Leadership Essay, Research Paper

When all is said and done, there is one dominant responsibility that leaders have above all else. To ignore it imperils their organizations and their own careers.

Joel Barker

To examine that responsibility, we need to start with a definition of “a leader.” Let me offer one for your consideration: A leader is someone you will follow to a place you would not go by yourself.

It is as simple as that. If people follow you to places they would not go by themselves, then you must be a leader.

It is important to note that the definition for a tyrant is different from that of a leader: A tyrant is someone who forces you to go to a place you would not go by yourself.

What separates “leadership” and “tyranny” is choice. People choose to follow a leader; they are compelled by force to follow a tyrant. With that clarification in mind, please look at the following chart:

Note first the breadth of responsibility for the front liner. Most of their responsibility is very close to the present. That makes sense because they are the ones who take care of today whether they are serving the food, word processing the letter, entering the data, driving the school bus, putting the parts together, or doing the research. They have too little time left to be responsible for the future.

Now note the breadth of responsibility for the leader. The pattern is reversed. With very little responsibility for the present, most of their responsibility should be focused on the future. This, too, makes sense if you remember that a leader is someone you will follow to a place where you would not go by yourself.

What is the name of that place? Most often it is the future. And that is your primary job as leader — to find the place of the future so that you can lead people to it.

There are only three things that should bring a leader back to the present:

#1: Crisis — Your people will want you by their side in times of great difficulty.

#2: Evaluation and recognition — Your job is to tell people how they are doing their jobs. Giving praise is the delightful part, but constructive criticism is a requirement, too.

#3: Sharing the vision — This is where you return from your explorations of the future to tell your front-liners what you have found and how it will impact their jobs and the business.

Of the three, the last is the most important because it puts your people at ease, knowing that the future is being secured.

GE’s Jack Welch said that he thought the most important role of his key people was “to recognize the future.” Haveed Riaz of Citibank said that the most important role of leaders was “to secure the future.” I have said it is “to find the future.” In truth, a leader’s role is probably a mixture of all three: to find, recognize and secure the future.

If you do that, you have done the most important part of your job as the leader of your organization.