Changing Our Minds About Leadership

Leadership traditionally has been defined in terms of the actions of the leader. As a result, efforts at leadership development typically concentrate on identifying individual leaders and training them in the skills of leading. Yet with all the books, seminars, and consultants addressing leadership development, we still lament the dearth of leadership within our organizations.

The key to solving the failure of leadership development efforts is to view leadership systemically. The result is a redefinition of leadership as a dynamic, systemic relationship between leader, followers, and context. Successful leadership development interventions will focus on the relationships between leader, followers, and the larger environment.

This means that effective leadership development will address the skills of all parties involved in addressing the particular situation they face. Leadership training is applicable to everyone in the system because we do not know ahead of time who may emerge as a leader at different stages of addressing a particular situation. In addition, for the emergent leader to be effective, the followers need to know how they may contribute to the group’s leadership.

Albert Einstein said, “No problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it.” If we are to improve the leadership of our organizations, we must change our minds about leadership.

© Mitchell R. Alegre

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