But I’m not a leader!

Leadership is not for me

I meet a lot of people in my coaching and consulting work, in both schools and the corporate world, who readily declare of themselves: “I’m not a leader”. When challenged on this, their response is often prefaced by the words “yes… but…”

Coach: “Have you thought about trying to influence this group to understand your point of view?”

Coachee: “Yes, but I’m not a leader. They would never listen to me”. 

 Coach: “I have every confidence that you could achieve that dream”.

Coachee: “Yes, but I’m not a leader so even if I get there, I doubt I could inspire others to follow”. 

Hidden beneath these common responses are two false assumptions. Firstly, that some people are leaders and others are simply not.[1] The second false assumption is that every display of leadership must be inherently confident and persuasive.

Viewing leadership in such a simplistic and binary way is all too often propelling certain ‘types’ of people into leadership, and in so doing, overlooking other ‘types’ who simply don’t fit this narrow stereotype. We are then left bereft when our world is full of leadership that often fails to serve us well.

Leadership is influence

At its heart, leadership is about influence, not position. This means that people who are not in positions of leadership can and often do lead very effectively. The converse is of course also true: many people are in positions of leadership yet fail to do much leading, let alone lead well.

Might we benefit from reframing the conversation? Rather than having a focus on leaders per se (labeling people as either leaders or non-leaders), perhaps we would be wiser to focus more on leadership.

Leadership is service

The Bible’s narrative of leadership is rooted in service, modelled by the example of Christ and empowered by the Spirit of God.

Mark 10:45 “For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many”.

1 Peter 4:11 “Those who serve, must serve with the strength God gives them”

Christian service shines light on others, gives rather than takes, supports rather than demands, encourages rather than burdens.

To serve is to love, and to love is to serve. Love and service both lie at the heart of who God is and what God does. This means that as those made in his image (Genesis 1:27, we were created to both serve and love. The positive influence this has on others is one way of displaying God-given leadership. In very different and complementary ways, we can all do this.

Leadership is for all

Our society (and schools are by no means immune from this), all too readily recognise and promote the inspirational, confident, visionary pupils and staff, often at the expense of the quieter, understated and reflective people. Far too often, the former ‘types’ are both looked to and recognised as leaders, unconsciously leaving the latter behind.

By focussing on fostering leadership rather than giving our attention to looking for leaders, true leadership will be given greater space to shine forth. This will be good for our schools, good for our world, and will give God the glory.

Reflection

Spend some time reflecting on the leadership culture at your school.

·         Are leadership opportunities available to all?

·         What further steps could you take to better reinforce the broad spectrum of authentic leadership styles needed in the world today?

·         Are there any groups of young people or staff whose leadership potential currently lies untapped? What could you do to help release this?

·         How do you recognise and elevate servant leadership in your school?

Bio

Mark is a former Secondary School Teacher and Chair of a Youth Charity. He now runs his own consultancy, principally focussed on releasing untapped leadership potential. He lives in Surrey and has a young family.

The ethos of this article is captured in Mark’s book: “I’m not a leader” – available on Amazon as Paperback, Kindle and Audio book.

To find out more, please visit www.leader-full.co.uk. You can also email Mark directly: mark@leader-full.co.uk

[1] Whilst the nature/nurture debate is an interesting one, ‘going there’ would be a distraction to the focus of this article.