Reflections on Leadership and Membership

I was speaking with my daughter yesterday about issues of leadership. She is involved in many organizations at her school and tends to step in to get things done and like her father ends up being invited to leadership roles. She is the kind of person who sets a goal for herself and then achieves it. She was speaking of her frustration with group process and the fact that achieving goals is so much more difficult in a group setting and all the more so the larger the group is. Can you say Debt Ceiling? The following reflection that resulted from that discussion.

A young leader must first learn that as a member who is a leader of a group, as distinct from an outsider (as I often am in my consultant role), there are personal resources that can not be available. I am a consultant who often does "Leadership Coaching". In my professional role my clients are generally very receptive to what I have to say, to my feedback and observations, and my direction. I am also currently the President of a large group of leaders (all of whom are the leaders of state wide organizations in the US, province wide organizations in Canada, and nation wide organizations elsewhere (40 or so nations all over the world). If this makes you curious check out Destination Imagination. As the President of DIAD (Destination Imagination Affiliate Directors) I cannot act as consultant. I still have my knowledge but I will not be heard as consultant. I will not be authorized by the group to consult in that way. As President I am authorized to carry out the duties of President and these do not include consulting. It would be a very bad idea to authorize a member to be President and consultant because it gives one person way too much power. I can teach about my knowledge base but I can not make interventions in the same way. To make interventions as consultant would confuse the boundaries that I must respect as member and President (who must be a member).

Too be continued....