Leading Without Title

I am currently reading a great book called ‘The leader who had no title’ by Robin Sharma (2010). One of his brilliant 12 books about leadership.?

The plot consists of the leadership self-discovery of the main character (Blake) and his path through understanding that status, seeking external recognition, or rewards are not what really matters in life, but transforming the world into a better place is.

The book mentions many quotes and metaphors from acclaimed leaders in many various industries sharing a common concept: success will ultimately be achieved through pursuing the correct actions, small decisions and acts that allow growth. A farmer plants a seed, waters the field, and fertilizes the land. He trusts the process, regardless of whether nothing seems to be happening. Until it does. This farmer is an example of someone successful.

Blake (followed by his mentor Tommy) has conversations with 4 masters who introduce him to exploring different concepts that applied to his life under the motto of “Leading Without Title”. They explore them through the journey of how becoming a leader means transforming the world into a better place.?

The first one of them is I M A G E:

• Innovation: Our objective shall be to achieve excellence and enthusiastic innovation to impact areas such as our productivity, how to work faster or make our clients happy. We shall aim for making today better than yesterday by leaving everything that crosses our path better than we found it.?
• Mastery: Regardless of the activity we are involved in, we shall aim for becoming the best at it. This will be transformative and a platform and opportunity to discover our inner leadership and feel pride and life satisfaction through helping others by being the best version of ourselves.
• Authenticity: Our capacity to influence and make meaningful contributions is born by who we genuinely are as people, not from the authority assigned by a role in a company, for instance. This is only achieved by being comfortable in our own skin, trusting ourselves, being led by our own values and being the best we can be.
• Guts: To become a leader without a title we need to be persistent and brave, and risk more than what seems reasonable. The best and more brilliant leaders are the ones who convince themselves that failing is not an option.
• Ethics: Being humble, working with tenacity with people we admire, and having integrity will bring up amazing rewards. We will never regret taking the correct actions.?

We tend to link the leadership capacity (or quality?) to the professional environment. Leaders are people who commonly get to influence others who dream to make it there, through the recognition of their achievements.

We rarely call leaders the ones who “just” master their family life, inner spirituality, love and friend relationships or community contribution.?

Our popular leadership role models are very visible because they put in the spotlight the tangible rewards, that we, ambitious human beings, have been conditioned to relate to success.?

Leadership development programmes are a great opportunity to upskill talented people to become their best selves at work. This training is an intent, investment from the organisations to, by identifying the most engaged, proactive and heartful employees within the company, ensure they will drive it forward, sustained success. Now and in the future. But... how can we ensure that we are building the leaders that will drive our organisational goals forward?

Decision makers and their participants should ultimately look at these programmes in a holistic way, as an opportunity to allow the latter to become better human beings. They will impact how they relate to people (in and out of the org), do things, and look for alternative ways to make the world a better place. This is real leadership. Developing a fertile inner world that makes us proud, which will cascade into everything we set our mind to in every sphere of life, not just the professional. Leadership development programmes make happier people and companies cannot aim for a better asset.?

Performing from innovation, aspiring to achieve mastery, being authentic, having the guts and acting according to our ethics are the first 5 suggestions by Sharma to achieve leadership. There are more to come to be discussed in the coming weeks.?

When thinking about developing our leaders we can bring in engaging and trending topics such as D&I, Well-being or how to avoid burnout, but we cannot forget that leadership is ultimately built upon a growth mindset and attitude and their scale into all areas of our lives. And this is what we have to fertilise in our leaders, alongside positive thoughts and the patience of time, until the cyclical balance of seasons gives us the desired fruit.?