Leadership as Visionary Servitude
Nature's size is humbling
Much has been expressed about leadership in the written and video media. Much of what is expressed is how to establish a roadmap for your tenure, to direct those to walk that road, and to interact with peers and other stakeholders to facilitate alignment with your plans.
My experience enables a view of visionary servitude. Yes, leadership takes vision, but what about servitude? Most everyone can understand the need for servitute down the totem ploe. Yet, the individuals who are best at sustaining their leadership role believe and act in a manner to serve others around them–up, down, and across from them in theorganization. It takes inner strength and humillity to gain and maintain an attitude of servitude, especially when so many competing interests create challenges to this state of mind. Keep in mind that humility has always been distinct from a state of humiliation. Servitude works best when it pervades the organization, from top to bottom.
Leadership and management work in concert to shape the path and then drive the organization along that path. This is just as true for innovation environments yet with the added dimension of fitting in with the corporate culture of their organization. Innovation environments are comprised of technical leadership and those relevant stakeholders in the company that enable commercialization of novel goods and/or services.