Thursday, July 22, 2010

All about cockroaches and leadership

All about cockroaches and leadership: "

What do you mean when you use the word “leadership”?

When I was a little girl my brother and I shared a room. I wanted my own room and because we lived in a small house the only room I could have was the basement. We painted it and cleaned it but no matter what we did I met at least 5 cockroaches a day in that room.

I wanted a room of my own but the roaches were never my favorite insect. It is what happened next that is of importance to our discussion.

I define leadership as the ability to be in a position of choice.When my clients avoid decisions, blame reality or others for the results they are facing I find the first step to change is always in one way or another linked to choice. I believe the main quality of leaders is their ability to express their uniqueness in choosing how to interact with reality minute by minute, from one situation to the next (according to this definition whether people follow them or not has more to do with whether their leadership as well as their management has reached a high enough level of effectivness).

When people act they reinforce a synaptic pathway in their brain. When they act without choosing they are more likely to act in the same way again in the future just because they are “used to it”. The very action of choosing makes it more likely that with time, through trail and error, they will act in more effective ways. The very action of choosing makes “followship” more likely…

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