LEADERSHIP: IT’S NOT YOUR ROLE, IT’S WHAT YOU DO

Too often, we think of leadership as a position we hold: team lead, managing director, CEO. And we think we can’t lead until we’ve assumed that role. Or, we think of leadership as a personality trait that some people are born with – and we hold back on leading because we feel we lack the necessary charisma or gravitas. I’ve been there myself: For many years, I thought of myself as too introverted to be a great leader. These are ways of thinking about leadership that are self-limiting. 

A different way of thinking about leadership is that it’s something you do – it’s an activity. I was first introduced to this paradigm of leadership as a graduate student at the Harvard Kennedy School, in a class taught by Professor Ronald Heifetz. Heifetz’ defines leadership as the activity of mobilizing groups to make progress on their toughest challenges. Leadership requires naming those challenges and fostering the environment that stirs people into action and drives them to change. 

We need good leadership, and lots of it - from many places and people. Viewing leadership as an activity creates manifold opportunities for leadership: The intern, the activist, the new hire can lead with a question or a poignant observation that stirs up the status quo. People in charge can mobilize change by using their authority to create environments that allow people to give up privileges, renegotiate norms, build new capacities, and innovate.

Curious? You can learn more about leadership and what makes it different from authority here.