Leadership Defined

Positional Leadership:

Positional leadership is ‘leadership by default’, where the holder, regardless of their actual “authority”, has been placed in a position to  influence others by the rank held over them. The main motivation of followers is fear. Fear of sanctions if they do not follow the direction of the leader. Further, this type of leadership position needs no ‘natural born leadership’ qualities, as the person was chosen, often, by outside factors.

Situational Leadership:

Drastically different from Positional Leadership, Situational Leadership leaders derives their authority from their followers – followers who want to be led. The leader’s most powerful tool is their natural leadership style, which allows them to get others to participate willingly and eagerly. There are little or no threats of sanctions and is considered the truest form of leadership styles.

John Maxwell said, “leadership is the ability to obtain followers”. In an organization, often the wrong individuals are promoted to positions of power. Because of this positional leadership, their followers grow to resent them and diminish productivity. In many cases, individuals are promoted because they excelled at a certain task – often nothing to do with leadership itself. For example, at a software firm, a programmer who completes his projects on time, sticks to a budget, arrives on time, and follows the rules, may be picked to lead the group. However, this programer, whose passion is coding software, not leading a group.

In a recent study, 80% of corporate leaders said they do not feel their skills are being used efficiently. Why is that? It is because our culture attempts to force-feed leadership qualities into individuals who have no desire to be leaders. A “promotion” is a good thing, and one would be out of their mind to decline, right? But what if that promotion came with tasks and responsibilities that made you hate your job? What if you dreaded going to work each day because you didn’t feel that you were equipped to do it properly?

A colleague, owner of a high-end fabric/textile importing shop, was sharing part of his life story. He had it made. He was making six- to seven-figures a year, had a nice house, nice car, travelled the world, met with royalty to purchase his textiles – yet he was unhappy. Every day.

Unhappiness among corporate leaders is a poison that drips from the top down. His unhappiness was reflected in the employees of his business. No longer were they happy to be at work. Like their boss, they dreaded going to work each day. Finally, it occurred to him that he got into the business because of his love for people and fabric. He did not want to lead the company, he wanted to be with the employees each day, working along side them. What did he do? He demoted himself. He hired someone else – who had natural leadership skills and the desire to lead a team. A company full of positional leaders is destined for trouble.

Rather than force-feeding skills that impact the company directly, why not focus on an employee’s strengths? Why not encourage employees to seek out training that they find interesting? Identify employee’s weaknesses and avoid putting them in a position where they will be forced to use them.

Happy employees lead to a more efficient company. Period.

Next: Modeling The Way as a Situational Leader