Leadership Gap

A633.1.2.RB – Leadership Gap

Leadership is one of those things that everyone strives to be good at however, there is massive amounts of misconception on what a good leader is and how to be a good leader.  Over the course of my life my views of leadership have changed drastically.  When we look at who we all see as our first leader (our parents) we think of the traditional hierarchal system.  What mom and dad says goes!  We go through life continually bucking the system but a majority of the time the parents win.  This of course gives us a poor idea of leadership because as kids and teenagers we knew everything and our parents were always wrong so of course leaders suck.  Fast forward to when we become adults and we now have a slightly different view on leaders.  Many people start to see teachers and coaches as leaders and begin to respect and look up to these people as leaders.  Keep going and now you have a job and your view of leaders changes again.  Now you are working for someone who actually holds a position of leadership over you.  Now I have been in the USAF for 17 years and I am the leader.  Things have also come full circle now because I am a father of two and am seeing first hand just how challenging it is to be the “leader” of children.  So I would say that my attitude has changed greatly in that at first I had no respect for leadership because I did not view my parents as leaders.  Then I moved into school and sought teachers and coaches as leaders and respected and admired them.  Next joined the work force and had an actual person who held a position of power over me.  So I had to respect them and do what they told me to do.  Now I am the leader both at work and at home always searching for new and improved ways to lead and motivate people at accomplishing the mission. 

            Starting with your grandparents and moving forward to the younger generations there most certainly has been changed in the views of leadership.  I agree with the Obolensky text (2014) when it discusses the younger generation having much less respect toward authority now than what would be expected 100 years ago.  I am sure this has been the same complaint since our grandparents however, with the change in technology and the access to information that people have today the younger generations I believe feel they already know or can get the answers to anything and thus do not need leadership.  The Obolensky text (2014) also give a good quote which I believe also is a good description of why this shift in respect for authority has taken place.  The quote from Socrates talks about children who have luxury, bad manners, and contempt for authority.  It states that they show disrespect for authority and also enjoy gossiping.  I believe this sums up why if we look at attitudes toward leadership over time there has been a shift.  Parents are afraid to discipline their children when they misbehave however, still feel the need to spoil them with all the latest and greatest gadgets.  All the while not teaching them about hard work and respect then question why they struggle with leadership. 

 

Obolensky, N. (2014). Complex Adaptive Leadership (2^nd ed).  New York, NY: Taylor & Francis Group.