After a 14-year run as the CEO of Manpower Ltd, I joined a leading university as a full-time professor, teaching an advanced MBA course. As part of my initiation, I was given a set of text books to read and told these were the texts I was required to use for my teaching curriculum.
I spent the summer reading 150 business theory books with multiple models, prescriptions and advisory lessons. They were erudite abstractions that bore almost no correlation to reality or my lived experience. I persevered with my teaching for the first semester, but on the side, I was writing my own book which described my experiences and what I had learned as a leader with a great team, who helped me build a business from scratch to 72,000 full-and part-time employees. When the book was published it became a best-seller. Using it as the text for my students caused a tripling of the number attending my classes.
It also caused companies to ask me to share my ideas with their teams, and so, like a lot of professors, I became a consultant on the side. The book can still be found on Amazon (Managerial Moxie https://tinyurl.com/msj8aj9) but I no longer offer it for sale, because it too, is obsolete in my view. Thus began my writing, research and consulting career.
The great lesson for me at that time was that time compresses everything and things change more quickly than we realize. Some theories from the 1940’s may be relevant still, but most are not. These days, theories from as recently as “pre-Covid” may not even be relevant today given the recent changes in technology, the nature of work, and the decline of trust in our institutions.
“Leadership”, as a subject we teach and practice, may be obsolete altogether. A quick survey of business, academia, healthcare, government, politics, non-profits and the military, reveals catastrophic failures in leadership, and this after massive and continuing investments in leadership development globally. As we continue to teach and, as a consequence, practice failed leadership theories, we see the damage caused.
I don’t know about you, but I am way past the stage in my life where I need to be “led”. I am not a horse. I am a spiritual being having a human experience. I want to be inspired. I yearn, as most people do I believe, to be inspired by anyone who is guiding an institution or who holds an advisory, supervisory, mentoring or parenting role.
What about you? Do you think the concept of “leadership” has run its course? Can inspiration coming from the heart be the 2.0 version of how we guide families, cultures and nation-building for a brighter future? Please leave your comments here.
As you know, I completely support your changing views on leadership and the need to move towards inspiration. A couple of the challenges to overcome include (a) traditional leaders don’t know how to make the transition and (b) not all people are inspired by the same things and in the same way, thus requiring more thought/work on the part of traditional leaders who already feel overwhelmed. Lots more work to be done . . . I think stories/examples of those who have successfully made the transition to being inspiring and the results that (unfortunately) stakeholders demand will be very helpful.
David, thanks for this. of course there is not a one-size-fits-all appraoch that can be taken. If a leader is unsure of the path to more enlightened leadership – or better, inspiration – you are exactly what they need – a mentor who can show them the way. Can’t wait to see the resulting transformatio you achieven!!
I lead with continuous development by stepping into the vacuum of a void in leadership and putting it back together. I’m not tasking anyone or expecting anyone to be led. … I’m stepping in if and when I perceive there is something to be done. “I may be right, and I may be wrong.” … Good to catch up with you.
I think that is called “serving”, Len, which is the noblest of callings.
“Can inspiration coming from the heart be the 2.0 version of how we guide families, cultures and nation-building for a brighter future?” YES! Brilliant as always Lance.
Thank you Jeri – and of course you live this every day.
Lance, thanks for sharing your latest thinking. My point of view is that leadership isn’t dead, it’s evolving and evolving rapidly from a place of ego based hierarchical structure and control to a space that inspires others to connect with their own inner wisdom and truth. Inspiration arises from a place of awareness and connectedness to one’s true self. When we operate from this place, we naturally uplift and empower those around us just by our state of being. I see leadership as the echo of our intrinsic truth and soul in the world.
I agree – it’s evolving (at least for more enlightend leaders) but I think that the $170 billion we spend ech year on “leadership development” is being wasted because it is funding an obsolete model. I hope the evolution is from leadership to inspiration (which is love-based, and no longerbeing underpinned by motivation which is fear-based.