When you think of a leader who’s the first person that comes to mind? Most likely you think of a CEO or a supervisor. Or maybe the captain of a sports team or someone in government, right? What about parents, teachers, or your boss at work? Most of your answers are often examples of people with clear authority in a position of power but does that actually mean that they’re a leader? Why is it that when we think of leaders, our first thoughts are of those people with authority? Well, because for the better part of most of our lives, authority is all we’ve known…
As kids we are taught from a very young age that we are to listen to our parents because they are responsible for us, and that responsibility comes with the authority. Of course, as kids we don’t always respond well to that authority but we listen or face the consequences…
Then when we go to school that authority is passed from our parents to our teachers. The expectation is that we are to listen to our teachers the same way we listen to our parents or once again, we face the consequences (trust me on that one). As we grow older, this trend of “passing authority” continues throughout high school, into college and often times, right into our professional careers. We are wired to respect authority and fear consequences above all else because this is all we’ve ever known. This then leads us to identifying leaders by their level of authority instead of by their impact and effectiveness as a leader. Then when the tables turn and we step into a leadership role for the first time, we do exactly what we’ve always known and rely on authority and fear of consequences above all else…
But this can’t be the only way to lead. Can it?
What if leaders shifted their focus from punishment to using positive incentives? What if instead of showcasing our authority, we only rely on that authority when absolutely necessary? What if leaders shifted their focus from maintaining compliance to collaborative problem solving and ways to make things better? What if leaders made choices and took actions that showed their followers why their direction as a leader should be followed in the first place? What if followers actually believed that their leadership had their best interest in mind? Imagine the positive impacts that you would experience as a leader if those you led actually wanted to follow you as the leader instead of just following you because of your level of authority. The reality is, authority has it’s time and place but by itself it will never build morale, spark motivation and bring those you lead closer together…
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