A leader is not a human being

 

In case my memory serves, philosopher Martin Heidegger used to ponder the question of being. He asked: what it is to be?  He proposed that this kind of question is very important, although it is just the kind of question which we fail to ask, partly because we do not notice that there would anything to ask in the first place. The question of being is such that kind of an elementary question which evades our attention. Yet, perhaps this odd sounding question is very fundamental:  actually what it is to be.

Sometimes in executive education I have wanted to make participants to really think what a leader actually IS. In moment of high excitement I may have even said that leader is not a human being, he IS something else.  At this point people may have asked that what is the point in my apparent provocation.  They have commented that do I mean that a leader IS perhaps less or maybe more than a human being. Good question, in particular if the point would be to deride leaders or to praise leaders.

 

However, the point here is not a mean derision, not even a good tempered praise. The point is simply to tell how things are in real world, and what a leader actually IS. And we start to search the true existence of a leader our quest starts to point to a direction that a leader is not just a human being, s/he is also something else.

(for another quest, please check: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUmYX-hUyN8 )

 One way to approach the true existence of a leader would be to claim that sometimes s/he is 13 % of the whole organization, sometimes s/he is 8 %, or some other percentage of whole totality which is an organization. What does this kind of odd sounding and far-fetched claims try to say? It is proposed here that a leader is a part of the organizational structure, part of a vastly complex net of all kinds of things which form the organization. Perhaps we could say that a leader is not just a human being, s/he is also an organizational-being.

This analysis of the true nature of the existence of a leader is interesting discussion in itself but it not just speculation, it also immediately yields to ideas and observations which provide practical ramifications and suggestions. For instance, in a most common change situation where the aim is to develop a new way of doing, there is typically a forceful tendency to return to old habits, practices and old ways of doing things, ways of working with customers, etc.  To make the change happen, we need here a leader who is an organizational-being. By being there s/he makes it clear that when s/he is part of the organization’s existence, the things are done in a certain way. Hence, a leader is intrinsically linked into fabric of an organization, s/he is part of an organization in a very special way. By being there in any given situation with a certain way, a leader gives an impetus for whole organization to be and act in a certain way.

Of course this does not mean that a leader would always be the one who makes things better. Unfortunately, it is sometimes possible that a leader as an organizational-being on her/his part maintains old habits, or s/he allows to happen something in the daily life of his/her organization which may not serve the best interest of individuals working in the organization, neither the best interest of the whole organization.

 

In sum, perhaps we should not think too straight forwardly that we know what a leader IS. Perhaps we need to open to explore how a leader is an organizational-being who is intrinsically woven into very fabric of organization. Thus a leader on her/his part forms the entity which we call an organization. This perspective certainly enhances the importance of a leader. At the same time this perspective also stresses the responsibility of a leader.  So, may I reconsider the title is this blog - a leader is a human being, but at the same s/he is also an organizational being.