Migrating Leadership

If ever the concept of leadership was in flux, it is now.  

Leadership is migrating from institution-centric to the perimeter. 

Some say the driver is the merger of the Gen Y/Millennials coming of age, globalization and social networks, combining to fuel this leadership revolution. Those are significant drivers but I would also add leadership is migrating because of the frustration with the distance between institutional leadership and ground level reality.  And it really doesn’t matter whether that’s in the political, business or even religious institution realm.  No longer can any leader hope for a safe distance from grassroots issues to allow them to cocoon for extended periods of  status quo management.  Contemporary ubiquitous access to knowledge, high values of justice and activism, impatience for geological-time administrative processes and increasing access to funding sources to create change outside of institutions means people will go around you!

Leadership is not synonymous with authority.  Many of the grassroots leaders in the social movements we have observed over the past 2 years did not have formal positions of authority but they pursued organizational changes that challenged the status quo of their institutions.  Not all were successful.  But just wait – many have tasted and seen the potential for change.  They won’t shrink back for long.

I have been part of institutional leadership internationally and nationally.  Funny thing is that before I entered an international position, I remember thinking about my leaders that it seemed after 5 years they should get out for a while because it seemed after that period of time they started to lose touch with the ground.  After being on the “inside” I now see that it’s not the 5 years which is the issue; it’s the distance you can create between yourself and the very reason for which your institution exists. 

How can we avoid that as leaders?

Acknowledge that leadership exists throughout your organization.  They exist among those who are employed and those who volunteer.  How will you identify them?

Engage them.  Leadership input ought not to be restricted to your hired team.  Gather the people who are not in positions of authority and engage them in developing/examining the core purposes and practice of your organization.

Recycle yourself and your leaders out to the ‘field ‘.  Not just some ‘site visit’ scenario, but a significant portion of time where they invest working energy in the places you work and products you produce.

Loosen the reigns. I have often advocated for organizational leaders to “centralize the questions and decentralize the answers”.  In other words the leadership task is not to declare your vision and create appropriate structures where everyone can achieve your dream.  Instead, gather the formal and the grassroots to develop the core questions & values.  From there, release your people to innovate on the answers.  

Float through your organization– remind, recognize and reward the efforts made in accordance with agreed upon core questions and values.  We have heard it many times, but redundant communication is critical – but in this case you are reminding them of the outcome of their collaboration, not what you declared in your ‘grand plan’.

Bring them back – like Pulsars (rotating Neutron stars) which emit pulses of light in short, regular intervals, create the same regular impulse of expansion (releasing them to act) and contraction (bringing them in to reflect and recalibrate where needed).  This keeps your leadership knowledge current and their input valued.

Bottom line:  If you don’t acknowledge the migration of leadership thinking and power to the grassroots and engage it accordingly, those leaders will simply migrate to a new location. 

The Nomadic Leader!