Like this:

“Leadership can be thought of as a capacity to define oneself to others in a way that clarifies and expands a vision of the future” said Edwin H. Friedman and I totally agree with the statement. It is not the whole truth about leadership though. Wonderful vision is not enough to make people follow it. We know sad examples from our history when vision was awful, but people follow it because something else was present: ability to make people believe the vision is great and that it will work. What kind of skills leaders need to make people believe in vision they created.
“You do not lead by hitting people over the head – that’s assault, not leadership” said Dwight D. Eisenhower, but many managers don’t know about it apparently. You cannot force people to follow you. In organisations if people want to keep their jobs, they may pretend they follow your vision, but only till 5:30 pm. After 5:30 pm your leadership is gone till 8:30 am next day. Is that a leadership?
What makes a good leader become excellent leader, is it his vision? Or is it his charisma to inspire other people. Managers can learn how to motivate others, how to convince them to their vision, but a real leadership is recognised by passion about making vision come true. Is it a passion of leader or a passion of followers that makes it true, or is it a passion of both sides?
You don’t have to use many words to convince someone to your vision, but the words you are using need to be filled with enthusiasm. That is how people sense the spirit of leadership. Does it mean that leadership development programs should include teaching such competence like enthusiasm? Some people do not consider enthusiasm as a competence at all. However, being able to enthused yourself and enthused others is a definitely a competence. If it is a competence, so it can be measured. If it is a competence, so it can be developed and finally measured again. Good leadership development programs can be assessed in terms of their effectiveness, even when it comes to developing passion in leaders.

Advertisement