# 1 : Mutuality
Contrary to popular belief, leadership is not about how charismatic you are; whether you have a compelling or exciting vision; how much leadership skills you have acquired; or what leadership trait or qualities you are born with.
It doesn’t come from institutional power or even from the ownership of resources. In my view, what has come to be known as leadership from these discourses are actually forms of social control. Very often, they are time-bound transactional activities.
In relational practice, leadership and followership are intrinsically linked. There cannot be one without the other. There is a mutuality to it. An “in-othering”. It is an inter-relational activity. In this sense, relational leading can only be invitational and is brought forth when someone or some group willingly entrusts someone else to be the curator of an ethical moral and/or functional authority. In this context, it is the follower, not the leader who determines whether “good” leadership is being exercised.
More thoughts to follow!
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Published by gohbyname
I am a ‘People Practitioner’ who has, over the years, been swept up by the tidal wave of change that has seen my profession go from being called Manpower Management to Personnel Management to Human Resource Management, and now back, well sort of… to Systemic People Management. I came up with the last phrase because I find myself increasingly uncomfortable with working within the confines of the ubiquitous neo-liberal approach to categorising and organising people. I believe that people are people, not merely assets, human capital or resources. While we do find fulfilment from PRODUCTivity, we are ultimately human beings, not human doings. I would like to transcend who we have become and becoming in a marketized, monetarised world and leave the corporatist worldview that reminds me so much of the allegory of Plato’s Cave.
I love God, my family, playing guitar, following Arsenal, travelling and taking and editing photos. This website is a celebration of all these things and more.
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Contrary to popular belief, leadership is not about how charismatic you are; whether you have a compelling or exciting vision; how much leadership skills you have acquired; or what leadership trait or qualities you are born with.
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