What leadership style is appropriate for today’s world and helpful in times of high uncertainty? If you search for “leadership,” you’ll quickly find dozens of definitions. Most definitions revolve around influence, the management of groups, and the achievement of goals. One traditional definition comes, for example, from Max Weber. Weber situates leadership within the context of authority and views it as a form of influence in which an individual or group acts upon others to persuade them to take a specific course of action. Leadership is regarded as the legitimate exercise of power based on a system of norms and rules.1Another classic in management literature comes from John P. Kotter. Kotter views leadership as the ability to set a direction for the future and to inspire people to move toward that direction together. For him, leadership is the process through which companies can adapt to and implement change.2
Today, we’d like to offer a different perspective—one that is particularly relevant in the context of for-profit companies: “Leadership is a coordination effort that aligns the activities of many participants in terms of content (tasks), social dynamics (people/relationships), and timing to enable organizational performance.” What’s the difference? This function arises primarily from theleadership context—that is,the interplay of:
– people,
– their relationships with one another,
– the tasks to be solved, and
– the framework conditions under which this takes place.
We therefore essentially understand leadership as the cultivation of successful relationships. Successful relationships are based on the mutual interaction of those involved. “Leading” and “being led.” This achievement is a collective effort and not the work of a single person. It also follows that we must bid farewell to the image (perhaps even a self-image?) of the heroic leader who embodies “success” in and of themselves. R.I.P., Superman. And we have to swallow a bitter pill: leadership is a risky business. Leaders must take responsibility for results that they cannot control or achieve on their own. To do so, they must make decisions—but these decisions are uncertain. This makes leaders vulnerable—even without kryptonite.
How does this perspective change things for you?
What can you gain?
What do you need to let go of?
If you want to find out what this means for you or your leadership team, let's talk.
1 MaxWeber,Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology, 1978
2 J. P. Kotter,Force for Change: How Leadership Differs from Management, 1990
