"Leadership Killed the Management Star"

America's organizational culture has been experiencing a new kind of transformation in the workplace. No longer do companies or organizations look for managers—they are looking for a motivator, a leader. The term leadership is not a passing fad, but has become the competition’s strategy to having a positive and healthy organization.

Leadership coach Laurence Lyons says, “…the word ‘management’ has come to represent an attitudinal straitjacket that can stifle, and often excuse the need for, that kind of truly innovative thinking that has become a prerequisite for success.”*

So why is leadership the new standard of excellence?

1. Leaders break up the hard ground of outdated “management” strategy. Leaders are in the business of transforming people. Co-laborers are looking for ways to be engaged, challenged, and motivated in their daily work. No longer are people satisfied with financial reward, but seek to learn and be transformed by their work.
2. Leaders provide mutual success. Leaders seek the success of others by providing them with the tools and resources people need to do their best work. Employees are given ownership in the overall outcome of the organization, thus all will act in the interest of mutual success.
3. Leaders create a culture of positive change. Managers organize and maintain, while leaders cast vision for the next stage. Leadership is attractive simply because it brings about new health and new visions for an organization.
4. Leadership is a relationship. Leaders have the ability to establish mentor relationships with their co-laborers. Leaders model the way and take people alongside them for sustainable change.
5. Leaders inspire and inspired organizations are on top. Leaders mobilize others to do extraordinary things. Everyone can think of a leader in their life that has inspired them to be the best they can be! Leadership allows organizations to be fearless of big dreams and grow into healthy teams that effectively impact the people they are serving.

Calling all those who are or will ever be in a position of authority to pursue leadership over management. To create a healthy organizational culture, one has to commit to the responsibility and hardship of being a leader. Organizations need managers, but should partner with gifted leaders who can inspire people to the next level of positive change for them and their community.

*Laurence S. Lyons, Coaching for Leadership: Coaching at the Heart of Strategy. 2012, p.16