L3 - Leadership, Learning and Life

Life happens. It’s messy and unexpected and almost never runs a simple straight line from one point to the next. Along the way, there are all these moments, some memorable, many forgettable. Happiness and sorrow, boredom, and excitement, profound and average - it’s all in there somewhere.

As we go along, we learn. Sometimes the lessons are outright. Everything from how to walk and go to the bathroom – yeah, I know. It’s weird to think that’s something we learn, right? – to academics. Reading, writing, math, and all. Most times, we’re not that lucky.

Life throws lessons at us all the time. Experiences that knock us down, lift us up, or twist us in odd directions. Some things we learn without realizing. We pick up preferences and avoidances. Things we like, don’t like, or are terrified of. Most of the time, we don’t give those much thought. They just become part of the background of life, like the walls of a room or the sound of traffic. Sometimes there are opportunities to learn other things if we’re paying attention, or we give things a bit more thought. Even things we miss while we’re in the thick of experience can sometimes throw us an insight later, if we look back at it the right way.

So, what does any of that have to do with leadership?

Most of the time when we hear leadership we think about other people. Formal ‘leaders’ come to mind. Politicians, CEOs, religious figures – the kind of people that mainstream media spend a lot of time talking to or about. Keep the conversation going a little longer, and other names arise. Still well-known figures, but those with less power imparted by their position and more the ones who built something on their own – a cause, a movement, a following. If everyone hasn’t gotten bored and wandered off yet (because ‘leadership’ isn’t exactly everyone’s favorite party topic), we start to get into the names of people that made individual impact or impressions on our lives. Teachers, coaches, family members or maybe even a random chance meeting.

Now we’re getting closer to the center of things.

Leaders aren’t appointed and leadership isn’t conveyed by position. True leadership comes from how an individual applies the lessons that life has thrown their way to the betterment of people around them. A real leader doesn’t sit above others and direct, they stand with them and encourage. Their leadership isn’t something pushed outward onto others, but an intrinsic belonging that they build with the people around them that encourages everyone to strive together for something more. A true leader never stops learning – about themselves and others – and understands that the same characteristics and perspectives that make people unique can be harnessed to build a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.

The issue is that humanity has tied leadership to the idea of management.

Leadership isn’t tied to structural authority, real or imagined. It isn’t a position that is assigned or steps of a hierarchy to be climbed. At the very best, those are the hallmarks of administration and management, and that’s hardly a rousing endorsement. Management and administration can be present in droves but that doesn’t ensure efficiency or effectiveness. It can just as easily drive things in the opposite direction if leadership isn’t present in equal or greater measure.

It’s easy to understand why management and leadership get equated. Natural leaders have always emerged across humanity. The positions that they give rise to become part of a formalized structure and the position gets conflated with the individuals that it was based around. The structures get shared, adopted, passed down, and solidifies over time. Eventually, faith in the structure as the key to success replaces the memory of the natural leaders that inspired it and holding position in the structure is equated with being a leader. We have even gotten to the point of collectively titling members of an administrative or management hierarchy as ‘The Leadership’ – proof that we’ve subconsciously intertwined the two ideas.

The truth is that while they aren’t mutually exclusive, the two are far from the same thing.

Management is about monitoring and directing efforts and activities to meet a specific outcome. Leadership is less directive and structured, though just as concerned with positive outcomes. Instead of monitoring a specific series of defines steps, leadership empowers team members to achieve their goals and the ultimate goals of the team, and the organization, through mentoring, inspiration, and example.

In an ideal world, management and leadership would overlap completely, but an ideal world is kind of like a unicorn – often talked about, but never seen. The general result is that the focus remains on the management aspect while leadership often falls to luck of the draw.

Why is that?

Because a defined hierarchical structure with detailed positions is easy to deal with. It’s tangible and measurable and easy to hire into. A job description becomes a technical checklist that candidates can be measured against:

Education requirements – Check.

Knowledge and skills appropriate to the position – Check.

Previous experience – Check.

Solid references and/or portfolio – Check.

Anyone who checks all the boxes should technically be proficient enough to oversee a series of operations in the given subject area.

Seems simple enough, right?

Not quite. Technical proficiency and experience are great indicators of an individual’s ability to perform tasks, but not an adequate measure whether they can share that with others with any effectiveness or efficiency. It can’t indicate if they can support, mentor, or inspire others to grow and perform to their fullest, or to work together to achieve more than any one individual could alone.

Those are leadership qualities, not managerial tasks. So why does the focus remain significantly on management aspects?

Because leadership is harder to measure quantitatively. Even with a list of ‘leadership’ or ‘soft’ skills courses. Even with years of management experience. Even with a standard requirement for references. It still remains difficult to measure how well a given individual will engage with any particular team, organization, or culture beyond the initial period of settling in. It’s even more difficult to understand in the brief window provided by early meetings and interviews, how well someone might fulfill that elusive ‘fit’ criteria in your environment.

So, should we just cross fingers and hope for the best when it comes to leadership? Of course not!

It just requires a different perspective. There are ways to gauge leadership qualitatively as opposed to the quantitative approach to measuring management. Request references from team members, not just management. Look for community involvement and examples of cooperative experience. Take a broader view of the accomplishments of teams they’ve been involved with instead of just individual accomplishments.

Of equal, if not greater, importance is the perspective and understanding that leadership is not born, just like it isn’t appointed. It is a combination of skillset and philosophy in applying those skills that can be taught, nurtured, and grown. With coaching, mentoring, and a supportive, responsive culture, anyone can build their leadership qualities and style. There may be individuals that have natural talents that aid in that, but that is a bonus not a requirement. A growth mindset, a willingness to accept feedback, and commitment to learn from mistakes are all of the true elements needed for leadership to take root.

So, don’t go chasing others or a position hoping to find leadership. Instead, find what you have to offer others and opportunities to grow leadership in yourself.