leadingtoday.org
Copyright 2001 ã weLEAD, Inc.
The purpose of weLEAD is truly different. During the last 50
years we have experienced an explosion of books and consultants focused on
promoting management and leadership. Yet the fact remains that much confusion
exists today, even about the very definition of the word leadership!
Even in our modern society we have yet to distinguish between the positive
role of those individuals who beneficially change our times and
organizations to attain remarkable achievement, and the highly ambitious who
simply claw their way to the top of their heap! We have a terrible
cultural tendency of calling them both leaders!
Take just one look
at the daily news and you will easily see what we mean. For example, when
speaking of
an international meeting including political tyrants and dictators, the
media will typically proclaim something like “world leaders gathered”. Often
you will hear how a CEO or business executive has been convicted of a criminal
act, yet they are typically referred to as a “business leader”! Sadly, we still
call individuals leaders simply because they gained control of an
organization. We use this term loosely no matter how they arrived at that
position or how ineptly they have managed. Think about this
fact; in what other setting could we be allowed to put individuals like Thomas
Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King, Adolph
Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Sadam Hussein in the same classification!
In our western
culture we have made a few feeble attempts to distinguish between these vastly
different types of achievers. Some authors and management consultants have
coined beneficial phrases like servant-leadership, stewardship or
principle-centered leadership to draw a distinction, but with little
effect. So we continue to degrade
the real position and achievement of those who guided others to attain
incredible progress, while artificially granting status to those whose lives
were dedicated to manipulation and control over others. We do this by calling
them both…leaders. As a society, we obviously have not gotten to the
point where we are ready to dogmatically articulate the difference. At weLEAD we are committed to drawing this clear
distinction and emphasizing the difference between those who merely seek to
“command and control” others, in contrast to those who truly lead others with
an attitude of service demonstrated by positive core values.
Our organization is
an advocate of what is now called the servant-leadership or stewardship
philosophy. A real modern leader is a servant first! Secondly, the
servant-leader aspires to lead in order to help produce positive change. The
leader’s main goal is to help the followers grow as individuals. This
allows them the freedom to reach their needs as they become more autonomous,
wiser and productive. In turn, they also become servant-leaders
since they will model those who have earned credibility and their
respect. We believe you can become an “army of one” in your organization and
begin to influence many co-workers by being a servant-leader. Others will
notice the difference. Maybe you can’t single-handedly change the culture or
environment of your organization, but you can change yourself as
a great beginning. Those co-workers who work for you and with you will
notice the difference!
Our goal is to
articulate a new set of terms to distinguish between what is the positive
role of a leader whose service beneficially changes our world, in
contrast to the anti-leaders who simply exist to serve themselves and
their ego at the expense of others. This will not be an easy task, but
it must begin somewhere. It is going to begin right here and now. We will
promote this difference in all of our publications and services.
For weLEAD, this is Greg Thomas reminding you
that it was Horace Mann, who once
said, "Be ashamed to die until you
have won some victory for humanity."
On the weLEAD Website you will find over 70 other free
helpful leadership tips. They are all available in a text version or as an MP3
audio!