“Fitter, Faster, Stronger: The key to good leadership?”
Dear Leader,
Another day, another probing session with the granddaughter on her perspective of leadership.
Again, as we sat waiting for her to alight for school, I am eager to build on the feedback from a previous discussion (I have noticed that she is tending to leave the car earlier and earlier lately…)
Learning from previous failures to extract pertinent information form the mind of an unwilling source that is the truculent-tending teenager, I aim a carefully specified question in the hope of getting more insight.
“What do you think makes a good leader?
“IDK…” She tends to – in a somewhat annoying but at the same time oddly endearing way – speak like her text messages on occasion. “…Someone smarter, stronger. Has something that others don’t.”
Well, this is a wonderful mixed bag…
Interesting that at the initiation level of understanding the concept of leadership, it appears to always default to similar qualities: smarter, stronger; fitter, faster… etc. we could split this into two camps: the physical and the cerebral.
I suspect that the incumbent flood of superhero movies – the Marvel menagerie and DC collections – have a lot to do with this.
I recall a specific scene from The Avengers: during the “Battle of Manhattan” Cap gains the trust of the local cops only after beating up a few ugly alien invaders.
Stronger, fitter, faster (not necessarily smarter though – although, to be fair, he did offer a strategy to augment his aggression).
It is undeniable that physical dominance tends to impresses many. The danger, though, is that leadership can be easily substituted for “domination”.
Being stronger, faster, and fitter is fine if leading certain sports or some task-forces, and being “smarter” works in fields of some sciences and mathematics, but to adopt that philosophy cart-blanch into everyday life – within the family, at work, for your social group – then you are heading down dark roads of intimidation rather than enlightened paths of inspiration. You will not be too far from bullies and belligerents.
It is not to say that if you are smarter or stronger then you cannot be a good leader, but there are so many other requirements to leadership than being strong and smart – and what is more, those attributes make for a very refined and restricted class of leadership-material.
It is imperative that we teach those stepping out onto the leadership road that being smarter and stronger does not automatically make you a leader, nor does it mean that if you are not as strong or as smart as others that you cannot be a leader.
Note To Self!
A true leader today can succeed by being ethically strong and emotionally smart as much as one physically able or cerebrally capable. It is up to us, those already in the lead, those leading our next generation of leaders, to teach them that leadership is not about dominating others, it is about empowering others.
The best leaders do not learn to “lord over” others but learn to live with others.
Living Life, Learning Lessons!
Live | Learn | Lead
