On Leadership: Paul Walsh

Leading from the Centre
Paul Walsh

Working in learning and development for over ten years, I’ve spent a lot of time in training rooms working with managers helping them to work out what management and leadership means to them. The same discussions often crop up, such as,

 Is there a difference between leadership and management?; What is a good leader?;   Are we born to be a “natural leader” or can leadership be learned?

There are many ways a trainer can approach these questions – discuss some models, display relevant quotes from well known leaders, talk about what their employer expects.  But underlying all these questions is the assumption that there are leaders and, therefore, followers to be led. 

As I work with participants to answer these questions, I can not help but recall a quote by leadership author Keith Grint, when he observes that, “leadership is too important to be left to leaders.”  Ideally, we want everyone in our teams and organisations to feel empowered and as committed to our business as if it were their own. 

Yet, there’s a contradiction here with how we tend to think about leadership.  Writers and theorists on the subject often talk about “leading from the front”, transforming the values and goals of followers so they carry out their leader’s vision.  But there are risks:

• In the past three years, we’ve seen huge financial institutions bought to the very edge by leadership visions that have been so successfully taken on board by the organisation that no one thought to challenge them. 
• How does future talent develop if they take on their leader’s values and beliefs without working these out for themselves?
• What about leaders so convinced by their own vision, they won’t listen to anyone who dares to dissent?

From this perspective, expecting followers to work within your values and vision doesn’t empower teams or individuals – quite the opposite.  After all, pinning your hopes and expectations on a leader and accepting their beliefs without thinking them through for yourself is an easy option.  Something people taking part in leadership development often realise as I challenge them to work these out for themselves. 

As a leader, if you want teams to take responsibility and work problems out for themselves, consider if leading from the front is the best way.  For instance, researchers looking at leadership across the world have found this isn’t the only approach to leadership.  In China, for instance, business leaders aspire to lead from the centre – a well connected source of advice, support and facilitation for those they work with. 

Next time you feel frustrated at someone in your team or business who doesn’t seem able to take responsibility, take the opportunity to reflect and ask yourself whether you are so busy leading, that they feel they have no alternative but to follow.

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Paul Walsh is a Training Officer at Manchester Metropolitan University and mentor with a community based employability and enterprise group in Warrington.  Having worked in learning and development for over ten years, he has a research interest in the participatory evaluation of development programmes. 

When not writing blogs, Paul is most likely to be found in a training room attempting to support participants’ development by inducing confusion, asking awkward questions and trying not to provide any answers.