I marvel at the amount of time spent:
…on seeking to define and/or differentiate leadership and management.
How about just doing the work; focusing on people, principles and results; and not get hung up on labels?
…trying to prove that a specific list of leadership characters traits is the one and only.
Perhaps we should agree that the list of worthy traits is long, that most are needed, and that our time will spent leading than in creating a finite list that tomorrow’s business needs will change?
…espousing that one can only lay claim to being a leader if they have followers.
How about agreeing to disagree and respecting each other’s opinion?
…vehemently asserting that leadership is only measured by results.
Can we agree to disagree on this one too, yet respect each other’s opinion?
…attempting to prove that managers do things right and that leaders do the right thing.
Can we say that supervisors, managers and leaders both do things right and do the right things?
Life is big, complicated, fun, challenging, and full of ambiguity. Right?! Know what else is big, complicated, fun, challenging, and full of ambiguity? Leadership, management, and supervision. Love, too.
Rarely is life, love and leadership an either/or end game. It’s really a both/and dance in which we balance, shift, and juggle as we manage the opposing, contradictory, and complementary elements of a longer term and big picture truth, which is–many things require us to manage the complexity of both/and, not the simplicity of either/or.
In Built to Last, Jim Collins and Jerry Porras phrase it beautifully. They counsel us to “avoid the tyranny of the OR and embrace the genius of the AND.” Now that’s a beautiful way to dance!
What say you about the paradox-filled dance of leadership?
Image source before quote: morgueFile.com
