Great Man Theory of leadership: reality or myth?
The Great Man Theory of leadership is so ingrained in leadership lore and legend, especially in America, that you probably don't even know that you have it buried down inside of you as a central operating notion about leaders and leadership.
This idea may be the most 'sacred cow' of leadership lore and legend. However, it's a cow that needs to be grilled up on your mental grill as a great big juicy burger.
Sometimes the Great Man Theory works just fine because the person that we consider 'great' (however we define that) can hold up under the weight of the title. However, most leaders have feet of clay and are way too human over the long haul to stand up under the 'weight' of the great man theory.
The reality is that most leaders simply aren't that 'great'.
Most people are a bit wacky somewhere in their tastes, their lifestyle choices and they can be incredibly variable in their execution of life. So, they tend to 'let followers down' at some point. The higher the pedestal the further the fall in many cases. And when a leader falls he/she takes down the Great Man Theory with her/him.
Now, I'm not giving up the notion that leaders can and should be great and worthy of being followed, but it's rare to find one who can pull that off for a life-time.
There is one great exception that we find in Jesus Christ who was truly a 'great man' who could stand the scrutiny of public leadership and has two thousand years + of followers in his wake to testify to his greatness. He was not capricious or less than truthful. He operated with full sincerity and candor at all times consistently telling the truth and challenging the comfortable and comforting the challenged.
Jesus was a power-house of 'moral authority' in that he was 100% authentic!
He was a power-house of 'moral authority' in that he was 100% authentic! Other leaders seem to have been able to stand the weight of being 'great' like Mahatma Ghandi and Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
We want desperately to believe that the leader we choose to follow is 'great' through and through, but it's a burden most leaders cannot bear for a lifetime and most crumble with inconsistencies and less than 'authenticity'.
When a leader crumbles those who considered her/him great experience a loss in direct proportion to the pedestal they had the leader up on mentally.
We expect our leaders to be able to make the long haul and carry the ball for a life-time. We want them to and we want them to be great. We want to believe the Great Man Theory because we want to follow someone who can take us where we want to go! We need this to be true for some deep-seated reason.
So, my advice to followers, 'let your leader be authentically human and do the best that she/he is capable of' and move along. Encourage the Great Man & Woman who leads you by helping them get stronger.
To leaders my advice is this, 'Your followers expect you to be a great man (woman) and they deserve that from you. You need to raise the bar on who you are and work toward being a 100% genuine article. When you blow it, admit it, but don't settle for being a leader who 'blows it' all the time. Get better at leading by getting better at telling the truth all the time, operating with generous gracious candor (aka, speak the truth in love) and insist from yourself that you be as 'great' a leader as your team has ever followed. Study the art and craft and science of leadership. Learn from historical mentors and have good friends who are great leaders. Be a professional, compassionate leader and maintain a sense of humor about your mistakes because you're gonna make some.
Jim Rohn has said that we are the 'average of the 5 people that we spend the most time with' and Bill Britt said that in 5 years we will become like the people we hang with and the books we read. I agree, so to lead well is to have a stable full of solid people that we are running with both in print, audio, video and real life.
Elevate your associations so that you can truly become a great woman/man and lead better than ever.
It's possible to finish well as a great man/woman and to live up the the Great Man Theory, but it will be the work of a lifetime! You can begin that work by drilling into JeffFuson.com and taking advantage of all that we have to offer.
Lead Strong by becoming an even Greater Person,
Learn to flex and fly to improve your leadership
Jeff Fuson Leadership Keynote Speaker
The Great Man Theory of leadership is so ingrained in leadership lore and legend, especially in America, that you probably don't even know that you have it buried down inside of you as a central operating notion about leaders and leadership.
This idea may be the most 'sacred cow' of leadership lore and legend. However, it's a cow that needs to be grilled up on your mental grill as a great big juicy burger.
Sometimes the Great Man Theory works just fine because the person that we consider 'great' (however we define that) can hold up under the weight of the title. However, most leaders have feet of clay and are way too human over the long haul to stand up under the 'weight' of the great man theory.
The reality is that most leaders simply aren't that 'great'.
Most people are a bit wacky somewhere in their tastes, their lifestyle choices and they can be incredibly variable in their execution of life. So, they tend to 'let followers down' at some point. The higher the pedestal the further the fall in many cases. And when a leader falls he/she takes down the Great Man Theory with her/him.
Now, I'm not giving up the notion that leaders can and should be great and worthy of being followed, but it's rare to find one who can pull that off for a life-time.
There is one great exception that we find in Jesus Christ who was truly a 'great man' who could stand the scrutiny of public leadership and has two thousand years + of followers in his wake to testify to his greatness. He was not capricious or less than truthful. He operated with full sincerity and candor at all times consistently telling the truth and challenging the comfortable and comforting the challenged.
Jesus was a power-house of 'moral authority' in that he was 100% authentic!
He was a power-house of 'moral authority' in that he was 100% authentic! Other leaders seem to have been able to stand the weight of being 'great' like Mahatma Ghandi and Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
We want desperately to believe that the leader we choose to follow is 'great' through and through, but it's a burden most leaders cannot bear for a lifetime and most crumble with inconsistencies and less than 'authenticity'.
When a leader crumbles those who considered her/him great experience a loss in direct proportion to the pedestal they had the leader up on mentally.
We expect our leaders to be able to make the long haul and carry the ball for a life-time. We want them to and we want them to be great. We want to believe the Great Man Theory because we want to follow someone who can take us where we want to go! We need this to be true for some deep-seated reason.
So, my advice to followers, 'let your leader be authentically human and do the best that she/he is capable of' and move along. Encourage the Great Man & Woman who leads you by helping them get stronger.
To leaders my advice is this, 'Your followers expect you to be a great man (woman) and they deserve that from you. You need to raise the bar on who you are and work toward being a 100% genuine article. When you blow it, admit it, but don't settle for being a leader who 'blows it' all the time. Get better at leading by getting better at telling the truth all the time, operating with generous gracious candor (aka, speak the truth in love) and insist from yourself that you be as 'great' a leader as your team has ever followed. Study the art and craft and science of leadership. Learn from historical mentors and have good friends who are great leaders. Be a professional, compassionate leader and maintain a sense of humor about your mistakes because you're gonna make some.
Jim Rohn has said that we are the 'average of the 5 people that we spend the most time with' and Bill Britt said that in 5 years we will become like the people we hang with and the books we read. I agree, so to lead well is to have a stable full of solid people that we are running with both in print, audio, video and real life.
Elevate your associations so that you can truly become a great woman/man and lead better than ever.
It's possible to finish well as a great man/woman and to live up the the Great Man Theory, but it will be the work of a lifetime! You can begin that work by drilling into JeffFuson.com and taking advantage of all that we have to offer.
Lead Strong by becoming an even Greater Person,
Learn to flex and fly to improve your leadership
Jeff Fuson Leadership Keynote Speaker
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