This book was well written and made many great points. In the chapter “There are no Leaders, There is only Leadership” was one chapter that really grabbed my attention.
Is there a way to be a leader but not be a leader?
“Leadership is distributed among members of a group, and they in turn play such vital roles as task master, clown, mother figure and so on.” p. 144
I feel it is important to be able to distribute jobs among your staff and let them know you have faith in them and know that they will do a great job. I believe that leaders who try to do it all find themselves with staff that has no faith in their leadership because that leader has no faith in them. Also if you try to do everything you begin to loose the drive you had to become a leader or why started the company.
“In a well-functioning group, the behavior of the leader is not all that different from the behavior of other responsible group members.” p. 145
“…it might be difficult to identify the leader in a group that is working well.” p. 145
I enjoy working with High Tech High and the way every staff member takes a roll of a leader. It is hard sometimes to know who the leader is at HTH. I want my teachers to feel that way and I want to be the type of leader that will allow that.
“The best leaders are servants of their people.” p. 145
“Leaders are themselves often led and managed by their employees, from the bottom up..” p. 146
I feel it is important for employees to know there is a leader, but it is more important for leaders to know that their employees are what make them great leaders. I feel you get more out of your staff when you are not always telling them what needs to be done. It is important to help guide, but it is important to have your employees feel like what they say is worthy and important. Allowing your staff to use their assets as a leader goes much further then having them interpret what you want from them.
