Are You A “Named Leader” Or “Un-Named Leader”?

The more I think about the problems we face in IT Service Management (and I'm doing a lot of this thinking right now in preparation for the world's biggest ITSM Conference coming up just over a week from now!) - it's People and the way they behave (culture) that we need to pay the most attention to. The other 3 Ps of ITSM are important of course (Products, Partners & Processes) but to put a bit of a critical path spin on this I think People comes first. So, focusing on People - it's no good complaining about the way our staff behave if we aren't showing some quality leadership. Our named Leaders are People too. And we should look to them for: 1. What's the vision for what we need to do? 2. How are we communicating our goals? 3. How are we truly empowering each other? And while I'm on the subject of "empowering" - this isn't just telling people "I'm delegating this to you ...." To truly empower you need to supply resources and support. If we have "named Leaders" then there's the implication we also have "un-named Leaders". To me that's everyone else. If you're NOT a manager or senior officer with people reporting to you, there's still plenty you can do to lead. Leadership, to me, is influencing others to do the right things. So, as long as you're a positive team player, helping and informing others to do achieve their objectives, and you speak up constructively - then you're showing leadership qualities. Keep it up! Another name for the "named leader" is Designated Leader. Another name for "un-named leader" is Self-Empowered Leader. Here's an eloquent blog entry by Jeff Hilimire titled "Leadership is not something you're given, it's something you take" that supports my thinking.

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