Interesting blog…

A leader – your post brought something to mind.

As a social experiment of sorts I queried a bunch of people via Linked-in groups, and email with a question: If you had the resources to choose a technology based project of your dreams, what would it be?

I assumed of of a random sample of 50 or so people from both corporate and private, entrepreneurial and nonprofit, business people and freelance artists – that I would get at least ten or so responses.

I received 2.

I figure that either:

1 – people thought it was spam and deleted it

2 – people were just annoyed and didn’t want to take the time to answer such a perhaps seemingly unimportant and rhetorical question

3 – it was rude of me to address some of these people in this fashion as some of them are “above” my own business “stature”

4 – they just had NO IDEA – when presented with such an open-ended question -

5 – they were afraid of losing control over their idea

I’m sure a few fell into categories 1-3,5 but how many do you think fell into number 4?

Those that *did* respond showed intrigue in such an unusual question. One person even had the foresight to say, “If you ever come up with funding and would like to do a project like this, please let me know…” and proceeded to outline a very interesting idea she had.

To me, that person represents a “leader” in the sense that she wasn’t afraid to share the basis of an idea. She wasn’t too self-important to answer a question. And she knew that opportunity sometimes comes from places we least expect… Perhaps from outside her own circle of influence, etc…

For me it has always meant someone who isn’t afraid to think differently, yet is grounded enough in reality to be able to apply their more abstract ideas and musings in a valuable way…

I’ve also been surprised recently with several colleagues, both women who would be perfect for the Columbia EMSTM program. I’m sure they’d get in and both are smart people with great skill sets to go into it. As I’ve talked about the program with them, I see their eyes light up thinking about the possibilities to transcend the limits of their current positions in the business/IT world. Yet, ultimately they return a string of excuses why they can’t do it – none of them very convincing. Once came right out and said it was complacency and fear on her part and she was simply too secure where she is now to stretch herself and move on…

So this is a second quality that comes out to me. This willingness to get outside the comfort zone and stretch ourselves. And, it can be quite painful sometimes.

Just my few little thoughts on the topic!

Best,

Charley

One thing I like to encourage people to realize is that leaders change constantly in groups. One minute I’m leading, and then the next someone else is, and the next minute a third person is leading, and so on, as we each have some small new idea for where to go. Watch a flock of geese or a school of fish sometime, and you’ll see what I mean.

All that matters is that you have followers. You can be a bad leader – a tyrant, a despot, or you can be a good leader, whose followers follow you because they want to.

Seriously, though, if the question is what it takes to be a good leader, then perhaps the main criteria is that people follow you because they want to, not because you pay them to. In some sense, it’s when the authority you receive from below is greater then the authority you’ve received from above.