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.

 

September 7, 2019

Why OD (Organization Development)?

Posted by Jacqueline M Gargiulo under change, leadership, Organization Development | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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Organization Development (OD) is the scholarship and practice of applied social sciences to cohesive groups of people – organizations, communities, unions and the like. OD professionals tune into and assess an entire social system with an aim to guide and coach it to discover and evolve itself, bringing people-based processes to do so.  To clarify, OD professionals are not hired to fix a system like a doctor or manage it like human resources (HR). We might work with individuals and teams, though usually with ALL of them or those identified as requiring support to fit the organization as it needs and wants to be as a whole.  Those who practice are typically systems thinkers, with a view on how people, process and systems work (or don’t) together. We discover how a system may work against its own interests and support it to evolve to serve those interests instead, not in doing anything to the system but by supporting its development of a more effective way.

We support pursuits like strategy-culture alignment and employee engagement through a variety of aforementioned people processes, including:

  • Strategy development
  • Leadership and management development
  • Team development
  • Coaching and facilitation
  • Conflict resolution
  • Large group interventions
  • Succession planning
  • Talent acquisition, retention and development
  • The list goes on…

…but OD professionals do not typically specialize in a single process. We usually have a capacity for multiple processes. Our specialty is in getting to know the system and what it may need, then figuring out the process to support it through research, drawing from our professional community, and trial and adaptation.

As a coach supports an individual to their own growth and development, so do OD professionals support an organization and all its individuals to its whole growth and development. To do this, we must start by engaging the very top level. If leadership is unwilling to change, there is little hope for the whole system to do so. That is the rub. On the subject of employee engagement, for OD, it isn’t about managing employees to engage; it’s about engaging employees, and we can support leadership and management to develop the capacity to do so effectively. Transformation of an organization requires every single member to develop new capacities. We can support that process, too.

If, as a leader, you are looking to take your organization to a new level or in a different direction, we can support you to evolve your organization, as a whole, to move that way. Call on us via OD professional organizations such as the OD Network or the International Society of Organization and Change as well as higher education such as Benedictine or Case Western Reserve University. You can bring us in as external or internal consultants as we do our best work in autonomy from the system, not tucked in to a department, other than perhaps the C-Suite.

We, Organizational Development professionals, look forward to serving your organization’s strategic development needs.

Be well.

Published September 2019