Leadership (mis)understanding

Again and again, I see leadership being misunderstood.

It is confused with steering, or with power, with influence, control, getting one’s way. You can tell by statements like “I have x people under me.” That is needed too, but it is a limiting perspective.

Leadership is above all an orientation function. It helps to hold tensions, to make decisions, to create coherence, and to become not louder, but clearer.

Leadership also often means sharing responsibility toward the “top” and enabling those below. And frequently standing in between, with everything that takes: Being understood. Enduring. Deciding. Translating. I know many people who are gradually worn down in exactly this kind of position. Unreflected or unconscious beliefs and value models then tend to stand in the way of change.

Often people are not necessarily doing anything wrong, to put it in the language of control. But they did not have the opportunity to prepare for this role.

Competencies such as managing complexity, relational leadership, or systemic decision logic are hardly taught in classic training programs and are often taken for granted in everyday corporate life.

Put differently: in evolutionary terms, they would be necessary. That they are missing is not an individual weakness. In this context, I call it structural omission.

Many sense that something is missing—and keep fighting anyway. With the right attitude. With responsibility. With themselves. Things are supposed to go on, after all, somehow.

That is why I believe: leadership begins with me. Seeing myself. Leading myself. Recognizing myself in others—and growing from it.

Those who cannot lead themselves will not, in the long run, be an orientation for others either.

And: leadership takes more than attitude. Leadership functions should be anchored in the system itself: transparently positioned, equipped with clear authority, and suitably staffed: with people who are convincing not only in their field, but who also bring competence in communication, relationships, an understanding of structure, and organizational logic. Mostly these are not skills, but a mixture of awareness and meta-skills.

In my experience, leadership has its strongest effect where it is not claimed—but allowed to emerge. Where it is carried by the system, not by the person alone.

If you recognize yourself in some of these points or are wrestling with this yourself, it can be helpful to reflect on it together.

I offer that.