Managing Leadership^®

We appear to live in a period of transition. One age fades into the mists of time, and another rises, bright and bold, ready to take the reins of history and face down the old obstacles to its promising new destiny. Things, we are told, will never be the same.

But there are certain powerful themes that span the epochs, that strike deep chords in the eternal souls of humankind. These stitch together our memories and motives across the ages, maintaining an inescapable sameness to the shape taken by our hopes, a profoundly timeless pattern to our endlessly relived tragicomic struggle.

And one of these is the search for indicators of the presence of a great leader to unburden us of that struggle – or, at least, of our despair that we will never prevail. We seek these markers in ancient tradition, or consult modern experts to help us recognize the signs.

We then eagerly submit candidates to these tests. And they are just as eager to undergo them, because we promise so much in wealth, fame, and power to those who pass.

As it happens, all of that results in a thriving leadership testing industry. The same specialists who advise us of the unmistakable marks of a real leader teach those very same traits and skills – or stunts – to the excited mass of aspirants. That is, they teach the test.

As for the aspiring leaders, they assiduously focus on the intricacies of those lessons in order to achieve selection. That is, they study – not leadership per se – but the test.

This all makes for thrilling story-telling. But the plots too often turn out to be the same, with tragicomic endings that all the actors are complicit in setting in motion, and which they all deserve.

And these stories will continue to end in the same fashion as long as we continue to start them off in the same old way.

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Today’s tips: Courtesy of Smartbrief, please see this item from The Atlantic asking how important CEOs really are, and this one from The New Yorker suggesting that the job of director may need to become a full-time position.

Please also be sure to stop over and see the excellent advice Michael Wade, the Execupundit, has to offer about a very real and troubling problem faced by many of you over-achievers, published in his regular column for U.S. News.

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