A633.1.2.RB - Leadership Gap
My attitude towards and relationship with leaders has evolved throughout my life. As a child, I, like many, was frequently disobedient. That said, being a child, I was also rather unquestioning. Part of my maturation consisted in paradoxically becoming both more obedient and yet also more skeptical of those in positions of authority. My attitude now would be that those who legitimately hold authority are entitled to obedience and positional respect commensurate with their title, but must earn personal respect by demonstrating leadership competence. My understanding of what this competence entails has also morphed over time. As a teenager, I would have said that competence consists almost entirely of task performance. As a young adult with more experience seeing leaders in action, I now understand that to lead is to influence others to accomplish tasks. As such, I see interpersonal relations and care for subordinates as a much more important part of leadership competence. Having ar...