Too many chiefs and not enough Indians.
Ever heard this saying?
If what it is trying to say is that a chief is a dictator and an Indian is a minion then one chief is too many.
Leadership is having a vision, knowing the direction you’re heading and showing others the way.
That’s what we need. Not chiefs, not dictators, but leadership. We need someone to show us the way. Not chase us around.
For the longest time I didn’t know how this worked.
I was heading in a direction that nobody knew I was heading in. How could they possibly want to come along?
But there is another side to leadership that is only mentioned with subtlety, albeit more so 6 months ago when the world went berserk.
This is the leadership that we talk about in horses.
A horse is always looking for a feeling of safety and security.
If a horse doesn’t feel like you have things under control, it will start to take over. And when a flight animal takes over, things get a bit scary for everyone.
I noticed this in the spring. Before the leaders stepped up with a plan to stop the hysteria, and the hysteria was building.
Once we had a plan, the people stopped buying toilet paper and calmed down.
Leadership is instilling confidence in others, letting them know you’ve “got this”, and when they feel like you are looking after them, they calm down.
Lack of leadership creates panic.
If your people are panicking it means you aren’t leading.