co-active leadership

Esther Derby posted this lovely Mary Parker Follett quote earlier, and I share it because it elegantly describes what I think about leadership.

We talk a fair amount about “servant leadership” to project and functional managers making the transition into agile roles. But this isn’t really a new or different kind of leadership, just a new way of interpreting where the leader’s power comes from. Leaders – even ones radically changing the world or heading troops into battle – derive their power from people’s willingness to follow them. [This doesn't remove the usefulness of things like management or positional authority. If you've ever gotten lost with a group of friends, you've experienced how easy it is to just follow someone because they're in front of you.]

Leaders don’t need an immense, soaring vision. I’d argue that too detailed a soaring vision can actually get in the way of leadership’s main task: this co-active power of finding the best, most awesome things in a person or team. Leadership, too, need not reside only in the people with positional authority. It’s better when every member of a team can call forth their own, others’ and the group’s best potential.

Encouraging that leadership among team members, by the way, is a big part of the raison-d’etre for the coach, PM, Scrum Master, etc. – anyone who takes on the role of holding up the mirror to the team. The first (and frankly, constant – I have to redo this for myself often) step is recognizing that your own personal leadership comes largely from being a decent person who keeps growing.

The second step is to read Esther’s blog. *

* I kid, and yet I don’t. Part of being a decent, inspiring person is being inspired and growing yourself.