Is There a Shortage of Good Leaders?
Susan Mazza on her Random Acts of Leadership blog wrote a wonderful post called “Filling the Void of Real Leadership” last week. I was itching to respond to it, but decided that I’d take the discussion off point. The part I zeroed in on in her post was “Glaring examples of bad leadership are being called to our attention at an alarming rate. The void of “real” leadership is palpable for most of us”. My concern is that we need begin to see through a different lens for the good (or “real”) leaders because they’re out there, and they are more numerous than we might think.
Every time I read or hear someone speak about the shortage of good leaders, honestly – I cringe. I also vehemently disagree. I believe that we see what we’re looking for, and sometimes we just need to look beyond the obvious and immediately visible. I see lots of good – even great – leaders out there. Here’s why I think we might be fooled into believing there is a void of good leaders and I invite you to poke away at it:
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The news media is inherently looking for examples of poor leadership to watch/read/discuss in the news; what they report on are the sensational stories (usually negative) that catch lots of attention. We (meaning the public) seem to be attracted to negative news stories, so this is what gets published. If all we hear about is “leadership gone wrong”, then that’s what we think is out there.
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We (especially those of us who work in the business world) are hard wired to be critical. In our jobs, we look for what’s wrong, quite naturally. So what we see is the bad leaders, ignoring the majority that consists of the good – and even great – leaders.
- Good leaders generally don’t brag. In other words, I believe there are a lot of good leaders out there who go about doing what they should do – leading well, but quietly and humbly. They don’t tend to attract attention.
I have the good fortune to be able to work with wonderful leaders who are attuned to their values and a code of ethics. They often get recognized in their organizations but rarely get press outside of it, because “being good” at leading others generally isn’t interesting to the public.
We need to be intentional about looking for the good – and even great – leaders. Good to great leaders are out there, in droves.
So I wonder: could it be that I’m missing something because of the work I do or the lens that I see through? Are my standards too low? Sure, there are bad (and even evil) leaders. I simply don’t believe that there is a shortage of good leaders. We just need to look a little harder for the good. Please feel free to prove me wrong – what do you think?
P.S. I like Wally Bock’s thoughts about exceptional leaders in his related post, The 97 Percent Solution. We need to showcase and use exceptional leaders more, as he’s described.
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