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| The Present Moment Is Consumed By The Vastness Of Its Absence - Douglas E. Castle |
Effective leadership requires a certain persona, a certain image to subordinates, peers and the public in order that it may command the responsiveness and attention which it deserves. Watch such high-tech leader-team-oriented series as NCIS, The Unit, Criminal Minds, and a host of others [hopefully less graphic and violent], and note that the leader figures tend to exude the following attributes:
1) They appear a bit older than their charges or teammates;
2) They tend to have more scars (visible, physical) than their charges or teammates; they also tend to be:
3) Fearless and brave;
4) Confrontational if provoked;
5) Fast thinkers, but tending to keep their own counsel;
6) Expectant that their orders will be followed unquestioningly;
7) Difficult to impress;
8) Physically intense, and unafraid to invade another person's personal space;
9) Comfortable with every aspect of leadership and command;
10) Direct, effective oral communicators on a person-to-person or a person-to-group level;
11) Low-tech! -- While the exceptions may be the late Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and U.S. President Barack Obama, for the most part these leaders eschew apps and gadgets and prefer to act on hunches (intuition) and facts gathered by their technological support personnel, i.e., their in-house computer wunderkind-types, nerds, geeks and others suited more to brilliant back office analyses than to fronting the band or seizing the podium and demanding attention.
In persona, a leader is many things, some of which seem conflictory or anomalous. The one that I find most fascinating is that these figures are always intimidating, yet others (followers, employees, charges, recruits, trainees, students, subordinates, audiences...) desperately want their approval and even crave closeness to them.
Douglas E. Castle for The Taking Command Blog
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