Modeling Leadership

Leadership is a strange and wonderful thing. But what can I say about leadership that hasn't already been said countless times? I've taken courses on leadership, read dozens of books on it, given classes on it and I've been in positions of leadership. I've even taken to heart the saying that there is no training for leadership except leadership, meaning leadership can't be learned from a book, but it is learned and understood purely through one's experience with it.

I've come to learn, as anyone who has ever been in a leadership position, that one size doesn't fit all. I've had to use different styles with different people, and that's the way it should be.

Good leadership often goes unnoticed. But it can bring out the best in people, win battles, shape a nation or simply keep a person on the right path for their life.

Bad leadership never goes unnoticed. It does often get ignored, however. It, too, can bring out the best in people, but it can also be responsible for destroyed lives, frustrating work environments, and in many cases will break down the morale of a group to the point where no one even cares and the potential of the group to be a cohesive unit or the possibility of the true leaders in the group to rise up succumbs to the chaos that so quickly develops in this type of environment.

So, in keeping with the theme of understanding leadership, what about those people who think they understand how to lead, but really all they do is model what they've seen? What if it becomes obvious that they don't understand the principles behind the leadership they've been under or experienced? How does one handle that type of person?

That, I think, is one of the toughest questions to answer and one of the toughest types of people with whom to work.

One has to consider that this person is unprincipled in their leadership. They may not be unprincipled as a person, but they just don't understand the reasoning behind what they do. They are simply behaving like they thought they have seen other leaders behave. In their mind, they are doing everything right, which is normal from a psychological perspective.

And because they are the leader (in this case, they are really in a management position, not a leadership position) it's likely that they will attempt to use their position- instead of their principles- to preserve their power. There's is likely an inferiority complex involved in the person's psychological makeup, thereby creating a wall of defensiveness that is difficult or even impossible to break through.

So, I guess the real question is, how does one transform a bad leader into a good leader, or even a bearable leader? I'm not sure I know the answer to that. Every person is different. Every leader is different. And even reducing the entire debate down to rational, black and white issues that one can merely fix is entirely wrong.

But, even if the opportunity arises that you can "fix" the person, should you? Or should you just chalk up what you've learned from this person and use that experience to be a better leader yourself?

Difficult questions indeed. And unfortunately, there are no easy answers.