Leadership – The Eyes Have It
My colleague and good friend Ivan Rosenberg, CEO of Los Angeles based Frontier Associates defined it well when he told me…
“It is articulating a vision of an ennobling and implementable possibility that wasn’t going to happen otherwise which spontaneously enrolls people to enthusiastically want to make it happen.”
I have also heard — and agree with — that when a vision is sufficiently compelling and convincing to its core stakeholders, commitment (in the form of action vs. words) spontaneously occurs. When commitment to action doesn’t occur it’s because the vision wasn’t sufficiently compelling or convincing.
And from Eileen Webbeke’s book Global Business Leadership come the following definitions:
- In French, leadership, “conduite, ” means to guide one’s own behavior, to guide others, or command action. In France, although the French are famous for protesting, authority holds deference and respect.
- In German, leadership, “Führung, ” means guidance, and in organizations, it is construed to consist of uncertainty reduction. The leader guides action. Further, leaders guide by the rules in such a way as to motivate.
- In Chinese, leadership,,means the leader and the led. The leader is one who “walks in front ” and guides the group through teaching ” the way. ” Here, the implication is that leadership can only be a relational activity.
- In Arabic, there is a word ” Sheikh ” that has different meanings according to the regional culture within the Middle East. Literally, ” Sheikh ” means a man over 40 years. However, in the Gulf and Saudi Arabia ” Sheikh ” means a person from the Royal Family.
- In Egypt, ” Sheikh ” means a scholar of religion.
- In Lebanon, “Sheikh ” means a religious leader even among Christians. The socioeconomic and political culture of the Middle East plays a role in influencing the definition of leadership. In general, it is agreeable among people from the Middle East that leadership is tied to seniority before any other qualification. During the period when Egypt was a monarchy, it was improper presenting King Farook as the leader of Egypt. However, they used the term leadership to describe heads of the opposition parties. During the 1950s, many Arab countries were ruled by military offi cers. Since then ” leadership ” has become a descriptive term of presidency. There have been great business innovators who were recognized as leaders for their role in starting new industries. However, that was before the 1952 revolution.
- Now, in the Middle East the term leadership is a political term, nothing else, with the exception that in Iran, leadership is a religious term more than a political one. As far as organizational or business leaders, they cannot share the term no matter how great their contribution.
Upcoming events of interest:
Tags: leadership, mark goulston, obama
December 2nd, 2009 at 7:21 am
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