...broken into pieces...

“Leadership hath been broken into pieces” John Wildman, 1648

From the book: Leaders The Strategies for Taking Charge

There is no one hard and fast way to describe leadership and its meaning.  We can debate who makes a good leader, and what criteria we use to describe the perfect leader.  We do know that leaders do need some basic components to be effective in guiding individuals, organizations and companies.  We also know that leaders need vision, the ability to motivate, and at times be persuasive in working with people. 

One way we can define leaders is that leaders must have the ability to get the maximum effort out of the people they are charged with leading and must be able to reach the goals that are set forth by the organization, companies, or its followers.  Some say that leadership is a learned trait that can be taught. Others may argue that leadership comes from within, we may be predisposed or have a biological make up to become leaders.  Some may say that their peers or colleagues appoint leaders.  I would subscribe to the theory that leaders have a biological inheritance to become leaders.  We can teach different traits or leadership styles, and how we would handle different situations involving leaders and decision making, but leaders are born and then groomed to become effective leaders.

            Leaders use different strategies to get the results they are looking for from their followers.  Leadership strategies depend on things such as the goals of an organization, where do we see our organization a week, a month, six months or years down the road.  Leaders are challenged by which strategy they will use, what is the make up of their organization in terms of their employees, managers, and possibly investors.  Possibly, the biggest issues that comes to mind with leaders is the changing global environment and how business is being conducted.  Before, leaders would come into a room, outline where they wanted to see their organization headed, and task their managers with carrying out their wishes.  Today, leaders are using social media sites, conference calls, and other modern technology when getting their point across.  Leaders of today have lost in some ways the personal touch in dealing with people.

            “Leadership hath been broken into pieces” is a powerful statement.  Leaders use different styles, and strategies to get the outcome necessary for their organization(s).  There is not a set of prescribed bullet points leaders use, but what works at that moment, and what may work in the future.  There was probably a time when you could break leaders into one of two categories: Leaders who got the job done, and leaders who struggled to get the job done.  The latter would most likely not be a leader for long.  The best or most effective leader, needs to be able to take a piece from each of the different leadership strategies, form that in a global perspective, and use the new technology to its advantage. 

Rueben A. Ingram