Leadership — it is a Dictatorship
There’s a great little meme flowing all over LinkedIn stating “Build a Team so Strong that they don’t Know who the Leader is”.
Yeah. That’s wrong. No matter what you “want” to believe, all companies are monarchy’s or dictatorships. A company, a division, or a department that doesn’t have a leader will be anarchy.
Yes, as a leader in my lifetime, I built my teams to be able to do things on their own, make their own decisions, and progress at their pace (within reason).
My teams, just like the military, just like countries — even Democratic or Republics and even dictatorships— must have someone at the helm (oh wait, what about a ship? Isn’t the captain of the ship a “leader” — where he steers, the ship goes?).
I have led teams as small as two and as large as 200. They gained their guidance from me, the leader. I gained my guidance from those above me.
The teams I have been on were strong. But, we knew who the leader was.
So, with that said, I get what the concept in the above quote is trying to address. If you have the respect, the guidance, the trust, and the belief in the whole team, leadership becomes a waypoint, not the endpoint. The leader guides and trust and instills belief with respect to each team member. When the team is built like this, they “feel” like their part of the team, that they trust the leader as much as he/she trusts them. This is what leadership is founded upon.
If you have done any reading on the military wars that have existed since the beginning of time, there is always the discussion of what makes a great leader and what doesn’t. Those that get “fragged” (killed) by their own troops because they didn’t know what they were doing to those that led teams to their deaths, but, in doing so, saved the war effort. If there was no leader (in the military — what’s called an NCO or Officer), troops would not know where to go, what to do, and how to do it.
Leaders lead by example. If they are working long hours like their staff, their staff will work long hours also. If they watch the budget, their staff will. If they are included, they will work harder at the end goal.
You get the idea.
Lead with respect, trust, belief, and guidance. The team will feel like they are PART OF THE TEAM, which I think the quote above is really trying to tell us.