The Paradox of Leadership

We think we have a handle on leadership.

We read books about leadership. We study it in school. We attend leadership conferences, even hold positions of leadership. People have appreciated our leadership potential for as long as we can remember. We may have challenges in other areas of what we do; we understand leadership.

We recognize the qualities that make someone a leader. We know how we expect leaders to act, what we expect them to say and how they look. We have seen examples of leadership all our lives.

We talk about strong leadership, effective leadership, leadership that makes a difference.

The truth is that we do not become better leaders because we read about or study leadership. We learn about what other people think and what they have done. We get ideas about how to do things faster or more efficiently. We learn ways to become more like other people.

Leadership is about knowing and becoming our true selves. The leaders who inspire me recognize the paradox at the heart of leadership. We do not become the leaders we have the potential to be by following someone else’s footsteps. We do not become the leaders we can be by meeting someone else’s expectations.

We become the leaders we are meant to be by exploring ourselves. We plumb the depths within us to discover the leader for whom we have searched.

Analysis, planning, organizing, and budgeting can take us only so far. Reading, writing, and presenting may be distractions from the difficult work of finding our own leadership.

We have not fully grasped leadership. We believe, instead, that leadership is rooted deeply in us.

Where is the leader within you?

When will you spend time getting to know the leader you can become?

[Image by Brett Jordan]