Leadership is as much art as science. I’ve said this before, and I continue to maintain that it’s true. I think one key component of the art of leadership is the practice of setting direction. My experience is that its also a lost component for the most part.
It’s easy to manage people. Having numbers, figures and metrics, makes it even easier. Buzz words and platitudes make it easier still. You can pretty much fake your way through the deal and never get caught. This is why I say the managing part is easy.
Leading is harder. Leading is the art piece of the equation. Fewer figures. Tougher metrics. You still have plenty of jargon to use, but it’s almost impossible to “fake it,” to fake real leadership.
Leadership takes common sense. It takes a foundation based in common sense and the guts to act on that common sense. It’s at this point where I see things going South pretty quickly.
It takes courage and common sense to stand up and set a direction for others to follow. It takes confidence to actually ask others to trust you and follow. My experience has been that this kind of courage is in short supply. You put a lot on the line when you make the appeal to potential followers to trust you and run with your ideas. Too much is put on the line, as a matter of fact. So much so that those who should be leaders choose to back away, slowly, and slip into the much more comfortable roll of managing widgets.
Trust me; we need widget managers to make sure all the widgets get made. However, without a courageous leader to stand up and draw a map of the destination, all the widgets in the world won’t really add up to much.
I see lots and lots of widgets, but I don’t see a lot of people with a clue about what to do with them.
Setting direction is an art that’s in short supply. We all need to step it up if we want to retain the right to call ourselves artists.
Illuminate Possibilities 