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I recently stated “There are no ‘leaders,’ only people who are recognized by others as persons with the ability to envision what might be and have the proclivity to take action to make that vision happen.”  They see what is and are able to see what might be instead. And these people who serve others in that effort, become recognized as “leaders,” after the fact.

 In almost any bookstore or library, one will find whole bookshelves devoted to leadership. And while they may not all have the key word leadership in their titles, they all cover various parts of the process, from individual character to change agent processes.

Some of the processes of leadership outlined in these books deal with such things as strategic planning, strategic thinking, how to be a change agent, tutorials on assessments, organizing, negotiating, creative thinking, business creativity and problem solving, including an old evolving process called TRIZ (Russian for “Theory of Inventive Problem Solving,”) newly discovered in the 90s in this country, through translation. There is even a book entitled Leadership for Dummies.

 Not-with-standing all of these more recent titles, the real leadership research I’ve seen, was done by F. E. Fiedler, E. P. Hollander, and others back in the 1960s through the 1980s. This was qualitative and quantitative research and analysis, while most new books seem to be based on anecdotal evidence (qualitative) but few seem to deal with the why of that leadership.  Given the proclivity for action, it seems that one would want to know why, not just how.

I don’t believe that learning the processes found in these books, while they may be steps to idea generation, productivity, change, or control, they do not necessarily bring us that recognition of being a leader, since that is something totally different than the being in charge of, or following processes. Even Deming and Drucker, I believe, would agree.

I remember during my high school days of telling people often in meetings that, “Maybe I’m different, but I really feel we should be doing this (or that).” These initiatives usually resulted in peers putting me in “leadership” positions. Along the way, I think someone suggested I sounded arrogant, so I dropped the, “maybe I’m different” thing, and in college I learned to ask questions instead, like, “What would it take to get these institutions together, since none of them seem to know the others exist?” The response was immediate; “We need to first have a meeting.”  And that was the start of several meetings and national conclaves that would result in the establishment of the national Association for Recording Sound Collections (ARSC), now in its 41^st year.

I’ve often wondered how all of my leadership posts came about and to what I could attribute my actions. What or how did I learn these “leadership” things that “leaders” do?  When visiting my daughter for Thanksgiving, I recognized a book title I had long forgotten in her library.  The book was William Danforth’s, I Dare You! This is a book I remember finding and reading in my father’s library when I was about 11 years old.  It was a bit different than some of the later editions, as each page had a specific Dare, e.g., I dare you to think creatively, I dare you to do courageous things, I dare you to achieve what others have not, I dare you to catch a passion for helping others, I dare you to share. It seems it is this last item upon which the following are based, and perhaps the authors have read, I Dare You also.

Servant Leadership is a more recent buzzword, and a title, along with other books such as, Strength in Servant Leadership; The Servant, and On becoming a Servant Leader. There’s also Paul’s Servant Lord… a book I ran across in the bookstore that reminded me of my espoused nutshell philosophy from high school and college days; paraphrased from the Bible, “To be Leader of men, you must first be servant of all.”  Finally, it would appear, many of us dummies are waking up to the fact that the directions to leadership have been in the Bible all along.

One of the ways I’ve learned to be a servant leader is to teach others how to do my job as well as theirs. This is done so the things that are supposed to happen when I’m gone will indeed happen. For some, this might seem a conflict of interest, because, if your teaching is well done, they won’t need you at some point. So why would anyone in business want to do that?  Well, we do that for our children and it’s called parenting. We do that for others outside our immediate workplace and it’s called mentoring and sometimes while volunteering, messianic. In the workplace it is called leadership. Danforth states, “a man who has made a success has a responsibility to those who are striving to make a success.”  Sharing and teaching others to become the best they can be is one way to be recognized as a leader…and also a way to enhance one’s own life.

Someone famous once said, “I’m a part of everyone I meet,” I would say, “I become a part of everyone I teach.” You and I can be, and often are expendable, either by edict or by choice in our jobs, but either way, to have left a person, group or organization with something better than what was, is what recognized leaders, indeed do.  How?  One commencement speaker suggests that to get anything done, “one has to first start.”

Perhaps people take action and become leaders because they ask, “Why not?” We all can be leaders. Why not…take the lead today, by serving another?

Mr. Jackson, owner of Trescott Research, is an Information & Library Consultant, Instructor of Research, Writer, Editor, and Musician.  He is publisher of the 4^th edition of Pioneers in Brass by Glenn D. Bridges, a book chronicling early 20^th century brass musicians.

Originally written © 2003; Updated © 5-29-2007