For 300,000 years, humans have survived and flourished. We only have recorded history for the last 5000, but we know that the miracle of human civilisation is built on one common thread.
Humans form groups and change what was before.
We have survived and thrived – not just by adapting to our surroundings but by adapting our surroundings.
Slowly at first, now rapidly.
Change is what makes humans different to all other life forms.
Everything we experience that’s part of our civilisation – and that’s most of what we do, eat, wear, move and see – was made or provided by groups of people.
Teams…
No lone stars here. All group effort.
The great inventions, scientific breakthroughs, even artistic genius all built on work done before them.
Creativity can be an individual’s spark, but creation is a team effort.
Edison invented the light bulb, then teams of people made them and installed them. And improved them.
Picasso painted Guernica, teams of people publicised, displayed and protected it so you could experience it.
Teams of people built the chair you’re sitting on and the floor it’s sitting on and the community you live in.
Groups of humans collaborating together, sometimes competing with others, always competing with nature.
Collaboration and competition require leadership.
Leadership is important.
But not the most important thing.
Leadership is also a mysterious thing.
A relationship, a magic force maybe, that can help or hinder the family, the village, the organization or the nation. It can take the group where they want to go, or sometimes where they don’t want to be.
Leadership deserves attention and care.
The quality of your leadership is important.
But not the most important thing.
“…Everything we experience that’s part of our civilisation – was made or provided by groups of people..…”
If you’re a leader, you stand in a line of leaders that stretches back thousands of generations, beyond recorded history.
You share the joys and challenges of millions before you.
Every leader before you has tread a path of learning. Most never trained, they just did their best. Most weren’t famous like Edison or Picasso, they were only known by their own group.
Working to improve the quality of your leadership is important.
But not the most important thing.
The most important thing is not the leader, or the quality of leadership, or even working to improve that quality.
The most important thing is the group, and what the group does.
That’s it.
It’s not about you, it’s about them.
When you understand that you’re on your way to being a good leader.
Is Leadership important?
.
.
“I might be wrong, but at least I’ve thought about it…”