For any of you who read my leadership articles, you have probably realised I am young. And some have found that I am too young to be giving leadership advice.
I recently had to remove a comment from one of my articles due to it being ageist. Yes, I am young, and I write about leadership, and I think it is time more young people did.
After all, it is the younger working population under the leadership of others. If there is any set of workers that could tell you about the gaps in leadership, it is us. And that is due to them being under the wing of many managers.
However, that does not make their view more significant than those who have years of experience in leadership. We need all ideas from the bottom up. And it is through seeing leadership from different perspectives we can form good leaders.
One of the best things about where business is going is that it is moving away from a standard hierarchical structure. People are now flexible with their working, personal development and where they place their time.
However, this has also left leaders with more challenging tasks. There are now more things to consider when making business decisions, and people are now in need of good environments and good work.
In this article, I seek to highlight why every perspective of leadership is important to put the picture together. It is not just about expertise. It is about giving everyone a voice to ensure the leaders they want to see in tomorrow’s organisations.
Leadership is an Art
In one of my older articles, I discussed the importance of seeing leadership as an art. Of course, there are things that all good leaders should practice and do apply. However, there is no perfect leader that everyone should aspire to become.
Unlike science, there is no perfect answer for the type of leader one should be. We all have different personalities, lead in different environments and facilitate unique needs.
When we see leadership as an art, we are more likely to appreciate the different approaches to leadership outside of our own. Just as there is no perfect painting, there is no complete leader in our organisations that everyone points to as a reference.
It is also important to note that seeing leadership as an art does not just help us become our own leaders, but it assists us in forming good leaders. As artists and individuals look at the artwork, everyone interprets it and sees it differently. Different emotions are found in everyone, and we all see unique things in the image.
Not one perspective is wrong, and not one view is right. All of our perspectives make up what the artist may be trying to portray to us, and it is through this we are able to see the picture more clearly.
So, although we may think that good leadership is grounded in the knowledge of those who have done it before us, it is more than that. It is found in everyone who has led and who is being led. And that is what makes leadership more of an art than a science.
Becoming the Leader You Want to Be
We rarely seek to become the leaders we had in our own lives. Although we appreciate their good leadership, we want to do leadership in our own way. And that comes from combining the unique traits of all the leaders we had.
It is through using our good judgement that we find the leader we want to become. And this is the best thing to do if we seek to become good leaders of our own.
We must find the balance between the good traits we see in our leaders and what we seek to display in our leadership. Good leadership is not a set of rules that one follows. There is individuality and personal vision that comes along with it.
The leader you want to be is also a combination of great leaders you have had or have seen in the past. Therefore, it would be silly to think that different perspectives do not assist in helping leaders become their best selves.
I have found that the best people who have assisted me in my leadership development are not my leaders. It is those who have been under my leadership. They are the ones who see my actions every day and can assist me in steering me in a good direction.
That is not to belittle the significant effort from my leaders to make me who I am today. But they would be the first ones to tell me that it is those under my leadership that I should listen to and help form my leadership for the better.
Closing Thoughts
So, next time you think that a person’s advice on leadership is invalid, think again. You do not need to take it on board, and it may very well be wrong despite the person meaning well.
However, it comes from a real experience that the person has had with their leaders or through leadership. Therefore, it should not be ignored. Instead, it should be thought about, and you should take time to think about why that person may have those views.
By doing so, we open up the discussion for leadership and have a better chance of finding new ideas that can assist in creating better leaders for the future.