Category Archives: workplace

Charisma or Consensus

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In trying to sort through a governance issue on something that I have been working on, I was reminded of the writings of Edwin Friedman and his recently republished From Generation to Generation. Looking at leadership through the eyes of a Jewish Rabbi may not seem the usual route, but Friedman, who was also a psychiatrist, had some very good insights in the way people and organizations work. He based his own work on the family systems theory originated by Murray Bowen and put his own spin on it.

In the situation I have been pondering, both charisma and consensus have been in play. Friedman sees these as two poles that leaders and followers move between and sees both positives and negatives in both. Perhaps the strongest insight is that leadership really relates to position organically. There are heads and there are bodies. The role ebbs and flows. It’s never totally straight forward, because the leader in one situation (CEO) may have to be a follower when he meets his or her shareholders. The real role of the leader is to stay with the vision that placed him or her in the position in the first place and work primarily on self.

I had the pleasure of being part of one of the best task forces ever in 2009 and was given the assignment of reviewing modern concepts of leadership. It’s time to revisit those in the coming weeks – so I’m starting backwards from this one. The Charisma Consensus continuum may also help with this model.

Leading from Any Chair

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Chairs The above chairs probably aren’t the kind that Ben Zander has in mind. (They are a welcome spot to sit on my city balcony). Ben is an orchestra conductor and the chairs that he is talking about might be occupied by violinists, trumpeters, or clarinet players. There is a lovely moment in a video of one of his concerts, where he gives the baton to a young musician and joins the cellists as a player in their row.

Leading is really about interdependence. He says that he conducted for 20 years before it came home to him that he was the only one on the stage who didn’t make a sound. His was a comment about real leadership – that the role of the leader is to enable others to do their best – not to be a star or primadonna. When he changed his perspective he realized that the results of his conducting results were much superior. It is a lesson for us all. to learn.

Who manages the leader?

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In a volunteer project that I spend a lot of time on, we have been frustrated waiting for a reply for months from a funding body who promised to support a position financially. While a commitment was made by the leader, nothing has happened since the end of March. We have a potential employee waiting in the wings who would like an answer and so would we. The leader in the case has many commitments, local, national and international. So it not surprising that things slip through the cracks. A large and undoubtedly overworked staff work in silos that don't always communicate.

It wasn't supposed to be like this when we could copy a number of people on any e-mail transmittal – and we do. One even asked to be taken out of the loop. No one up to now seemed to want to take any initiative. So it was really welcome when someone stuck his neck out yesterday and actually did something to move the item along the line.

But it is the exception not the rule.

When Ideas have Sex

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Author Matt Ridley used this rather provocative title recently to forward further ideas of a collective brain that is emerging. In spite of horror stories that populate our daily newspapers there are some amazing statistics about the state of human lives that re worthy of reflection. Our world does not rely on individual intelligence but on collective knowledge and skills that are interdependent on networks.

Matt spoke recently on TED talks and you can hear what he has to say here

Social Media Realities

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I found this one on the Herrmann International Blog with a reminder that we have to change our way of thinking about social media – and we also have to think about how it affects us personally. The growth rate portrayed here is interesting, but the presentation doesn’t even begin to think about what to do about it and its implications for education, society, economics and culture. Those aren’t part of the numbers game but they are the real challenges. If we let them simply wash over us we will have only ourselves to blame in terms of the consequences.