I was taught that leadership is about using what we know. We work hard to learn as much as we can. When we have the answers, we lead by putting them to work.
The more I tried to know, the more it seemed there was still to learn. There was always a sense that there were more things to learn, more answers to know. It felt like it was going to take a long time to become a leader.
There were always one or two more things I needed to learn before I would become a leader.
Eventually I got tired of learning about leadership. There was a lot of reading. It appeared that I knew quite a bit, but there was always something more to learn. There were always additional standards, criteria, and expectations. They often were not stated very clearly, or at all.
As I got tired and frustrated, I began to feel skeptical about leadership.
The leaders who inspired me taught me a valuable lesson. What they did not know often felt more essential to them than what they had already learned. They encouraged me to go exploring and ask for help when it was necessary. They urged me to try new things, to make mistakes and learn from them.
Leadership is more than commanding and controlling resources. It is certainly important for leaders to know things and to be effective. It is also essential to leadership to explore, to discover what we do not know.
The questions we have, the things we do not know, make us wonder. Wonder fuels our passion and sense of adventure. Leadership inspires us to do what we did not know we could.
Where would you like to explore leadership today?
What have you learned from leaders who inspire you?
[Image by zimpenfish]
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In