In 1905 a standardized high school test included the question: “write a sentence about what’s common between dogs and rabbits”
The question was still being put in 2015.
The students’ answers had shifted.
The obvious answers about both being mammals, 4 legged, furry etc were consistent across generations but a common answer in 1905 had disappeared by the 21st century.
Back in 1905 a common answer was that dogs hunted rabbits.
The answers had become more about what they were individually and less about what the animals did together.
So it is with a lot of leadership training.
There’s a lot about you as a leader, and not much about what you and your team do together.
Actually there’s just a lot about you, and not much about your team.
Is that a bit odd?
Is leadership a thing you have or is it something you do with your team?
Clearly it’s easier for all of us to reflect on and adjust our own thoughts and behaviours.
Teams are complicated collections of people with conflicting ideas and emotions, all doing different things in different places.
They’re hard to generalise.
But isn’t that the point?
Is the outcome of your interaction with your team only dependent on you?
Is leadership a noun or a verb?
Is it something you have, or is it leading a team to an outcome?
When you think about your leadership you need to think a lot about your team.
Actually, only you can do it.
Just doing that will make you a better leader.
When you have a job to be done do you consider your own part or how the whole team will tackle it?
You can’t think about your own leadership without thinking about your interactions with your own team, and their interactions between themselves.
Is leadership a thing you have, or something you do with your team?
How do the relationships work in your team compared with other teams you’ve been in?
With your family or social or sporting groups?
Do you interact the same in every group?
When you “lead” in those groups is it always the same experience?
If not why not?
What things do your team do that you like?
Is there one thing your team does that you’d like to change?
What can you do to change that?
Are you attached to your leadership style or do you adapt it to circumstances to get the result?
Is leadership a thing?
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“ I might be wrong but at least I’ve thought about it…”