The oft-quoted phrase in leadership literature, frequently attributed to General Patton goes like this
“Lead, follow, or get out of the way”
It’s a popular catch cry for leaders, especially type-A charismatic lead-from-the-front alpha-role type of leader. In those cases, it usually justifies a bulldozer-esque leadership move.
Now I have nothing against bulldozer moves, but this simplistic understanding misses a potential deeper meaning that applies to more than a dominant mode of leadership.
Here’s my version of the
Facilitate, participate, or get out of the way.
Let’s break this down.
Leadership is Facilitation
The best leadership, the kind that happens at critical moments, is fundamentally facilitative. At crunch time, we need something new. And newness requires creation, which means there is a creator. If the leader was the sole creator, surely we need to ask why it took so long for the creation to happen? Rather than a leadership triumph, the timely delivery of something the leader could have thought of by themselves is in actuality a betrayal of trust!
No, this isn’t the case.
What really happens in these acts of great leadership is that the leader guides the creation of something new that requires a contribution from the people they lead. They facilitate, rather than enact, the creation.
Following means Participation
This flows somewhat from the point above, but also applies in the day-to-day humdrum of business-as-usual in an organisation or community. For great leadership moments to occur, people must participate. It isn’t enough to just wait to be told to follow, we are all asked to pay attention, to contribute, to participate in the facilitated space so that great moments can occur.
Get out of the way
Maybe it is just me, but I struggle to change this one. If you’re not helping in some way to grow and move the organisation, don’t stand in the way when it moves.
Finally, this does apply to property
I take my figurative hat off to those who are facilitating change in the property system.
I applaud and encourage those who are jumping in to offer their voice, their time, their money, anything they have to the creation of something new.
For anyone who would like to change the current property system for the better: figure out what you can facilitate, where you can participate, and get stuck in.
For everyone else: acknowledge you’re in the way, and move.