Leadership

Many professors and business authors claim that leadership is doing the right things. This is often contrasted with management which is doing things right. Doing the right thing surely cannot be the defining characteristicof leadership ; for leaders rarely do instead they lead the doers. Some of you will object and will say that what these professors and authors actually mean is that of the millions of things that can be done, leaders know which should be done. However this doesn't help much either. Advisors also know the right thing to do and yet most advisors are more comfortable figuring out the right thing rather than leading people to actually do them. Besides, the right thing to do in business is often determined retrospectively. That is, once the results of doing something are in, those with successful results are called the right thing and those that failed are called not the right thing. (See The Halo Effect: ... and the Eight Other Business Delusions That Deceive Managers by Phi Rosenweig in My Favorites)

So clearly leadership is not about doing the right thing. It is plainly and simply about getting others to follow you. And to do that you need to do three things: first get followers, then check rivals so that your followers don't go elsewhere and adapt to change so keep your followers as circumstances change. How one actualy does each of these three things will depend on the circumstances. Forget the one and true method. There is no universal approach that works for all circumstances. That is why such varied leadership books such: as the Leadership Secrects of Attila the Hun, Jesus CEO, Lincoln on Leadership and so on remain popular and contradictory. Each of their advice works under certain circumstances and each fails under different circumstances. Sometimes leaders have to bully sometimes they have to cajole, sometimes they have to inspire. Great leaders know what to use when.

How does one get followers? A lot has been written about the necessity for a leader to create a simple bold vision of the future. Most of which is very good. But a simple bold vision is definitely necessary but is alos most definitenly not sufficient If you want entusiastic followers then you also have to create and emotional connection between the vison and the followers. Followers need to feel a fire in their belly everythime they think about the vision. It is that fire thatmakes them follow you. And the third thing a leader must do to keep followers is constantly and persistently repeat the connecction between the followers and the vission. Most great leaders have talked about having to repeat and repeat and repeat the essence of vision over and over again to the point that the mere thought of repeating it one more time made them physically sick, and yet then went on repeating it thousands of time more.

Once again we see the power of three in action. (See post the Mental Models: The Power of Three )
Leadership is about
getting followers,
checking rivals and
adapting.

The above paragraph elaborates the next level down for one of these three elements, namely getting followers.

Getting followers is about
creating a simple bold vision
connecting the vision at an emotional level
persistence