Personal leadership
It is a fallacy to believe that the world is divided into leaders and followers. Everyone, at some time and in some circumstances, practises leadership. Indeed, most of the time leadership is a shared activity. This may sound a new thought but as long ago as the early 1900’s Mary Parker Follett, as Jim Stroup says in his book Managing Leadership:
“... observed that individuals had a natural tendency to seek organization in groups. She went on to argue that groups possessed a natural internal dynamic that led to the consensual formulation of goals, and plans of action for attaining them.”
It is Stroup’s thesis - and in this he follows Mary Parker Follett - that leadership arises spontaneously in any group of people and management’s job is to facilitate, enhance and focus this process. In other words, leadership is a natural event, something that happens with many people not just a chosen few. This may sound a little academic, so try the following:
In one of his Thoughts for the Month, Johan Campbell asked What are you doing to deserve your place on the team?
This is an extract from Call of the Wild's on-line development academy. For more information visit the site for team building, leadership , leadership training course and management development programmes.
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