Richard, you said,
>leadership has never been hierarchical--only management and the wielding
>of authority and control has been hierarchical. Leadership has always
>depended on the clear-sightedness of purpose, the communication of that
>purpose and the degree to which partners (or followers) organized
>themselves around that purpose.
In principle this can be true, but someone on another list pointed out
that in our social context, it is often the case that positonal power --
hierarchy -- often lends the added credibility to a person that allows
others to listen. I don't think I have said this well, but it is the best
I can do now.
Until someone pointed it out, I was unaware of this. But I have seen this
in operation a fair amount. In fact, I think that one of the important
tasks that hierarchic leaders do is to identify the important insights of
their employees, and then recast them or simply repeat them, and by doing
so, giving the insights greater weight.
An even more important task of a hierarchic leader is to help the employee
him or herself articulate their insight so that others can recognize it
and act on it without the endorsement of the hierarchic leader. I see
this as well, but less often. It may be that by its nature, this task is
invisible to observers.
What do you think?
--Rol Fessenden
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>