Leadership and the Culture Trap

One of the oft quoted truisms in many industrial climates is that leaders are the key to good business.Usually this is because we believe the example of a good ‘leader’ and his or her actions has a beneficial influence on all sorts of work cultural factors and areas.This includes the safety,health and wellness arena.

What are we talking about when we are referring to leadership and example.What does it mean to be a leader in todays workplace?How does such influence work on changing our workplace culture?How do we form and or encourage such leadership?

I think on most occasions the image of the leader is usually one where we consider them to be ‘strong or aggressive white males that are decisive,unafraid to speak there minds,and have some sort of business acumen and a type of influence or power over others that makes them want to comply and not stray from the leaders line.Is this truly what a leader is though and are they one type of person?

In many workplaces today the emphasis is on building teams.These teams of course need leaders and have supervisors.The problem of course is that traditionally in the con struction based trades the idea of the leader has been tied up with the idea that the leaders should be the leading hand,the supervisor.To be effective in a team though you need the skills and support of many others to complete the tasks/jobs set.It also means that the responsibility once placed ‘only’ on the ‘formal’leaders(leading hand/supervisor) has to be shared to make effective and thinking teams.As a result if companies don’t support a team approach including the leading hand and supervisor there will be a clash of expectations and unsatisfactory work performances with workers not knowing there roles and what is expected of them.

So what is a leader? “The Fish Rots from the Head”
In an article recently printed in Management Today magazine http://www.aim.com.au/publications/managementtoday.html (AIM-Australian Institute Of Management) ‘The Culture Factor’ by Gillian Bullock ,(March,2006) )
The Bob Garrat book the ‘The Fish Rots from The Head ‘http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/186197616X/202-0051193-8103865 is cited and quotes CEO Simon Baker of realestate.com.au as being a follower of the belief that the CEO down is responsible for setting the example of the type of company and corporate culture that is needed to be followed.In any company the ‘leaders’ need to follow and act out in example what the companies beliefs/mission is about and it needs to be more than about making money to ‘inspire’ .

Where does that leave us?
Perhaps we need to look at how we can share the leadership role in work groups and allow differing types of leadership to develop.This also means letting go of gathering all responsibilities under one leaders role.We need to encourage and facilitate ethical and good examples of leading in differing ways at different times and circumstances and spread the load and allow others to share in the leadership experience.
I don’t think this describes fully what leadership is…,but it gives some ideas in regard to directions….perhaps?