Cultivating Leadership
September 13, 2010 2 Comments
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– The leadership I want to explore here has nothing to do with position or authority; it is about influence and responsibility, it’s about leadership from below or from within, writes Patrick Bridgeman, in a new article on Cultivating Leadership in this Fall’s Positive Life. Bridgeman is Editor of Positive Life, an Irish publication which aim to deliver uplifting, informative articles and information designed to enhance the quality of readers’ lives. He continues:
I want to equate leadership not with being in charge but rather with the ability to inspire initiative and new thinking in those around us. At the core of this approach is the capacity to navigate new paths, build teams and broker between different points of view…
Sounds good to me! Although, I would not say that there is a contradiction between being in charge and being perceived to be in charge, nor between inspiring and actually being responsible for inspiring others.
The important thing is to maintain one’s grounding and facilitate other people’s growth, whilst still being able to focus your activity on the targets you have set for yourself and others.
So, what we need is a fusion between position based and place based authority, which is very different from believing the world is now unleashing an unbound process of wiki leadership as advocated by MacroWikinomics. More about that later.
About Trond Arne Undheim, Ph.D.
Leadership From Below 
Stupendous thought! Most people who jump into high positions think leadership is to say -“follow me” and “I am important because there are 60,000 people following me. So i am not a fool!” Having followers is a sort of attestation for their so-called leadership. I have noticed this cult like behaviour in many big organisations. The CEO who is presumed leader knows nothing about who is following him and what effect his decisions has on people. All right enough of sarcasms.
I see leadership as one of a mother’s role at home. A mother, who holds the family together, spans between generations from 4-year-old to 60-year-old grand parents also dealing with her husbands novice behaviours to 4 year olds intelligent behaviours. I think it is really important to see leadership as nurturing future leaders. Yes they would sacrifice, they would encourage, they would feel hurt when it ought to be, feel happy in others success. I feel if someone has experienced these feelings, i will say they are leaders wherever they are, whichever position they are!
Hello Trond,
Just to say that Davie Philip wrote that piece on Cultivating Leadership in the fall issue of Positive Life magazine. Credit where credit is due. 🙂
Namaste…Patrick.