Take Me To Your Leader

I forget which sci-fi movie this comes from…perhaps Star Trek, Star Wars, War of the Worlds, or maybe it was Abbott And Costello Go To Mars… I can’t promise a prize, but if anybody knows, please let me know.

Anyway, the point is that although this is such a well-known phrase, I don’t think anybody uses it. Have you? Perhaps the alien wanting to identify “the leader” would have been better off asking if there was anybody around who could help them. This might not be as dramatic, but it would be more effective!

In fact, leadership really has nothing to do with a person’s job title and everything to do with qualities such as, in this instance, helpfulness. This raises two questions:

1. What other qualities does “leadership” encompass? 

2. What are the implications of this for Executive Directors and Board Chairs of nonprofit organizations?

Amanda and I have written several blogs that address the first question, which are on our website. Please check them out. 

In answer to the second question I want to highlight the following:

1. Be aware that leadership comes in many forms. Look around. Who exhibits these qualities? They may be in your volunteer team, staff team, the board of directors, the people the organization serves… and likely, there are leaders in all of these groups.

2. How are you unleashing their potential? Is your own leadership style supporting the leadership of others? And on that subject, check out Amanda’s new blog: How are you cultivating future leaders?

3. What operational processes do you have in place to unleash the power of leadership? It is common for organizations to have a “leadership team,” and leadership team meetings. I’ve never really been sure what function such teams have. Is membership determined by job title? It seems like an exclusive set up to me… alienating almost! Certainly not inclusive.

National Volunteer Week is coming up fast (April 17 - 23), and I wanted to give some leadership examples from my own experience. I worked for an organization once that staged an annual walk/run event. It was almost completely staged by a team of volunteers who, every year, achieved extraordinary results. One led the organization of a BBQ which would feed the 2,000 attendees in the space of an hour; another created a silent auction that would raise tens of thousands of dollars; and another who would  set up a stage and coordinate the acts which involved ensuring that various music groups could perform, and our guest speakers be heard. Volunteers worked on logistics, security, permits, and all sorts of things. All were quite simply exceptional leaders.

And, apart from the generic title of “volunteer,” these extraordinary leaders had no official title within the organization. On the day of the event, they would all show up at 5:00 a.m. to make sure it was all going to work…and didn’t leave until the day was done.

I want to say two things with these examples in mind. The first is a great big thank you to these volunteers (and all volunteers in the nonprofit sector for their work), and the second is that this is a good example of unleashing the potential of leaders. There is no way that I could have led any one of these activities – but if I had not let others lead, if I had tried to do it all myself, the event would have failed and the funds that make the work possible would not have been there.

The question that I want to pose to you is, how are you creating an environment that empowers others to lead?

Perhaps when that environment is accomplished and the alien arrives and asks their question, any one of us can answer “We are all leaders here!”