Leaders and leadership : The 2 most powerful words today. Not that in ages gone by there were no leaders; there were many. However today leaders and leadership take on a different dimension. With the advent of information and communication technology, it has become easier for leaders to 'share' their leadership secrets with the world. Soon we became leadership junkies just as millions of others became self-help junkies. We devoured every single word uttered by these leaders. In fact the newly coined term, celebrity CEOs captures this wonderfuly.
There is nothing wrong with this of course as we all need a figure-head to lead us. Whether we like it or not, there will always be those who lead and those who are led. But, we should stop and ask ourselves what it means to have leaders in our organizations. Is leadership in an organization the sole responsibility of one or two individuals? Is leadership a function of the possition OR is it a function of the person.
How do we develop leaders at all levels of our organization? I believe that to do this we need to first and foremost accept the fact that leadership is a function of a person. In other words, everybody in an organization is a leader and he/she are required to shoulder leadership responsibilities. It doesn't matter whether one sits in the CEO's office or in the guard room: Everybody should be and act like a leader.
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