LEADERSHIP UNIVERSE (32B): Opposing Leadership

Travel Guide for Leadership Excellence in the newly emerging order   

STOP-OVER 32(B)

Anti–Fellowship: Opposing leadership

At a glance 

In the previous Stop-over, Stop-over 32(A), I have made the case that Leadership cannot be understood exclusively from the vantage point of leadership. Or, only as a relationship with Followers. In the final instance, leadership is embedded in a three-way relationship made up Leadership, Followers and Opponents, all interacting simultaneously. 

In principle, the power held by leadership per se creates from the word ‘Go’ the likelihood for opposition to emerge. Opponents challenge the legitimacy of Incumbent Leadership – leadership’s ‘license to lead’. The challenge is to the power leadership has to influence and control Others in their reciprocal interdependency to conceive and actualise a shared dream and future with a concomitant legacy.   

We have covered in the previous Stop-over:

• sources of Opponents and opposition 
• dimensions of opposing  
• types of Opponents

 This Stop-over addresses:  

• the evolution of opposing: its life cycle 
• opposing strategies and tactics 
• counter-responses by Incumbent Leadership  
• organisational dynamics and impact attributable to opposing

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