The traditional notion of the “heroic” leader may be just a stereotype.
Or is it?
Crises allow heros to quickly emerge. And, heroes seem to be allocated leadership (almost celebrity) status in their space. Probably fair enough in the emotion of the moment.
And yet, I’ve known “heros” who weren’t stereotypical and were recognised for their quiet “behind-the-scenes” leadership.
The demonstration of leadership in international events and politics recently is interesting.
Effective? Apparently. Time and hindsight often tells.
You probably had to be on the ground inside the circumstances to judge effectiveness.
Certainly compassion and sound judgement seem to be key qualities of effective leaders. Full of leadership. In fact, leaderful.
What’s your view? Please comment below.
I read the article by Raelin “We the Leaders” and I really liked the concepts around the Four C’s of Leaderful Practice which I think from my very limited observations were demonstrated during the rescue in Thailand. I’ve worked in a couple of sections in organisations where I would describe the environment as leaderful and where people were encouraged/enabled to lead, even though there were the formally appointed leaders. I really enjoyed being a part of these workplaces and believe that I flourished and developed and felt like I was making a real contribution … not just turning up and doing my job.