LEADERSHIP, POWER, AND ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

Original article published in catalan on 11/04/2022 



Last weekend, I was reading an article written by Xavier Marcet titled "The Pride of Having Substitutes", which focuses on defining and promoting a certain style of leadership. Some of the reflections he shares include: "To lead is to serve and not to serve oneself," "If we play a leadership role, our responsibility is to create new leaders," and "What is not acceptable is people who climb up to gain power and then are unable to understand that people don't work for them, but rather, the higher you are, the more you work for others." "I also know proud entrepreneurs who misuse power for improper ambitions."

This article, inspiring as always when you read an article by Xavier Marcet, coincided with the moment when I'm reading an interesting book by Julie Diamond called "Power. A User's Guide." I'm currently at a part where she explains that adopting a high social rank role, a position of power, is a public process.
When a person takes on a public role, they become a symbol and cease to be simply an individual. This is why people who hold positions of power, a part of their role remains personal, but there's a part that becomes public, a part of stereotype. Among many ideas and reflections, Diamond also analyzes the different associated risks that come with having power. She proposes that those who possess power, to protect themselves from believing that all the power they have belongs to them individually, forgetting the public aspect, should share the role. Specifically, she talks about how leaders share their role when they empower their teams and encourage those who depend on them to take on leadership roles and act as mentors to their colleagues.

These recent ideas bring me to think about what Xavier Marcet proposes when he talks about leadership, as individuals who lead often hold a high social rank and a position of power.
Merging some of Marcet and Diamond's reflections gives rise to a new idea/reflection:
Does the style of leadership only depend on individuals in leadership roles? Does this approach to leadership, serving others and not taking advantage of the negative aspects that can come with certain positions of power, exclusively rely on those who lead?

I would say that it's not the case. The challenge and responsibility of leading in a specific manner don't only rest on the person in the leadership role but, from my perspective, will also depend on the organizational culture of the company and the ecosystem it's a part of. Thus, we can ask ourselves: What role do organizational models and cultures play in the challenge of promoting specific styles of leadership?
As Julie Diamond explains, "any power role is a public process."
Therefore, we can think that the organizational culture will directly influence the public aspect of individuals who are leading and holding power within a particular organization.

Therefore, if we truly want to transform leadership styles, we can't expect all the change to come only from those in leadership positions. Instead, we must transform
ecosystems, structures, and organizational dynamics. In summary, we need to transform organizational cultures to contribute to changing certain conceptions of relationships among individuals with different roles and powers. Cultures that facilitate the building of leadership styles guided by universal values, with a willingness to foster the growth of individuals and organizations. Organizations
of which those people who will be leading, guiding, inspiring will be part of for a certain time.


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