Leadership Development

The ideas I stand for are not my own.  I borrowed them from Socrates, I swiped them from Chesterfield, I stole them from Jesus.  And if you don’t like their ideas, whose ideas would you rather use? – Dale Carnegie

            As Dale Carnegie pointed out, our ideas are formed from those before us and from those around us.  Our beliefs are formed based on our own experiences and backgrounds.  Having grown up in a home where Christian ideals were expressed in the lives of my parents and instilled within me from childhood, I can attribute the foundation of my view on leadership to those experiences.  Thus, I believe that great leaders are first servants.  This is the idea that forms the foundation for my beliefs regarding leadership development. 

            Great leaders understand the difference between power and authority.  When I think about people who have been in leadership positions in my life, the ones that come to mind as having had the most influence and having gained the most respect from those around them are those leaders who understood this difference.  As James Hunter wrote in his book The Servant, power is “the ability to force or coerce someone to do your will, even if they would choose not to, because of your position or your might,” whereas authority is “the skill of getting people to do your will because of your personal influence.”  He also goes on to say that “power can be bought and sold, given and taken away.”  Authority does not fall into that category.  Authority is a personal skill in which one builds influence with other people.  I’ve seen many people in leadership positions take the power approach to getting what they want from people.  This approach may work for a time, but in the long term it is much less effective.  People want to please, however power destroys relationships which in turn destroys the desire to please. 

            I know there are many people who disagree with this philosophy.  Especially in the athletic field, coaches are of the mindset that power is the way to get what they want from their athletes.  They choose to use methods of yelling, threatening, and punishing to get what they want from their athletes.  I believe there is definitely a time to exert power upon athletes, but this should not be the primary means by which the coach addresses the athletes.  If a coach wants to get the most from each athlete, I believe it’s essential to know when and how to use the power approach.