I wondered why it is that people coming right out of a leadership training would hardly ever have a coherent definition of leadership? None of them seem to agree on one definition. Despite decades of research, we have never quite laid to rest the question of whether it is inborn or acquired.
As a student, I couldn't care less about that question; all I knew was that leadership is an attitude. Whether you are a good leader or not has hardly anything to do with your genetics and everything to do with the attitudes you develop along the way. Bear with me on that thought!
Inborn or Acquired
When you see so many examples of individuals from prominent families ending up becoming great leaders, you tend to think of that as a general rule. It gets confusing after a while, doesn’t it? If one of your parents has been an accomplished leader, you have it in your genes and hence it is natural for you to end up in a position of authority. For one, this is innately oxymoronic – leadership has nothing to do with being in a position of authority. Secondly, attitudes are cultivated from the seeds of beliefs and beliefs are partly formed through experience.
A child living in a home with parents who are leaders is more likely to develop the core beliefs required to garner the leadership attitude, not because this attitude was divinely ordained for her by virtue of her being her parent’s child, but merely by having the advantage of experiencing leadership first-hand and acquiring attitudinal leadership as a defining element of her personality.
Leadership and Authority
Attitudinal leadership is what helps us distinguish leadership from authority, what I would refer to as positional leadership. A senior manager can be a horrible leader while a school boy can demonstrate exceptional leadership potential in a play group. Sans the required attitudes, the manager cannot become a true leader who is respected by his team, whereas the attitudinal leadership of the child is highly likely to help him acquire a position of authority in life.
As opposed to the manager who was elevated to a position of authority by another person at a higher position of authority, the child’s authority will come from the willingness of her followers to follow her. In other words, attitudinal leadership is what leads to a bottom-up elevation to authority. A leader springs from amongst the masses and elevates to authority on account of her distinguishing attitudes and extricates the followers from the duty to follow the leader. They are not obliged to follow the leader but since the leader’s attitudes have reasonable degree of permanence to them, it is likely that they would like to continue following her.
Learning Attitudinal Leadership
Simply put, attitudinal leadership is when you develop the attitude of a leader and end up gaining a leadership position. Positional leadership on the other hand, is when you develop leadership skills because you have been assigned to a position of authority. However, for people in positions of authority, it is never too late to learn the attitudes required to become a leader. Since attitudes essentially emanate from a set of core beliefs, it is necessary that a conscientious effort is made to develop the core beliefs that lead to attitudinal leadership.
The Attitudes
It is hard to come up with an exhaustive list of attitudes that constitute attitudinal leadership, but I have a feeling it wouldn’t be a long list. Quite often, we tend to get carried away when trying to list the attitudes that define a leader. The minimal set of attitudes that determine whether you have it in you or not are bound to be just a few. And skills like communication or being good at managing time have no place in it. If it did, everyone who possesses skills like good communication and time management would be the greatest leaders in history. All true leaders have the attitudes to acquire those essential skills to become successful at leading, but all who have those essential skills do not become leaders.
Perhaps the most prominent attitude then would be the drive to spearhead change. A true leader is never complacent with the status quo; he is a reformer. He has an insatiable urge to intervene and make a difference, to change something that is not as it is supposed to be. At the same time he is optimistic and persistent.
A leader is passionate about the values he believes in. This passion resonates among his followers and emerges in form of a collective vision for change. His persistence aides to build a momentum which evolves into a voluntary acceptance of the vision.
Today Malala Yousafzai is known as one of the greatest leaders of our times not because she had it in her genes, but quite simply because her experiences helped her nurture the attitudes that are hallmarks of attitudinal leadership. She believed in her vision, was persistent in her efforts to bring about change and was optimistic about the future.
I encourage you to identify the differentiating attitudes that define attitudinal leadership and to give real life examples of someone you see as leader despite not being in a position of authority.
Photo credits: World Bank Photo Collection, Albert Tarragó
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