Leaderly Learning
Which of the three leaderly learning choices (as Vaill describes them) do you think is most important and why? Would it be Technical, Purposeful or Relational? This is a difficult question, but without all three of them you can’t be a competent leader. I suppose if I were to say which is the most important I would say the relational part, but with the caveat that it is somewhat dependent where you are in the organization. Let me explain.
As a leader in upper management one must be aware of the relationship between the technical, and purposeful. He or She may not know all the technical intricacies of a particular function within that department or organization, but would have subordinates who do. The leader though, must know the purpose and must know the relationships between the various functions, people, or tasks in order to set a strategic goal and establish the mission. Thompson writes “The irrepressible urge to find a point of similarity in others is hardwired in most of us” ( Thompson, 2008) Learning and understanding this concept so as to bring a group together is one sign of a good leader. Should this high-level leader understand the technical, but not the relational part, all of that knowledge may not be disseminated throughout the organization and forever lost as a means of moving the mission forward. Should the leader understand the purpose and technical the scenario remains very much the same. He or she may completely understand the purpose and the intricacies, but without understanding how this information, this task, this program plays into the bigger picture again it might help the department, but not the greater organization. This is not to say that one of the three can be sacrificed, as they are all important.
How does this apply to learning about human behavior? I have two thoughts on this. The first is that often time’s leader’s focus on what is good for them, their department, and their employees and so the relationship part only goes so deep. They lose sight of the fact that what may not be the best choice on a local (Squad, group or department) level, it is the best choice for the organization overall. This is the hardest part of any of the three, putting the needs of the larger group ahead of the needs of one’s self. The second thought I have is that must continually learn in order to become and stay a true leader. In today’s global environments, a leader must stay abreast of what they need to know, why they need to know it, and how to disseminate the information in a purposeful way so that those they are leading are all marching to the beat of the same drum, in the same direction and for the same purpose.
I think the one of the greatest leaders with all three attributes or skills that first comes to my mind is Abraham Lincoln, particularly in the way he dealt with the Civil war. Lincoln had a great (technical) understanding of what would result should the succession be allowed to happen. The country would not longer be, the great experiment that those that came before him would have died and suffered for nothing. I think he also had a great understanding of the consequences of the various things he did along the way throughout the war. Lincoln also understood and kept working towards the purpose, which was to hold the country together at all costs. It would have been much easier in many respects to allow the division to happen, take the northern states and carry on the great experiment, but Lincoln understood that further down the road, this would open a path for others to succeed leading to the eventual demise of the country. The relationship part was probably the most difficult for Lincoln in that he had to convince half of the nation that the other half was wrong in their thinking and what they hoped to accomplish. In more traditional settings a leader is drawing upon common ground, yet there was very little of that during the war and even if there were people in the South who sympathized with Lincoln’s message, any aid they might provide had to be covert.
Lincoln was also very adaptive to the changing environment within the nation. What started as he and others trying to limit the spread of slavery ended with emancipation, something Lincoln wasn’t contemplating at the start of the war, yet he adapted in order to keep his initial premise, that the nation remain one in place.
All of us as leaders face challenges, albeit, not as large as Lincoln, but in order to remain effective we must continue to learn and continue to keep our eyes on the target without losing site of the players, and the role that their relationships place in helping you reach your goals.
Bibliography:
Thompson, L. L. (2008). The truth about negotiations. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education/FT Press.