Leadership Versus Leaders. The Difference Matters.

Every so often, far too often really, damning revelations surface about a Pagan Leader. A voracious hue and cry is raised. The Leader is publicly admonished or banished or jailed. In the very best of cases, they apologize, step down, get some mentoring, and reflect somewhere, quietly.

Earnest statements are issued by affiliated groups distancing themselves from the Leader or, at the very least, draft responses in support of those that were wronged. No group is immune to it, not really, and all of the carefully worded and implemented policies nearly always look inadequate in hindsight. It’s a sad state of affairs but there you have it. Humans can be real dill holes to each other sometimes.

And while there is no one perfect solution, I think there are ways that some of the underlying circumstances that cause these “Leader” problems can be avoided or mitigated. One way is to look at the differences between Leaders and leadership.

Leader

Here’s the first place to start looking for problems – The position of Leader. According to Dictionary.com a Leader “is the person who leads or commands a group, organization, or country”. It’s the word commands that sticks in my craw. There’s this explicit notion that the Leader speaks for and is in charge of the group or organization and that they have sole command of the group. Implicit in the definition is a unique form of supremacy. They are the Leader. The typical picture of a Leader is of one that rarely tolerates being questioned or being held accountable to their underlings.

Commands. Underlings. These aren’t comfortable words for me. I imagine you’re not super fond of them either, especially if you are the underling being commanded.

Of course, the other side of the coin is that every Leader needs Followers. To be clear, Followers usually want something from a Leader too. Power, recognition, validation, and security readily come to mind, but there are other reasons too. If you’ve ever been famous for minute, been known in your community for something positive you did, you know that all sort of folk will come up to you and want a piece of you. They want your time, your autograph, your approval, a selfie, to be seen with you. It’s easy to get projected upon and even easier to get used to this kind of attention. It is super easy to fall into the clutches of this most alluring spell and start to believe that you are, in fact, all that. Find someone that knows you are not and will tell you you’re not.

Some Leaders know how to work this game to their advantage and do so. Savvy Followers know how to work it too, but the advantage is almost always on the side of the Leader.

leadership

Returning to Dictionary.com we can see that leadership is “the action of leading a group of people or an organization”. Synonyms are given as guidance, management, and supervision. There’s still a component of being in charge, but the connotation is that being in leadership means offering guidance, supervising the actions of the group. I don’t know about you, but that feels a lot different, and better, than Commands.

You might notice the lower case “l”. This is important. I’m much more interested in people who are willing to step into leadership than I am in folk that want to be Leaders. This is an important distinction and a touchstone of good/better organizations. There’s a clue about well designed leadership built right into a previous sentence –  “stepping into leadership”. It clearly implies that one can step into and then step out of leadership. Put another way, those in leadership know that it’s a temporary gig and aren’t vested in holding on to being a Leader, beyond the scope of the need for leadership.

I’ll give you an example from my own pagan life. For several years I was one of about a dozen people responsible for producing eight very public celebrations that followed the Wheel of The Year. Being on that ritual planning group afforded me a certain level of influence and visibility in the community.

On more than one occasion, someone asked if I was the Leader of the group. My response was immediate and clear – “There’s a dedicated team of people that make this happen. Do you have feedback or suggestions you’d like me to bring back”?  If the person who thought I was the Leader had challenging or negative comments to make, I’d listen, take responsibility, and change something if I could (like getting a chair for someone that found it difficult to stand, for instance). If they had praise or other positive, constructive feedback, I’d thank them and make it clear that everyone on the organizing team would hear the comments.

One piece of lasting leadership this group put into place was the idea of rotation. It was never a secret. Those in leadership today, would mentor and share wisdom with those that were going to be in leadership tomorrow. Then, and this is the most important bit, they would step away from the organizing group for at least one year.

Service

Look actual stuff needs to get done. Events do need to be planned. Someone has to contact the port-a-potty vendor to ensure that enough toilets are delivered to the festival. And godds know, someone better be bottom-lining who is bringing the ribbons for the Maypole. leadership often means schlepping the stuff of ritual and festival making, spending hours in meetings, coordinating with vendors, or ritualists, or the event site, and being responsible to the community that the event/ritual/coven meeting is for.

And here’s another hint at how leadership differs from being the Leader. If you re-read the paragraph above, it’s all about those in leadership doing stuff for their community, be it a coven, a tradition, a festival or some other pagan reason to gather.

leadership, to me any way, is synonymous with stewardship. Any time I find myself in leadership, I ask myself or my co-collaborators in leadership, a series of questions.

• Who are we bringing up in the tradition behind us?
• What steps can I/we take to ensure we’re passing something of value on?
• Is this process transparent/inclusive/accessible for those that want to step into leadership?
• Who is currently in leadership and what voices are not present?
• What is Community asking of us today?

Being a Leader is fraught with potholes, pitfalls, and power trips mostly of the Leader’s own making. If you find yourself as an unwitting Leader, consider moving into leadership instead, before you really screw something or someone up.

leadership is fraught with potholes, pitfalls, and power trips. You will undoubtedly bollocks something up. Openly find ways to limit your reach, influence, power, and term. And most importantly, be as transparent and accountable as possible to any of the stakeholders.

My dear friend Capri dropped this brilliant bit of wisdom on me recently. I think it speaks directly to the idea of being in leadership versus being a Leader – “It is wonderful to be important. It is terrible to be essential”.

Practice saying this phrase. Then put it into practice.