Who's In Charge Around Here, Anyway?

How many times have you heard it?... We need good leaders! It’s about time we had some decent leaders around here! What this business/team/organisation needs is some good old-fashioned leadership!

Yet we are caught up in one of the greatest dichotomies of our time.

I call it The Spock Paradox.

No, I don’t mean the guy with the pointy ears, but the baby doctor, the man who revolutionised western culture around parenting back in the fifties. He taught us, amongst other things, that babies should be fed on demand! A shocking reversal – because for many decades prevailing wisdom required that they had been fed by the clock! He told us to listen to our children – that they know what they need and will tell us how to care for them. He was particularly against any reign of terror - discipline was to be by dialogue and rational agreement. (Although if you’ve had a two year old, you’ll know who reigns with terror!)

Whatever your opinions of his work, I believe he changed our lives dramatically.

Because if you are managing a team in today’s business environment, you are managing Spock babies. You probably are one. Your team colleagues are fully-fledged Spock participants, believing they have a right to be heard, to think for themselves, to be fed on demand.

To some of our older colleagues who are pre-Spock people, that’s outrageous – or at the least, challenging. To many of us, too, it can be a nuisance! Especially if we’ve been ‘trained’ in management or leadership by the pre-Spockies. But to the wise, it’s a joy.

And here’s the paradox. We Spockies will cry for leadership, but we won’t accept it. We want to be shown the way, but we won’t follow. We ask someone to solve our problems, but we won’t be told what to do. We want to make our own minds up. We want to be in control of our own destiny.

‘How can you possibly lead that?’ you ask. The answer is simple, but not necessarily easy.

It’s about encouraging and nurturing a particular kind of leadership within your organisation.

It’s NOT about Positional Leadership – you know, the kind that comes on your business card or anything with a title. Because although positional hierarchies are still the way we traditionally get things organised they are no longer the way we can most effectively get things done. Remember the paradox?

Positional Leadership CAN be guiding and inspiring. But it often isn’t. Often it falls into the hollow ring of authority, to which Spock babies are highly allergic, if you haven’t noticed already.

Real leadership actually just turns up in certain circumstances – I call it Circumstantial Leadership. It’s when someone moves into a place of challenge and change, whether they are invited or appointed to or not. You can’t hold them down. They have the knowledge, they have the courage, they have the ideas and beliefs and they go for it! It’s a joy to watch. They claim the leadership role – without a title, without the trappings – and they enlist support. And when they are encouraged, they run with it.

How do you know when you’re a good leader?
When others follow you. Especially when it’s tough.

That’s what happens in Circumstantial Leadership.

Who can own this skill?

Anyone. Everyone. And not only is it useful to encourage, I believe it’s essential.
Everyone has some specific area of expertise, or a topic to which they are passionately committed. Everyone has a time to give and to lead. Everyone has a place at the front for their time. And in a high performing team, the official leader/facilitator/captain/coach makes sure that happens.

What does it take to nurture this?

It takes the development and ownership of Personal Leadership.

Where everyone in a team is trained and encouraged to know that they are all intrinsically leaders, with heaps of value to contribute in the field of their own greatness.

People come alive when they are believed in.

Human beings need only two elements to enable them to give of their best: validation and nurturing. When we are validated, and when we feel nurtured, we will own Personal Leadership. We will take responsibility for our own lives, our own directions and our outcomes, and for our significant contribution to the shared goals of our team. We can create a group energy that is unstoppable, with each team member contributing to the fullest. I’ve seen it happen. I’ve been part of a hugely successful team where we made it happen. It’s awesome.

Where will it take us? Wherever we want to go.

Where do you get it? Right inside the Spockies that already exist on your team. No matter how well they hide it, it’s there. If you’d like a hand, let me know.

Catherine Palin-Brinkworth CSP MAppSci speaks internationally on Leading Change and Managing Chaos at conferences, seminars and workshops. Visit her on www.catherinepalinbrinkworth.com or contact her on Email: office@catherinepalinbrinkworth.com or Phone: +61 7 5528 5255.
First published: 23 August 2001.
Last updated: 7 March 2006.