Leadership is Not a Title

Watching a group of 9-12 year olds playing in a park gave a beautiful illustration of leadership. It appeared the group had decided to play a game needing two teams and were in the process of choosing sides. One side's designated leader made his obvious first choice, a lad slightly taller and stronger than the rest. I waited to see what the second team leader would do. It was obvious that one strategy would be to choose someone who could match his competitor's first choice from the people available. What was not expected was his choice, a boy smaller than the rest who had a tendency to hang back a little from the group.  I have seen this process all my life as neighborhood kids payed games, and high school and college followed a similar pattern, but rarely have I seen the least obvious choice be the first one. It might have come as a surprise for the boy chosen as well, but you could see his face light up from quite a distance. When all the choices had been made and the game begun the wisdom of the choice became clear. The large boy, though clearly strong, was not well coordinated nor fast. The smallest lad turned out to be quick, observant, difficult to catch, and a major asset to his team.

So how do we as leaders choose the people for our teams. Often our team is not chosen but handed to us by the organizational structure. At other times we select those with whom we have trust, past experience, or perhaps owe a favor. This may be over-simplification, but my observations say that too few times does a leader pull people in who have a hidden talent, experience or knowledge base fit for the team's challenge. It isn't that leaders do not want success from the team, it is usually that leaders have not taken the time to get to know important things about their people.

Effective leaders are often great story tellers. People who can inspire and motive through the telling of moving experiences. Great leaders are great story listeners. They put people at easy and get them to reveal the stories that have shaped their life and built their talent. Knowing these stories enables a leader to better match a team to the task. The more important, higher risk, the task, the more important to know, in depth, the people being asked to achieve results.

Leadership in your team will emerge from those inner stories of challenges, problems solved, and victories missed. The leadership will be less likely to come from the designated team leader but the one or more who rise to the challenge because that's what they have done in the past. That is, unless the team leader insists on micromanaging the whole process and taking the credit.

So where do you fit in leadership? Are you in a position by virtue of a title? Or have you built your own leader style by piling numerous life experience upon each other and in the process gained a reputation for solving problems, achieving goals, and building up the people around you. The operative word for leaders is "we", not "I".

Look around you for the stories of leaders in action, in the stores you shop, the restaurants you eat, the businesses you visit, and the children and youth you see. Make your story one that tells the stories of others.