I saw a book about leadership on a shelf recently and it made me think about it. Firstly, and this is what made me curious about it – is that I’ve never really wanted to think about it, then realising that, I wondered why. 

Maybe its because I’ve associated with it some aspects that I’m not interested in. For example, when I think about leadership I think about popularity, I think about successful social and group dynamics. I think about being well-liked and perhaps even being in control of people. Now, all those things I’ve never really been into. Either because I’m never found myself being particularly successful or useful at these things, and then sort of favoured other things.

But I’ve never really needed to worry about these things and perhaps because I’ve associated these things with leadership, I’ve never really practised leadership in this regard. Now my definition of leadership could well be the problem and perhaps I’ve avoided leadership because this is the way I’ve defined it. I dunno but this is a quite interesting retrospective.

Why am I like this or why am I the way I am? Very interesting thought. Are these aspects of leadership that I’ve associated with it correct? Why am I so interested in it now?

To answer the first question is to say I don’t know but perhaps its because I’m less inclined to be sociable. Or perhaps that I’m not that interested in being ‘boss’ or ‘father’ or anyone that is in control of a situation or group of people or whatever – I just don’t know for sure.  As for my second question, this is the journey I intend to discover. And finally, why am I interested in it now? I dunno that answer either but perhaps it will become clearer soon.

In my mind, perhaps my questioning of those traditional aspects of what I’ve (rightly or wrongly) defined leadership to be is due to my increasing maturity and experience in life. Perhaps it's not having to have actively spent time thinking about leadership. I’ve been far more concerned about other things: making sure I can deliver some outcome, making sure that I don't get things wrong. Making sure that I’m enjoying myself. And ultimately, making sure I’m achieving these goals.

Most of my goals aren’t to ensure that that people around me do their work or that they go about their work in a certain manner or way. I leave that to them, they either can or they can’t. I see myself as one of these people too – It's up to me to sort myself out. There is no spoon feeding in adulthood.

I’ve never looked to anyone really to make me better or to help me out. I’ve not looked for charity for anything. Sure, I do notice advice/help along the way in my endeavours and I do learn from it, and sometimes I help others in this way too (as I’m already here doing it) and people around me either learn from what I do or don't – its up to them - but this is not the primary focus in my line of work. My primary focus is to do and to do it well. How do I do it well, by trying by persevering and by adapting to needs and changes and being excited about seeing how well I do and at the same time see how much I’m enjoying the experience. Here is an example:

I’m a programmer, I’m an introvert and my job is primarily about learning and writing programs. There are many countless ways and technologies to use, each technology has its behaviours and ins-and-outs. Every couple of months something I learnt in the last job is no longer used, so it's now the next thing. It's an uphill battle, much like determining what the next fashion will be. To stay relevant, I need to be able to do the next thing, to figure it out, to deliver it, to become comfortable with it. And I enjoy it, I enjoy learning so It’s ok that what I learnt a while back is obsolete – I enjoyed it when it wasn’t obsolete and I enjoyed learning how to tame it when it was new and unwieldy. Now, during this time, I’ve not thought about leadership, that’s everyone else’s problem.

There really is no time to spend doing something else. Perhaps that something else is leadership.

I do think this has given me a unique insight: I’m not a trained leader. That being said, I know certain things that people expect from a leader. I’ve seen it, I’ve needed it. I’ve been a consumer of leaders for years. I eat them for breakfast!

I’ve started to realise what I think leadership is:

1. Leaders are expected by non-leaders to be more experienced and thus have more insight than they do. (experience)
• If I don’t know something I’ll do ask someone who does.
2. Leaders are expected by non-leaders to make the decisions for them or be heavily in favour of the ultimate decision (A big player in the resultant decision)
• I need a decision to be made so that I can carry on doing the work.
3. Leaders are expected by non-leaders to know what to do next.
• I need to know what the priority is.
4. Leaders are expected by non-leaders to have advice for them that is that’s satisfactory to them.
• I’m concerned, worried, frightened and I need you to alleviate that for me. (unblock me please!)
5. Leaders are expected by non-leaders to be more capable than themselves.
• I need you to have a known and good track record of success.

I’m sure there is a lot of things missing and I might be wrong but this is my take on the matter. Here’s what's revealing:

I took out that book and started to read it. One thing it said(and this book tends to say a lot) is that anyone can be a leader. And to this extent, this is true. If you look at the above all you need to do is been in a similar or roughly similar position before(experience), decide what you’d do in that situation(decision maker or unblock me please) and then decide what you’d do next(priority) and lastly be confident that you’re ok with what you said because you’ve got some success in this area.

So let's distil what it takes to be a leader real quick and dirty;

• Be in a position of experience (Done it before or near enough)
• Make the decision that you’d make normally and offer them it to others (Offer as advice what you’d do)
• Take the next thing that needs to be done and do it – or off it to others. (offer as advice what you’d do next)
• Empathise with other’s inability and solve that problem for them (Empathize and offer a relief)
• Know that If you were left to do it yourself, you’d be able to do it. (Know that that’s how you’d do it)

And even further:

Done it before or near enough; Offer as advice what you’d do; offer as advice what you’d do next; empathize and alleviate the pain; know why you’d succeed if you were to do it yourself in this way.

Or even better a storey:

I’ve done it before, this is what I’d do now and what I’d do next. I can relate to how you feel. I’d do it this way because…

What’s also interesting is that perhaps it people that have not been self, set out ‘doers’ in one of those 5 positions that need help/guidance in those 5 positions: (Experience, Immediate guidance, Priority guidance, never experienced this before(unblock me) and assurance that it will work out.

Now as I've said this is dirty - it's not what leadership is, its what it is to me and it may be wrong because my definition is wrong. Also, I've left out things like having "vision" and other stuff like that which this book goes on about. That could be a big part of it!

This is not the end-all of it but its a useful insight and commentary.