[L/M NET] Tom Fishburne > 8 Types of Leader

(L/M NET: the blogged experience & expertise of some of the best minds in Innovation, Brand Engagement, Communication Agility:
Tom - Tim - Konstantin - Helge - Drew - Charles - Anthony - Adrian)

 

Last week I talked to a former Harvard Business School professor about leadership. He said he he was surprised how little leadership appears on the business school curriculum. Sure, there’s one required leadership class first year, but it’s often not taken as seriously as the other subjects. It is sometimes perceived as a soft, fuzzy, even unteachable, skill.

Yet, leadership is the single most important thing we can do. Great leaders can move mountains. So why is it so often treated as an afterthought?

I like this footage of Twitter founder Jack Dorsey at a town hall meeting for his new company, Square. Square is a mobile payment system. It would be easy to think of a payment system as merely a transaction from point A to point B. But listen to how Jack uses the Golden Gate Bridge as a metaphor for how a payment system can mean so much more. Think how much greater a product Square will be as a result.

“So, this is why design is important and this is why this coordination is important, and this is how we’re leading and building this company. So, your homework for the weekend is to cross this bridge, think about that, and then also think about how we take those lessons into doing what we want do, which is carry every single transaction in the world.”

I like Jack’s description of leadership as editing:

“I think I’m just an editor, and I think every CEO is an editor. I think every leader in any company is an editor. Taking all of these ideas and you’re editing them down to one cohesive story, and in my case, my job is to edit the team, so we have a great team that can produce the great work.”

What models for great leadership have you seen?

(ralf says: Of course, my model for great leadership is the inspiration/leader.

And: I love leaders who are role models even if nobody watches. Leader who have one rule: that there is no rule - except to break all the rules. That there are no mistakes, just opportunities. That there are no boundaries, just new horizons.)

Tom is cartoonist and founder of Marketoonist, helping organizations communicate with cartoons. He draws from 16yrs of marketing, most recently as Marketing VP at method. He speaks about innovation, creativity, and marketing, using cartoons to visualize. @tomfishburne