I collect “bits.” For many years I wrote a weekly bulletin article under the title, “bits from bob….” Years of collecting sayings and thoughts, scraps of paper thrown in an envelope box (and more recently copied to a computer file) has resulted in lots of “anonymous” items. I have compounded the difficulty by summarizing and rewriting from memory things I have read. Sometimes I have written original pieces, sometimes things that were combinations of ideas recently read–throwing them all in the same box. I am always willing to give credit when notified of original sources.
Along the way on my educational journey, I have studied organizational management, organizational development, organizational dynamics, organizational culture, and organizational change. There are several other other nouns that can be modified by the adjective “organizational.” Today I share some thoughts about organizational leadership.
Leadership in an organization is different. It is informed by leadership principles, it is also informed by the nature and purpose of the organization. A primary goal of organizational leadership is the commitment and involvement of others. Organizational leadership is process as much or more than results. Organizational leadership engages others. The focus is people more than programs. When the people are engaged the programs will naturally follow. Organizations cannot do well what they exist to do without the engagement of the people within the organization.
Leaders within organizations are tempted by rules-keeping. Guidelines are essential when people work together, but within an organization, policing is not leadership. While leaders must develop some measure of compliance in organizations, what is needed more than anything else is engagement. What is needed is personal engagement that honors commitments and encourages involvement. People do not engage by being managed. They do not engage by being controlled. People engage in an atmosphere of mutual trust. People engage when they move forward under their own steam, and that requires sometimes enormous amounts of autonomy with regard to their time (when they do what they do), their technique (how they do it), their team (who they do it with) and even their tasks (what things are most important).