January 8, 2026

The Cart Before the Horse: How We Confuse Power with Leadership

Posted by Jacqueline M Gargiulo under People, leadership, Organization Development, power | Tags: , , , , , , , , |
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Coming out of WWII, organizations leveraged the military’s use of power hierarchy to structure themselves. It was familiar and aligned with theories of management at the time (think Taylor, Weber). In this military model, position carries authority over others. To move “up the ladder,” one must be promoted by power into power; invited into supervisory, management, director, and executive positions at power’s discretion.

Leadership, on the other hand, is granted by followers. Followers decide the leaders they follow. This begs the question: why has organizational hierarchal power been granted the nomenclature of “leadership?” True, there are those who build leadership capacity and bring it to the power they are granted, and there are even organizations that develop the leadership skills of chosen performers. Yet, this still feels like a “cart before the horse” approach: star performers promoted into power by power with little regard for whether the resulting followers consider them leaders.

We would do better to treat power as a component of leadership rather than leadership itself. Power alone can be daunting and bring about unwelcome characteristics, precisely because leadership development is lacking in advance of a promotion to power. And here’s the thing: leadership essentials are also essential to healthy followership. So why not provide development of the essentials – self and other awareness, accountability, integrity, presence, effective communication, including listening and feedback – to leaders and followers alike?

By offering everyone the opportunity to develop essential skills, an organization may reap the benefits of healthy leadership and followership. After all, depending on each situation and its human dynamics, each of us encounters reasons to lead and follow, be it in work or life, each and every day.

When power in and of itself can be addictive and difficult to relinquish, what better way to potentially allay such addiction than to develop essential skills in everyone from the very start?

 

March 30, 2024

Leadership. “I do not think it means what you think it means.”

Posted by Jacqueline M Gargiulo under leadership, Organization Development, People, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , |
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I asked Elicit for Common attributes of leadership discussed. Here’s what came back from the top 8 papers:

A range of studies have identified common attributes of effective leadership. These include the ability to make sense of complex situations and set clear goals (Tait, 1996), sound management skills (Harrison, 1971), exceptional values, communication skills, and trustworthiness (Gaiter, 2013), integration, innovation, importance, intensity, and integrity (Ivey, 2002), vision, self-awareness, and cognitive ability (Ahmed, 2014), integrity, ethical conduct, and self-control (Campbell, 1992), and vision, creativity, goal achievement, confident decision making, and team building (Sarros, 1993). These attributes are crucial for effective leadership across various sectors and organizational levels.

Elicit

Covey popularized the concept to manage things and lead people. Of the above, I identify the following having to do with people:

  • Set clear goals
  • Exceptional values
  • Communication skills
  • Trustworthiness
  • Integrity
  • Self-awareness
  • Ethical conduct
  • Self-control
  • Team building

Of these, I want to draw out the pursuit of self-awareness (because when are we ever fully aware?) fundamental to any of the others. And, according to Ira Chaleff on the subject of followership, what is defined as leadership can in many ways apply to followership, at least when it comes to being effective working with and supporting others. The other observation I want to point out is that, according to the full list of attributes, leadership isn’t just about people. So, I propose that we manage things and develop people – ourselves, others, teams, and whole organizations of them – to be effective with each other. An opportunity available to leaders and followers alike.

Be kind. Bring compassion.

 

August 8, 2022

Better Followers Make Better Leaders

Posted by Jacqueline M Gargiulo under leadership, Organization Development, People | Tags: , , , |
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I learned of the Milgram Experiment (https://youtu.be/nexpwnwonRc) in my Research Methods class, and I revisit that learning to this day. Coming out of WWII, the experiment was set up to research obedience. It has been performed many times since, and the outcome continues to be the same. Somewhere around 50% of followers will abdicate responsibility for their actions to authority willing to take that responsibility from them. Why? This remains a question, and one I continue to ponder, along with whether humanity might be able to evolve from it.

Where it made sense, much of my writing through that same education referred to what I call personal or self-leadership. There are many attributes we look for in effective leaders that are important for effective leaders and followers alike:

  • Responsibility
  • Accountability
  • Self-Awareness/Self-Agency
  • Integrity
  • Effective Communication/Feedback

There are others, certainly, but these are a good representation. And, when followers possess these traits, we are better able to hold our leaders accountable, as noted 25 years ago by Ira Chaleff in Courageous Followership: Standing Up to and for Our Leaders. In it, he defines Courageous Followership as follows:

Any organization is a triad consisting of leaders and followers joined in a common purpose. The purpose is the atomic glue that binds us. It gives meaning to our activities. Followers and leaders both orbit around the purpose; followers do not orbit around the leader. Courageous Followership recognizes that to be effective at almost every level of an organization, individuals need to play both the leader and follower role adeptly.

Further, Ira discusses Five Dimensions of Courageous Followership:

  • To Serve
  • To Challenge
  • To Participate in Transformation
  • To Take Moral Action
  • To Speak to Hierarchy

And, how well these concepts align with the self-leadership attributes listed previously:

  • To Serve requires taking Responsibility
  • To Challenge requires an understanding and practice of Accountability of both self and others
  • To Participate in Transformation requires Self-Awareness which leads to the Self-Agency to choose to change
  • To Take Moral Action requires Integrity to Purpose
  • To Speak to the Hierarchy requires effective skill in Communication and providing Feedback

With unemployment trending low for the foreseeable future and many employees seeking new opportunities to better fulfill a need for agency and autonomy to manage our lives across work, family and personal needs, it behooves us as a society to recognize that supporting an evolution to better followership through personal growth opportunities is in our best interest. In so doing, we develop better followers who in turn can better hold leaders accountable to purpose, whether organizational or societal.

As Leaders, we do well to develop and leverage Courageous Followership within our organizations to attract talent as well as define and remain true to organizational purpose. Developed followers could also better contribute to fluid leadership situations like self-managed and -directed teams. Whether stepping into fluid leadership or holding leaders to purpose, better followers make better leaders.