EVOLVING LEADERSHIP
Leadership is one of the most interesting and powerful topics we can ever study. I continually search for leadership lessons because I am still learning. Brian Goldner (president and CEO of Hasbro) shares a life lesson about leadership that definitely caught my attention (Michelle Fay Cortez, “How Did I Get Here?: Brian Goldner” Bloomberg Businessweek , 3/9/15–3/15/15, p. 88):
“ Leadership evolves. You have to be flexible. ”
Leadership is a tricky thing. The leadership you delivered in days gone by may not necessarily be the leadership that will meet today’s demands. We have to be willing to refine and develop our leadership.
No person can claim that he or she has nothing left to learn about leadership. This is why Goldner’s statement resonates with me. Leadership is not rigid and perpetually fixed. Leadership, by definition, must change to adjust to the circumstances. The leadership approach you might take into one situation could be very different from the leadership approach you take into a different situation. The circumstances and the people should inform your leadership.
Simultaneously, certain aspects of our leadership should be permanent and immutable. For example, your leadership is likely based on certain implicit ethical standards. This means that you will never deviate from those ethical standards as you exercise your leadership. People know that they can count on you for that ethical foundation.
Such is the joy and the excitement of leadership. It keeps us continually challenged. It beckons that we perform even better today than we did yesterday, and it continues to challenge us and instill in us the inspiration that we perform even better tomorrow than we do today.
