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By Mark Miller Published March 21, 2012 11:00 a.m.
“Leaders and leadership are often thought of in a poor light. Leadership is often viewed as a necessary evil. There is even a growing voice to the idea of leaderless organizations. I’m not sure where that is headed, but I do know I don’t want to be a part of a leaderless organization.
My experience is that people want to be well led. We all seem to thrive when we are under great leadership. We know it when we see it because our talents are being leveraged, our purpose is clear, our contributions are appreciated, our ideas are welcomed and we’re making progress organizationally and personally.
Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Most of us have had an experience or two—or more, in which we were NOT well led. We were doing time and watching the clock. We weren’t giving extra effort because that was not what we were told to do and doing what we were told to do is ALL we were supposed to do!
Which of these scenarios matches your experience with leadership – necessary evil or liberating force?
People and organizations are much more likely to thrive if the leader subscribes to what Robert Greenleaf called Servant Leadership. It is not a new idea—Greenleaf didn’t invent it nor did I. However, it is an idea whose time has come… It is time to Lead Differently!”
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About Mark Miller | Mark Miller began his Chick-fil-A career working as an hourly team member and is currently VP of Training and Development. In over thirty years with Chick-fil-A, Mark has served in numerous roles, providing leadership in restaurant operations, quality and customer satisfaction, and corporate communications. Mark began writing about a decade ago. He teamed up with Ken Blanchard, co-author of The One Minute Manager to write The Secret: What Great Leaders Know and Do. Today, almost 400,000 copies of The Secret are in print, and it has been translated into more than 20 languages. Recently, he released The Secret of Teams: What Great Teams Know and Do, which outlines some of the key lessons learned from a 20-year study on what makes some teams outperform the rest. His newest book, Great Leaders Grow: Becoming a Leader for Life, was released in February 2012. You can read Mark’s blog at GreatLeadersServe.org. Mark’s twitter is @LeadersServe.
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