Leadership as a service

“We were not in a grand way of business, but we had a good name, and worked for our profits, and did very well.” - from final chapters of “Great expectations” by C. Dickens.

This concept is far from being novel, yet it needs to be rediscovered by each professional in their own way.

This shows one journey of discovering and putting meaning to leadership as a service how it came and unfolded over the course of a couple decades.

Service primarily driven by going from empowering a team by being "the best" – which comes naturally; to driving the best out of your team by example – which is quite an artificial process.

The darkness

To appreciate light, we need to see darkness. The darkness here was and is Elite theory [1]. The “theory” de facto is a macro-sum (bias) of individuals striving to be the best and stopping there. Or bluntly single skill needed for leadership – operational (ephemeral) domination. This comes naturally, and often lives inside of a cultural layer.

The gap which this theory has is in declining. To illustrate this let’s dive into data on Olympic gold medals [2]. For 100 years of the competition there are just 318 incredible people in the whole world who won more than a single medal.

Such a career has a typically short time span of 4-12 years depending on the discipline. It took training of every muscle needed to be in perfect condition for each sport, and every hour of the day to get to that form, and then maintain it. And still, winning on the track of life is a short period in these cases. What lasted – is coming back to their communities, and giving heart back, showing example and path forward. That can and will last forever.

The ray of light

This was likely in a play, or movie. Happened instantly.

“Who cleans up your sh*t?” – the main character asks his partner. Pause. Surprised look. “Parents.” – scene.

This started the process.

Mr. J

Mr. J did come to the USA with a school diploma, no college profession, or bags of money. Mr. J came with determination and golden hands. He got his English courses, landed a job in maintenance (floor cleaning), and started building credit showing a strong habit of paying own bills on time.

When time came and credit score settled, he learned what’s what, and where is who, they (J and his partner) could take a business loan. The loan to buy a house, flip it, and sell renovated property ready for happy family.

The loan had two components: money needed to pay for the house itself as is, and money to renovate it. As the group knew how to do a bunch of work renovating the house, they needed to spend only a portion on contractors, and materials. That was their competitive advantage.

They did it with the first house, then with the second, and over time naturally ended up owning rental properties for themselves.

The end of the millennium was a perfect time for this too.

There are famous script and novel writers too who follow the quest of Mr. J: using every napkin, every short break while working in the service industry. S. Stallone describes the making of Rocky in 1977, which in spirit a way to describe typical software startup founder.

Meaningful work matters. It is effective.

NB: This story is about getting to your dream with given. Though, college education is still important for professions around CRISPR, quantum computers, legal, medical etc.

Wild exaggeration

Two thriller/drama movies as exaggerated models of group dynamics.

Exam (2009) – about importance of clear structured expectations, with a pinch of leadership as a service.

Experiment (2010) – this movie is the darkness contrasting leadership of a service to servicing the leadership. Exaggerated version of a manger who has no real explanation of own authority.

A typical idea in light is to make sure the manager is ready. Frankly one is ready when a professional can sense if the supporting environment is ready as well.

No further comments here to prevent spoiler alerts.

Business

Stories above were beacons. Showing what is missing.  Leadership as a service piece is well shaped by the following books, presentations and practices:

1. "Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success", 2014 by  P. Jackson, H. Delehanty 
2. G. Mogelashvili, 2018, Booking.com story about Team Autonomy at QConn
3. K. Blanchard on servant leadership
4. “Principles”, 2017 by R. Dalio on systematic company structuring and decision making
5. “Radical Candor”, 2017 by K. Scott on practical notes on giving feedback
6. “What You Do Is Who You Are”, 2019, by B. Horowitz
7. "Trillion Dollar Coach", 2019, by  E. Schmidt, J. Rosenberg,  A. Eagle
8. “The Infinite Game”, 2019, by S. Sinek
9. Gary Vaynerchuk who verbally connects well on the topic in remarkably eloquent manner

It’s quite interesting to see how these works complement each other from different angles, sides and surfaces.

Sports

Following Mr. J example. In sports plan A is to be a good player, and then maybe train and coach as a plan B if injuries happen, or time comes.

It is important to mention Ted Lasso (2020) series too.

Line on a sand

Classical decision making describes three levels of maturity from simplest to complex and smartest: reflex, reaction, and response.

Maybe, leadership as a service is a complex response requiring training and preparation by a group itself, but yet it is smart and efficient way to organize game, and channel priorities in a smart way.

References

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elite_theory
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_multiple_Olympic_medalists