The Temptation of Leadership

Why be a leader? Is it a calling? A sense of duty? Some people fall into leadership positions because of whom they were born to or because they were positioned next in line. Others jockey for the opportunity to be chosen. There are those who deserve to be leaders and those who by any reasonable standard do not. Leaders are loved, hated, worshiped, vilified, canonized while some are even executed by some of the worst means imaginable. If there is one thing that tends to make leadership seem attractive it is power.

Not all people find power to be seductive. Most sensible people recognize that with power comes responsibility, and many people shy away from leadership positions to avoid assuming responsibilities that they fear may consume them, or simply overwhelm them. Others are just unwilling to to do the heavy lifting that will prepare themselves to become an effective leader.

There are many people who gravitate towards leadership because they find power irresistible. The idea of freely exercising control over others either may seem like restitution for feelings of self-doubt and powerlessness - or the means to exact revenge on those who they believe caused them to feel this way. Malevolence and power often go hand-in-hand. The question of whether someone like Hitler was a "good" leader speaks to the heart of the debate as to the relationship between power and leadership - and even the basic argument as to whether having power and control has anything necessarily to do with leadership.

The notions of benevolent leaders and servant leadership strike at the heart of this debate, suggesting that leadership is a privilege and not a right and that the responsibilities outweigh the benefits of power. Heroes are those who place the needs of others above their own needs and even their own safety. Valiant leaders risk their own lives for the sake of those they serve. And conscious leaders carry the burden of leadership - never getting to heady about what power they might have and believing that the failure to make successful those they serve is a leader's most profound failure.

It has been said that to be a great leader you must be a great follower.

It is not a matter of empathy for those you lead, but a fundamental operating principle. Great leaders follow a great and worthy cause. They are led by an indelible sense of purpose that beckons them to draw others to follow along side of them in a common pursuit and a shared sense of duty. Great leaders inspire action by demonstrating what it means to be inspired - so that others will inspire their own call to service and action.

Leadership looks tempting to those who are inadequate followers.

If you lack the discipline to make yourself competent, you might benefit from having only yourself to account to - and having others who can be blamed. If you lack conscientiousness you might think of leadership as proof that your needs are more deserving than those of others - and seek leadership as a means of being self-serving. And of you lack purpose, leadership might seem like a good surrogate, where leadership for leadership's sake is ample justification for being a bully or tyrant and afflicting pain to satisfy your sadistic yearnings.

But if your aim is to fulfill your sense of duty to whatever and whoever you serve, regardless of how you may have arrived in your position, you have no choice but to dedicate yourself to learning what it will take to be an effective, fully competent leader.

Leadership is journey without a final destination. Don't be tempted by shortcuts or by promises of easy fixes for what goes wrong.

There are no recipes or simple-to-use tools that will make you into the leader you need to be. There is only curiosity that will keep you asking the questions that will lead you to what you need to learn. Humility that will enable you to fail as you will as you discover your strengths and your weaknesses and will teach you what it is you must learn. Humanity that guides an indelible inner purpose and causes you to care deeply about things that matter and the people you serve. And grit, the way you use your curiosity, humility and purpose to become conscientious and competent - and get comfortable being uncomfortable in the pursuit of transforming yourself into someone who can faithfully contribute to transforming the world around you.

If what is tempting to you about leadership is a sense of necessity to serve, and a sense of possibility about the future, you may way want to yield to this temptation. The world needs you and more like you.

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Phil Liebman is the Founder and CEO at ALPS Leadership - We Guide CEO's and Their Leadership Teams to Become Exceptionally Competent Leaders and High-Performance Organizations

www.ALPSLeadership.com

Phil is also been a Group Chairman with Vistage Worldwide since 2005 - where he helps leaders realize their potential by learning with and from other leaders. He is the author of the soon-to-be published book, "Cultivating MoJo: How competent leaders inspire exceptional performance."