Defining Leadership
Leadership resists a single clean definition. Various works published from differing perspectives reinforce the idea that leadership is interdisciplinary. I chose interdisciplinary studies with no intention of becoming a “leader”. I chose it because I can’t stand to repeat myself over and over, or become a narrow, deep expert. I don’t think that way. I tend to follow the economics to the technology to the metrics to the bookkeeping to the taxes to the strategy… and on and on. I knew I would never be happy being a bookkeeper or accountant, a programmer or IT administrator (been there, done that), or even a manager of a single company, not when I could imagine an array of entities synergistically working together to address a broader set of opportunities. Harder? Much harder. More rewarding? Absolutely. There is no single day that is not 80% different than all the others. And it turns out that interdisciplinary studies at CPS points directly at leadership.
The definition and practice of leadership differs widely depending on who the leaders are, as well as the quality of their backgrounds and intentions. James Burns was a political scientist, Bernard Bass was an organizational psychologist, and Peter Northouse was a communications professor emeritus. They each expressed a form of the same idea, that leadership is a process of directed influence or inspiration that drives people one is leading towards achieving or exceeding a specific goal.
In practice, that definition has looked less like inspiration and more like continuity. Stepping into Evergreen Produce Connection’s Executive Director role after the board dissolved wasn’t a matter of interviewing well, or articulating a vision, it was about keeping the organization in a position to be able to continue to serve the 250 families reliant on the food we distribute, and to fulfill the terms of the grant we had received from the State of Washington. Charlotte Beers’s approach at Ogilvy & Mather, pairing respect for what already existed with a vision for what comes next, is closer to what leading change under duress requires than any academic definition captures. Directed influence assumes there’s an organization stable enough to be influenced. The lion’s share of my work has been in pursuit of the creation of something stable enough to really operate.
There won’t be any case studies or textbooks about my work, at least not so far, but I know our (now) 350 families are going to get food for another year, and our Title 1 fifth graders have science teachers that might just change their lives. The combination of fighting through an uncooperative (at best) economic system while doing work that really helps make the world better is the most compelling reason to complete the academic work I’ve undertaken. I will always be grateful to Northeastern CPS, and to Donna, for making it possible for me to become a leader and do some important work, even if it’s small.
References
Burns, J. M. (1978). Leadership. Harper and Row.
Bass, B. M. (1985). Leadership and performance beyond expectations. Free Press.
Northouse, P. G. (2022). Leadership: Theory and practice (9th ed.). SAGE Publications.