Читать книгу Leading from the In-Between - John McAuley - Страница 11

When I did my first course in the Master of Organizational Leadership program at Cairn University in Philadelphia, the chair of the program, Dr. Jay Desko, put six words up on the whiteboard: strong, visionary, successful—and chaos, confusion and complexity.

The dominant expectation of leaders today is that they must be strong, visionary and successful. Much of the thinking and literature on leadership development is centred on creating these qualities. We expect our leaders to be heroes, their capes trailing in the wind behind them. We expect them to hold within them all the right answers. And as a result, many leaders live with horrendous pressure to operate in a way that makes them appear to fit the part.

However, the daily realities of leadership are not strength, vision and success. They are chaos, confusion and complexity—and it is these qualities for which we must equip our leaders. This has probably never been truer than it is right now, when the pace of change in our world is unparalleled. We need to let go of the caricature of the strong, successful visionary leader and instead embrace the image of leaders who humbly and authentically know who they are, who mobilize the collective strengths of those around them and who excel at navigating systems and diversity. We need leaders who can work in the in-between and be the bridge to positive change.

I was doing a spiritual formation exercise with Muskoka Woods senior staff, most of them in their late teens or early twenties. As we walked, we came across an old tire that had washed up on the beach. I stood there praying, discovering in this tire a great vehicle for me to talk with God. I picked it up and carried it back toward our meeting room to use as an illustration. On the way, various people tried to take it from my hands and throw it out, but I said, “No. I realize that I feel like this tire. I’m worn out, bald from running on the road for a long time. I know that if I don’t tend to some dangers, I will have a blowout.” People in the room were surprised by my vulnerability.

Often, a leader’s followers want him or her to be a strong, visionary, perfect picture. But, instead of an illusion of perfection, you want a leader who humbly understands what she or he is not. When all leaders say is “I’m fired up and strong,” there is no room for growth in their lives. Much of the leader’s life is coming to the end of ourselves and saying “I need others.” Effective leaders know how to gather around them what they need to move themselves or their team or their enterprise in the right direction.