“And that is what experience is for, to be made into power. The great leader creates as well as directs power”
(Nation’s Business, 1997, p. 24)
Mary Parker Follett
Esther Derby posted a lovely Mary Parker Follett quote earlier, and I share it because it elegantly describes what I think about leadership.
Here’s another.
We talk a fair amount about “servant leadership” to project and functional managers making the transition into agile roles. But this isn’t really a new or different kind of leadership, just a new way of interpreting where the leader’s power comes from. Leaders – even ones radically changing the world or heading troops into battle – derive their power from people’s willingness to follow them. [This doesn’t remove the usefulness of things like management or positional authority. If you’ve ever gotten lost with a group of friends, you’ve experienced how easy it is to just follow someone because they’re in front of yo
Leaders don’t need an immense, soaring vision. I’d argue that too detailed a soaring vision can actually get in the way of leadership’s main task: this co-active power of finding the best, most awesome things in a person or team. Leadership, too, need not reside only in the people with positional authority. It’s better when every member of a team can call forth their own, others’ and the group’s best potential.
Encouraging that leadership among team members, by the way, is a big part of the raison-d’etre for the coach, PM, Scrum Master, etc. – anyone who takes on the role of holding up the mirror to the team. The first (and frankly, constant – I have to redo this for myself often) step is recognizing that your own personal leadership comes largely from being a decent person who keeps growing.