Taking the Lead.

Managers, leaders and the way they lead, obviously play a vital role in the success or failure of a business or institution. Those successes and failures are largely attributed to the executive leadership; the pointy end of the hierarchical pyramid. It is rare to see an analysis of the leadership of an organisation that treats leadership as an holistic quality of the organisation's culture. We imagine leadership within organisations (or its lack) as attributable to particular individuals - and moreover - as a particular and given quality residing within those individuals. Both the buck and the analysis tends to stop with the executive. This is entirely appropriate because the executive are ultimately responsible for the teams they manage. That said, too often, we replace that executive leadership and expect that change to trickle down.

The new leader applies their 'leadership' in a re-organisation of the organisations parts and their functions - the ever impending restructure - and we hope that this 'leader' demonstrates better leadership than the last. This process of rearranging the deck chairs does little to address the way leadership is practiced and developed throughout the organisational hierarchy. It imagines the executive leader as the captain of a ship rather than the captain of a team and, in the case of the executive, the captain of teams of teams. The health of any large, complex, organisation depends on leadership being practiced all the way down and throughout that organisational structure. For that reason a healthy, vital, organisation depends on fostering a culture of leadership that extends to and shapes the actions of all the people that make up that organisation. It is people, rather than roles, that define your organisation.

One of the great ironies of organisational and management culture is that junior and middle management tend to have more direct impact on greater numbers of individuals. It is generally the least experienced leaders that have the greater impact on the leadership culture of an organisation. In order for the executive to keep track of this impact, employee engagement surveys are conducted and reviewed and individuals are held to account for their lack or adequacy of leadership and moved up, sideways or 'managed' (which is rarely more than an synonym of moving out). As is the case at the executive level, leadership is treated as an individual quality that someone either possesses or lacks and is thus treated accordingly. Somewhat weirdly this means that in the very act of leading leaders we very rarely practice leadership, enact leadership as a practice, or foster leadership as a quality of the organisation. Instead we discard what we have and cast around for other 'leaders' as if ‘leadership' is some ineffable magic a chosen few are blessed with.

Emerging leaders are usually handpicked because someone sees a spark in them; some quality which stands out. We call this 'leadership' or 'leadership potential' but it’s often just a willingness to step up to the demands of staffing, circumstance, or opportunity. The spark of potential might also include the demonstration of motivation, ambition or initiative. None of these circumstances or qualities are leadership. Leadership is a practice and a process. Emerging leaders don’t always know how to be a great leader. Too often these emerging leaders are thrown in the deep end - sink or swim. Some do swim but unfortunately many new and emerging leaders don't. This failure is not theirs alone. The failure is the responsibility of their predecessors, a failure of the organisation/institution in recognising the importance of these roles and the failure of the organisation/institution in demonstrating, investing-in, communicating the practice and process of leadership. These new and emerging leaders were not set up to succeed.

Many emerging leaders try to do their best without any support, guidance or help. Stepping up into a manager role can be daunting and isolating. Many emerging leaders feel they are failing or feel they have not achieved what they set out to achieve. This feeling is not from a lack of trying but through the absence of mentorship and guidance. The impact leaders at all levels of an organisation have on a businesses success, on a team success, is often underestimated and under-appreciated. Emerging leaders, and the people they will be leading into the future, deserve support, deserve guidance, deserve coaching to try to be the best version of themselves. Investing in the great leaders of tomorrow, the great leadership of tomorrow, provides an opportunity for businesses and institutions to flourish and grow.