Leadership thought of as an individual phenomenon with an impact on others, that is, the ability of a person to influence others to achieve cascading repercussions that shape a collective presence, is a stage in the evolution of management that deserves to be overcome.
CEOs are intuiting something new. The model of the savior, the enlightened one, the only one who can achieve it, the one who knew how to lead us to achieve the impossible, the visionary who imagined the new course, all that series of proclamations that reflect other times, day by day, are relentlessly remaining in the history.
The times have been saying enough to the personalism on which the traditional leadership model is based. A model that needs the imperious presence of a few with special abilities that allow the most, all the rest, to find meaning in their lives and channel their vitality.
Successful organizations, those that realized the weaknesses of that game, work in another model, they are based on the generative capacity of their people, and this opportunity is available to all who discover the true source of power and management in anonymity when the daily task is carried out all together.
An endless sea of metaphors could support the position we hold in this article. Just observing the way of coordinating actions for the good of all, silently displayed for the generation of value integrated by ants, bees, meerkats, lions, wolves, geese, or whatever they prefer to admire if they need to locate examples.
Each and every one of these management groups, those integrated communities with a shared purpose, organized with differentiated functions and tasks carried out effectively, have a point in common. Each of them makes sense to play the game.
Looking at the functioning of man within the organization in which he participates, something else can quickly be observed. Its mode of action depends on your choice.
In terms of generative capacity, the organization depends on the attitude of its people for the generation of value. This is where the fruits of Leadership are expected. Those managerial skills deployed by a few to guide the majority towards actions that are convenient for them.
This is where the formula has its greatest flaws. When leaders fail to convince, when the carrots they have deployed no longer achieve their goal, when the subtle whips they wield no longer leave marks, this is when the classic leadership course script calls for a new page. For that leadership style the new page says, end.
In this new era, that dinosaur model of managing that is known as leadership is inevitably heading for its extinction. The interesting thing is that those most eager for it to come to an end, for it to end once and for all, are those led. Those who are asking for their own space for participation. Those who know better than anyone where the opportunities are, those who operate every day, those who move the boxes, calculate costs, execute production, marketing, maintenance, distribution, accounting, administrative programs, that is, everyone, everyone, those who at every moment "make" things happen.
There he is waiting for the opportunity, wanting to participate, contribute and build in favor of all. An intact generative capacity, which despite the treatment received, the lack of consultation, the structural deafness that she has suffered, has managed to remain available to be summoned.
It is a latent opportunity in every organization, in every job and in every person. It is the opportunity to summon the desire from the same base where the management happens.
The desire that appears when people, as a whole, work to build the same idea.
The time has come for the people, the direct protagonists, who with their active participation install a new management model, a model based on choice, shared and focused on the generation of integrated value. When people are in charge, a new place appears for management to dedicate itself to nurturing the bond that unites processes & people, promoting the daily task together.
It is time to raise a new game. A shared game, aimed at promoting the generative capacity of the organization, based on clear rules, with opportunities available in each position, sustained by transparency and supported by a management model dedicated to calling it together. A game that goes beyond the cultural model of leadership and opens a new path for people.
