Say you have a big party. I mean a BIG party. The night finishes just as planned. No one went to the emergency room. Just heavy, heavy sleepers spread out around the house. Except for those who are still on the space ship enterprise and are carrying on well into the morning.
Amid the incessant giggling, there is a light knock on the door. The laughing stops. Dead silence. Then one of the astronauts says, it’s the milk man. The laughing starts up again, but no one has the courage to answer the door and talk to the milk man.
No Leadership, No Milk
Easy enough to imagine the scenario, but where does it leave you? With no milk, and that ain’t good.
Which leads to the thorny and troublesome conversation about organizational leadership in world 2.0. Particularly in the wonderful world of independent designers and developers that are gathering in and around the various coworking tribes, leadership is more or less a 4 letter word.
Theoretically (and I fully agree), starfish organizations don’t need leadership. This is the very point. What they need, in the purest sense, is a group of people capable and willing to pull their weight in different situations as different problems/scenarios arise.
What does this say, though, to the two generations of Leadership Studies that rabbit on about charisma, emotional intelligence, vision, communication, etc? Are all of those various leadership characteristics just a load of crap?
I don’t know, because I don’t possess any of those characteristics.
Alex Hillman: Leader
Yesterday I was reading the blog at Indy Hall regarding recent changes in the structures of Round3Media and the space itself. While I don’t know all (or much) of the back story to the changes, I do know that I can spot leadership when I see it, and in this instance, Alex is dealing with some complex stuff in an exceptionally upfront, straight on manner. Surface it, deal with it, maintain clarity, move on to greater challenges.
Not sure exactly what to call this type of leadership, but I think this is what it is.
I’m sure he was at the party too, but when that knock on the door came, Alex got up and talked to the Milk Man.
The Butcher
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