Take me to your leader

“I hear you’re doing a seminar on how to lead seminars.” It was a former business associate.

“No, I’m doing two different seminars and you’re mixing the subjects together.”

“No matter. I’d like you to do one for my group on leadership.”

“I’m not sure I know enough.”

I heard a protracted exhale. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t we serve on the same steering committee for a leadership program?”

“Ironic, isn’t it? Kind of devalues the whole thing.”

“I’m not saying you have to be the end-all expert. We floated some names out there and yours resonated. How about cutting me a break?”

“What’s the time frame?”

“Three hours.”

“Three hours? You have to be kidding. There isn’t that much to say.”

“Oh come on! There must be a thousand lists of leadership techniques and traits on the web. There are entire books. I’ve read some of them.”

“Fantastic. You give the seminar.”

I’ve been involved in leadership development, read the books and seen the lists. But, the more I’m around, the more I think the principal purpose of coming up with lists is to sell books. I can take one of those lists and show you a ton of successful leaders who don’t fit the mold. And, I can turn around and enumerate people who match up perfectly with the specs, but couldn’t pull six people together for a poker game if a life depended on it. I’m talking about numbers far beyond the “exception-to-the-rule” doctrine.

I’m no longer certain leadership is something that can be taught. Management, yes. Leadership? You can improve upon something that’s there, but out of whole cloth?

Bottom line is that I think leadership is just having vision, being able to communicate that and motivating people to follow it. That simple. What I call the Paul Newman school of leadership.

In the movie “Hombre,” Paul Newman plays an Apache thrown into a stage coach journey with some white people biased against Indians. The coach is robbed and the passengers are left in the desert to die. Newman is in his element and sets out for safety. The “soft” white people, who detest him, follow his lead.

At one point, a woman addresses this irony by asking, “Why do we keep trotting after you?”

“Because I can cut it, lady.”

It may just be that simple.

“Are you going to do this for us or not?”

“Are you sure the world needs more leaders?” There are enough leaders; just not in the positions we need them the most. And, from what I’ve experienced in store and customer service, what we really need is to train more people in how to follow leadership.