Chapter 7
Lead authentically, cultivate courage
Nothing so conclusively proves a man’s ability to lead others as what he does from day to day to lead himself.
Thomas J. Watson
Anita Roddick, founder of the Body Shop, once said, ‘If you think you’re too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito’.
Too often we abscond responsibility to effect change and fail to own the power we have to influence those around us. People refer to ‘management’ as though they are beings from another planet with an exclusive access to power. Nothing could be further from the truth. Regardless of your current position, what you do every day, and how you do it, affects everyone around you. People who act powerless only perpetuate the problems they complain about. Those who own their power, which I define as one’s ability to effect change, can make a profound difference. However limited their power may seem relative to others, by refusing to think small or deny their influence, people at all levels of seniority can become highly effective catalysts for change.
Leadership is not the domain of a few; it is the domain of anyone with the courage to act with it. So put aside your old paradigms that confine leadership to a plushed-up corner office, removed from the daily grind of the minions in the trenches below. Leadership is far larger than any corner office ever could be. In an era where organisations are growing flatter, fewer and fewer leaders of the future will direct action from an ivory ...
