Leadership is Everyone's Business

I am a big fan of the work of James Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner and the leadership message they convey in their book The Leadership Challenge. I have cited this work in several posts including:

• Building Community - Trust Begets Trust
• Can you see it? Vision is key for leaders.
• Quick Leadership Test - Are you a we or me leader?

The nomination of LeaderTalk, the Leadership Challenge blog by Kouzes, Posner, and company in the Best of 2008 Leadership Blogs competition gave me a good excuse to scour their blog for more nuggets for our Lead Quietly readers. I was not disappointed.

There were a number of posts under the category, "Leadership is Everyone's Business." One in particular, Leadership is Everyone's Business..including reporters, written by Beth High, inspired me in a lead quietly way.

I am a fan of the notion that leadership is a choice you make and it is a choice available to anyone. You don't need a title, you don't need charisma, you can choose to be a leader. Leadership is Everyone's Business.

The post quotes from the book, Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation by Parker J. Palmer. There are some fabulous, albeit subtle, leadership concepts and insights in the book. One that Beth quotes is:

…for better or for worse, I lead by word and deed simply because I am here doing what I do. If you are also here, doing what you do, then you also exercise leadership of some sort.”

This message is simple, you can lead by doing what you do. It doesn't take super heroics.

Here is another from the book:

When we live in a close-knit ecosystem called community, everyone follows and everyone leads

As quiet leaders we build community to fully share in the experience of leadership. Let's get everyone involved.

Thanks for reading. Please lead quietly.
Don