual and group. The group skills are essential to overall leadership ability, but the basis is in the individual, with who you are as a person and where you want to go.

The act of leadership is a combination of skills and unique worldviews that combine to allow leaders the flexibility to create new conditions, to move the hearts and minds of others, and to manifest reality that would not have emerged otherwise. There have been many individuals who have exhibited great leadership in their fields, including (among others) artists, scientists, scholars, musicians, and explorers. Their pioneering efforts created new possibilities and encouraged change around them from people who had learned from either their example or their tutelage. Many of these pioneers had little or no interest in whether anyone else went in the same direction as they went. They were simply following their own passion. That, in itself, is a fundamental part of leadership—the piece that begins at home, deep in the soul of the creator. That is the part that cannot be falsified. It is true passion. Very often, these people lead by creating movements or new thoughts that others imitate or adopt later. The act of individual creativity, however, often does not have a number of immediate followers, nor does it necessarily have the intention of having others follow.

Then there is another category of leaders, those who are emphatic in their desire for others to share in their path and to create better conditions for many people. These leaders are much more concerned about the efforts and results of groups of people, not just their own efforts. The ability to lead yourself and follow your own passion is still the starting point, but this form of leadership also requires a broader understanding of how groups and organizations work. These leaders must have a means to fully grasp and order the entire system with which they are working. For example, a person with a passion for clean fuels and a sustainable environment can spend his time in the lab creating the technologies, or he can become a social activist, creating broad change that requires clean fuels and a sustainable environment. Each would have different levels of involvement at the group level. While the first example requires the creative spirit and discipline of personal passion, much of that energy is turned toward the technology and mechanics. In the second, much of the energy is turned toward the people who are using that technology. Both require the fundamental passion to fuel the creativity. Both are immensely valuable to our world, and both have their lessons. Both can benefit from the ability to tap into their inspiration and allow their presence to impact the people with whom they are dealing.