Are You Leading? Uncovering "Real Leadership!"

In our last post, we established the critical link between leadership, culture, and performance. But what kind of leadership truly drives a healthy culture?

In Take Your Lead, we contend that our encounters with genuine leaders are rare, despite the abundance of leadership literature available and the growth of the "leaders are readers" movement in the last century.

This scarcity stems from a common confusion between two distinct classes of leaders:

Leaders-in-Position (Entitled): These individuals hold a title, rank, or formal authority. They often imagine they are being followed but may not have earned the genuine trust of their teams. This is what our founding book calls "Imaginary Leadership," a leadership that exists in position only.

Leaders-in-Person (Earned): These are individuals who have earned the appointment of their followers, regardless of their formal position. They lead through influence, trust, and personal power, making a positive impact on those around them. This is "Real Leadership".

The core distinction is that leadership isn't entitled by position and granted by promotion; it is earned by a person and granted by those who choose to follow. A manager with positional power can compel compliance and will more often than not get malicious obedience in return, but a real leader inspires willing followership.

On the power continuum between positional and personal, there are natural and unavoidable consequences. Over-reliance on positional power increases the professional power-distance between the leader and their team, resulting in rigid structures that stiffle performance. In contrast, shifting the marker toward personal power fosters a "leader-follower" relationship built on more relaxed, participative approaches.

"Real Leadership" is:

Effective: It promotes higher levels of individual, group, and organizational effectiveness.

Right: It is governed by a moral compass, ensuring that the motives, means, and ends are for the good of others.

Perishable and Renewable: It requires a continual commitment to getting better at who we are and what we do as leaders, consistently giving others a reason to follow.

The fundamental challenge is that positional power is an entitlement that comes with our traditional command and control, hiearchical territory, while personal power must be earned through hard work. So, ask yourself: Are people following you because of your title, or because of your impact?

In our next post, we'll introduce the foundational tool for building this personal power: your Leadership Platform.