The Word "Leadership" Is Too Fluffy

What sheep dogs, ChatGPT, and authoritarians can teach us about leading.

Photo by Florian Weichelt on Unsplash

I’ve been thinking a lot about the importance of leadership lately. I feel like we don’t have a shortage of good leaders, human beings are just really bad at electing them into office or positions of authority. So, I wanted to define what good leadership looks like so that we can have an honest conversation about what we need in our world right now.

The only problem was that when I tried to define what leadership was, I realized that the definition of leadership is still too fluffy. Let me explain.

What Most People Think Leadership Is:

What do you think of when you hear the word “leadership?”

You might be thinking of anything from military decisions to politics to little league baseball to sheep dogs.

The truth is, I started writing a whole blog post on “leadership,” and specifically how it applies to students in schools, and then I deleted it. I deleted it because what I was writing was what we all already know about leadership.

In a moment of curiosity, I even asked ChatGPT (the now famous AI bot from OpenAI.com) to conjure something about Leadership.

What ChatGPT Thinks Leadership Is:

Here’s what it came up with:

Leadership is the art of inspiring and guiding a group of individuals to work towards a common goal. Effective leadership requires a combination of skills, including strong communication, problem-solving, and decision-making abilities. A great leader should be able to motivate their team to achieve excellence, while also fostering a positive and supportive work environment.

With the right leadership strategies, any organization can achieve success and thrive in today's competitive business landscape. Explore our resources and gain valuable insights into the world of leadership and how it can benefit your career or organization.

-ChatGPT, by OpenAI.com

Quick sidebar on AI tools like ChatGPT:

ChatGPT is a “predictive-text” program. You know that little suggestion that your smartphone keyboard gives you when you’re texting? That’s predictive text.

ChatGPT reads tons of writing, there’s a lot on the internet, and then forms predictions about how words are likely to to be laid across a sentence. So, we can expect what it gives us to be a culmination of what typical humans are writing on the internet, often designed to be discovered by Google and other search engines.

If you want a more in-depth look at how ChatGPT works and whether or not is has diabolical intentions to enslave humanity, check out this helpful podcast from The Daily.

True But Useless

The point I’m making about this is that most people, (including the proxy I’m using for most people, ChatGPT,) are really good at providing a true but very unhelpful definition of leadership. This is what I mean by the definition being too “fluffy.”

In fact, if I’m being honest, I feel like ChatGPT writes like a college freshman. You know the cadence:

“Webster’s dictionary defines Leadership as blah, blah, blah. Good leaders are able to unite teams and move them effectively in the direction of their goals, blah, blah, blah.”

All true, but also totally useless garbage. What action can you take from statements like these? What guidelines can you take to measure how effective your leadership is? What insights help you change the paradigm that you’ve had in your mind about leadership?

Sorry, but the sentence “With the right leadership strategies, any organization can achieve success and thrive in today's competitive business landscape” says exactly nothing about what leadership really is.

Let’s explore what some human experts think about leadership.

What The Experts Think Leadership Is:

Here are some better definitions of how I think we should think about leadership:

Simon Sinek on Leadership, via LinkedIn

Here, Sinek highlights what I think is a main characteristic of a leader: serving and lifting up others. That is a very specific action that can be observed by a team, a family, or any other group of people.

Volodymyr Zelensky being a Leader, via Twitter

Gosh, if there was ever an example of a world-class leader right now, Zelensky is it. Here’s a recent tweet where he heralds the people around him. Go through his posts and feed, not once does he talk about the great work he’s doing. He commends others and shows gratitude at every opportunity. Zelensky sets the bar so, so high.

Adam Grant on Leadership, via LinkedIn

Grant’s post really struck me. There’s this general confusion between authority and leadership. Good leaders don’t control or intimidate others, good leaders show vulnerability and flexibility that helps people around them feel like they can speak the truth without being attacked.

Ginsburg is greeted with applause as she arrives for a joint session of Congress in the House Chamber of the Capitol in Washington in 2009. Image via BBC

Ginsberg really impacted me over the last few years. She was a trailblazer in her field and a stoic rock in her mission to improve the United States legal system. No matter what your political alignment is, I think we can all agree with her words about leadership. It doesn’t matter if you’re arguing or what you’re arguing about, what’s important is the relationship you’re developing with others. This is the fabric of respect and trust.

Okay, just because I mentioned sheep dogs earlier, I had to share this. Don’t let your jaw hit the floor when you watch this sheep dog clear this pathway for these sheep. Aside from the dog’s incredible skill and expertise, what I love is that the dog is just providing guidance, it’s not barking or using physical aggression. Go ahead watch this as many times as you want. It just makes me want to need a sheep dog for something. What do you think the dog’s consulting rate is?

What I’ve Learned Leadership Is:

If we’ve learned anything from history, when things go wrong, humans decide that what they need is a strong, authoritarian leader. There are many examples: Trump, Hussein, Qaddafi, Mussolini, Hitler, Putin, etc. etc. It’s common to think: “this person is a jerk, but maybe we need that right now.” What we fail to learn is that it doesn’t usually work out in the long run. I can’t think of any example when it has.

Another sidebar:

This is why I feel like religious leaders like the Buddha, Gandhi, or Jesus would never be elected into a government position if they ran for office today. Let’s be honest, they’re too soft on crime and they would put too much emphasis on social services and regulations instead of reducing taxes.

Anyway, here’s what I’ve learned about leadership through others and through my own journey:

• An effective leader removes their own ego from the process and outcome so that they can focus on supporting their team.

• An effective leader isn’t just able to make changes quickly, they’re able to sustain their impact over time by investing in relationships with the people around them.

• Leadership is a life-long journey with no end. This means we can’t smile at the peak of the mountain, we can only strive to continue improving at a sustainable pace.

• Effective leaders earn respect by going to bat for their teams when the work environment becomes hostile or threatening.

• Effective leaders can be both liked and respected.

• Effective leaders know that “toughness” means “durability” and not “meanness.” Enduring is essential. Lacking kindness makes you a jerk.

• An effective leader can lead you into the dark and make you feel comfortable going there.

I hope these few bullet points can help you picture good leadership and also give you guidelines by which you can measure your own behavior.

What You Think Leadership Is:

I’d like to invite you to comment or reply with your own thoughts about leadership. But before you type a truism or idiom, I’d like to challenge you to think deeply.

Take the first few thoughts you have and throw them away. Dig deep and pull out something that has sentiment or feels personal to you somehow.

We need good leadership in everything we do, now more than ever.

I hope this post helped you clearly define, or ask yourself what that means.

Thanks for reading.

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