Who’s in charge here? No, really – who is actually in charge? And while we’re at it, what does it mean to be ‘in charge’ anyway?
For those who have not been paying attention over the last couple of years or so, COVID-19 has effectively reminded us that homo sapiens, as a species, is not in charge. We are very fortunate and very temporary, earthly passengers who perhaps have an unfortunate knack for taking ourselves too seriously.
So, what can COVID-19 teach us about leadership?
The leadership philosophy of ‘Servant Leadership’ holds as foundational that the goal of the leader is to serve. But how can a leader lead and serve at the same time? When meeting with clients managed by a member of my team, I would always state that I work for my team member (not the other way around), since I saw it as my job to remove barriers and support my team members’ successes. I was aware that my doing so challenged the concept of power differential in the context of leadership, but that was by design. My team members worked for clients in order to deliver maximum value and make a difference. I worked for my team members to do the same. I was certainly a leader, but I wasn’t ‘in charge’ of making outcomes happen (though some ‘senior leaders’ would disagree). I knew that outcomes, and targets, were not attainable if my team members didn’t know each and every day that I was there to support and serve them.
Without getting into how the relationship between homo sapiens and the planet we call home would be different if we didn’t think of ourselves as being ‘in charge’, here are a few examples of Servant Leadership in action:
- Captain of a soccer team makes a great pass to a teammate who scores the winning goal
- Spiritual leader provides a safe space for community members to feel heard and find their path
- CEO secures board approval to fund reengineering of the post-pandemic workplace
In each of the above examples, the leader could have ‘taken charge’ in an attempt to dictate actions, but to what end? Would those they were leading be as committed to the process and invested in its outcomes?
Leadership is a responsibility, and it is temporary. The day always comes when a leader is no longer a leader. By making it their goal to serve others, leaders stand a much better chance of building positive, lasting relationships that transcend the org chart, and of being remembered for who they were and the impact they had.