About Leadership
“I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep, but of an army of sheep led by a lion” - Alexander the Great. For centuries leadership has been worth studying. If we go back to prehistoric times, leaders had to be “independent and strong entities, capable of defending the sovereignty of their followers from marauders and natural disasters” (Lipman-Blumen, 1996).
As the years passed and society changed, so did leadership. And it was found that “even if a society does not have an institutionalized ruler or head, there are always leaders who initiate actions and who take a central role in group decision-making” (Lewis, 1974). Leadership was even found to be intrinsic to the social climate of a community.
Bernard Bass comments on it in his book The Leadership Manual; that the greater the socioeconomic injustice in a society, the greater the distortion is obtained in the definition of leadership in terms of power, morality and effectiveness; distortion that is perceptible in many social settings, including in its mythology or folklore.
Leadership and hierarchy
Leadership has always been seen as a hierarchical action. The term hierarchy per se is understood as “grading of people, values or dignities” (RAE). The word by itself exposes the need for classifications for the definition of subordinations.
However, is that the only way to be a leader? Is it absolutely essential to have a classification? Should this classification be indispensable hierarchical? Is it the ideal model for the 21st century?
The truth is that we live in the information age - let's not talk about the quality of information because that would lead to another discourse - globalization and the new means of communication and dissemination - such as social networks. These generate such a dizzying flow of information that we must ask ourselves: Is it feasible to learn all that information?
According to Bass, it is considered that the era we are living in needs a new form of leadership for the organizational area; since nowadays, no member of a group –or company- has all the expertise and experience to help the group achieve its goals.
How to get this? Again Bass gives us a proposal: Shared Leadership.
Shared leadership
Now, can leadership be shared? Personally, I believe that initially, there should be only one leader. It may sound arbitrary, but if we dig into it, leaders are often born out of chaos. They emerge from it to provide a bit of harmony and order.
A hierarchy is needed when starting the future structure to follow, however, should the hierarchy prevail? And this is when I allow myself to quote the wise philosopher Lao Tzu:
"A leader is better when people hardly know they exist, when their work is done and their goal is accomplished, they will say: We did it."
I consider that initially it is always good to have a captain who guides the micro-society, however, once all the members of the group have clearly visualized the path, their image should begin to dilute little by little - as I would say Tzu, make it barely noticeable - for a much more solid unit.
It is at that precise moment when the leader in the shadows -luminous, since he must always be well-intentioned- can fully dedicate himself to being collaborative (Ibarra - Hansen, 2011), to looking for those external connections to achieve an improvement, always taking into account that diverse talents are consistently effective. At the same time, helping to keep at bay the disorder that social interaction generates by itself, to ensure speedy decision-making and ensure agility. Does the Collaborative Leader's Job Ever Finish? Not really, the ideal of the collaborative leader is the one who is responsible for empowering his colleagues, he must have the ability to form the ideal team for each assignment. Or on the other hand, the ability to make team members see their virtues, so that they take advantage of them.From here the hierarchy must give way to the redarchy.
Redarquia
The redarquía, according to José Cabrera (2017) is the new organizational model for the coordination of collective efforts. This model works by generating initiative, creativity and commitment on the part of all the members of the “network”. "The redarquía helps to accelerate the strategy and the necessary digital transformation, being a natural structure for innovation" (2017). They are all leaders.
However, in order to reach the redarchy it is necessary to initially have a leader - hierarchical - who forms the ideal network for the respective company. It is in this instant that I return to the initial quote from Alexander the Great: yes, an army of sheep led by a lion is more frightening than one of lions led by a sheep.
But is there a more impressive team than the one made up entirely of lion leaders? I doubt it.
Bibliographic references
- Bass, Bernard. (2009). The Bass Handbook of leadership: Theory, Research and Managerial Applications. Fourth Edition. New York, USA: Simon and Schuster. Lipman-Blumen, Jean. (1996) The connective edge: Leading in an independent world. USA: John Wiley & Sons.Cabrera, José. (2017). The Redarquía. Spain: Independently Published Ibarra, Herminia. & Hansen, Morten. (2011) Are you a Colaborative Leader ?. USA: Harvard Business Review. Recovered from: hbr.org Tzu, Lao. (1979). The Complete Works of Lao Tzu. USA: Sevenstar Communications.
