Sorry I've been away so long. I've been in the lab developing curriculum for some new leadership development programs I will be facilitating.
I had a great conversation with a colleague last night who is completing her Masters in Leadership Studies. Always a thrill for me when I get to talk leadership with others who have a deep understanding of the field.
We chatted about how leadership development is the new "buzz" term in so many industries. I've mentioned in the past that if I ask 100 people "what is leadership", I will get 100 different answers. One of the reasons that leadership development is such a popular topic at the moment is that most seem to understand that leadership is a skill and not a trait. As such, it can be taught and developed and everyone wants to develop those in organization to drive performance through leadership. The challenge is that there is a gap between this understanding and how to actually facilitate the development of leadership.
I work with many sport programs at colleges and universities who boast leadership development as a by-product of the sport experience. For this leadership development to occur it is fundamentally important that program managers understand the development they are trying to facilitate. This starts with a firm understanding of what leadership is.
Leadership can be defined as 'a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal' (Northouse, 2001, p.3). First, leadership is a process indicating that it is something we do, an interactive occurrence between leader and follower. The leader affects and is affected by followers making leadership an interactive process and not a unilinear event. Leadership involves influence which deals with how the leader affect the followers. If there is no influence, leadership does not exist. The third component is that leadership occurs in groups, which provides context for leadership to occur. The final component of leadership is goals and that leadership is concerned with guiding a group of individuals towards a goal. (Loughead & Hardy, 2004)
I share this info in many workshops so everyone is on the same page with their understanding of leadership. It's difficult to effectively develop something when the understanding of the subject is wrong or unclear.
In yet another conversation last night a friend could not understand why corporations spend millions of dollars a year on Leadership Consultants. Upon reflection, I believe that it's one thing to understand leadership inherently or even to understand the definition I have provided above. It is yet an entirely different challenge to now be able to effectively facilitate an applied, contextual understanding of leadership.
The clients with whom I work benefit from the metaview that I bring to their organization or project. I have the opportunity to take an objective, high level perspective. The perspective I take is similar to viewing the organization or project from a helicopter, where I can see things from a distance. Similar, to a basketball coach who sees opportunities and provides insights the athletes to not have because the coach has the benefit of viewing the game from the sidelines. I'm not caught up in the day to day tasks, emotions and issues that promote a loss of perspective.
Finally, I think one of the most valuable services that Leadership Consultants bring to an organization is the ability to synthesize research. Many assigned leaders are mired in the administration and tasks of their jobs and do not have the time, interest or resources to flush out new and improved ways to drive transformational leadership with their constituents. Leadership studies is interdisciplinary. Leadership studies takes from Philosphy, Sociology, Psychology, Management, and even Quantum Physics! There is new research being done daily and new findings discovered daily. So leadership is a bit of a moving target, the discipline grows on a daily basis. It's important to have people who immerse themselves in keeping up with new research and findings and synthesizing that information for the practical applied use of their clients. If not for this kind of a practice we would still be in the dark ages with regard to our understanding and application of leadership.
These are some of the reasons why leadership consultant are an important part of organization and team performance and development.
