Defining leadership

I heard an interview with Seth Godin where he said that education should be about two things: leadership and decision making. I am in the active pursuit of a degree that has classes designed to address those two issues. Management is all about leading and making decisions. Too bad my classes don't really touch either of those topics. That's not a failure of Marist. I'm sure every other MBA program fails at effectively teaching those skills as well. Business classes are great at describing what businesses do, but no class can teach you how to lead or how to make a decision.

Leading requires action. You can't learn how to lead by reading a book. You have to see an opportunity and act on that opportunity. There is no room for passivity or sitting back to see how things shake out when you're the one responsible for getting things done. Acts of leadership emerge from a deep sense of who you are and what you want to accomplish. Leaders know what they're trying to accomplish. At the bottom of it, leadership is really just rallying people around your cause. To rally people around a cause, you must first share that cause. You can't share that cause until you have identified that cause.

You're never going to find that one thing that stirs your soul sitting in a classroom. All you learn in a classroom is what the teacher thinks about something. Discovery requires action. Doing. School is just an illusion of doing. School informs experience. It does not create experience.

Making decisions is easy when you have a mission. Your objectives are clear. The principles are well-defined. Stating and sharing a vision requires that you take a stand. That stand clarifies choices. Making decisions is easy when you've decided what you're trying to accomplish. Of course most people and most organizations have no sense of purpose. Rules and procedures replace a stirring vision. Control dominates while inspiration withers.