A few years ago when I was in high school I attempted to become school captain. I was so excited for the opportunity to speak in front of my peers, to develop my skills and to lead my fellow classmates. Unfortunately, I was unsuccessful and another, perhaps more suitable, candidate was chosen. I thought I had failed, I had not managed to gain this title of school captain, of a leader, that I had longed for. I had missed my opportunity and I would simply have to be content as another average student in high school.
Yet while I had failed to gain this position of authority, I remember one of my teachers telling me that
“You don’t have to have a title to be a leader.”
This struck me as odd. Throughout my entire life up until this point I was taught that those lucky enough to be elected to positions of authority were the leaders, everyone else, the humble followers.
This is an idea held by many people all over the world. Often the ideas of authority and power are confused with that of leadership, but the two are actually quite different concepts.
Authority is based on the concept that one party entrusts another with power in exchange for services and is granted on the assumption that you will do what someone else wants you to do. In formal authority this can be depicted through a job description or the establishment of an organisational unit or agency. In comparison, informal authority is obtained through the respect or trust of colleagues or subordinates.
In contrast leadership is a process of social influence, which maximises the efforts of others, towards the achievement of a goal. In addition to this, according to Ronald Heifetz “Leadership frequently means mobilizing and engaging people over whom one has no authority whatsoever in order to mobilize collective effort to tackle a collective challenge.”
This shows that the two concepts are very different in principle, while not mutually exclusive. Authority is about meeting and exceeding your authorisers expectations, while in contrast, leadership is about challenging those expectations and telling people what they need to hear rather than what they want to hear.
An example of a man who was both an authority figure and who showed outstanding leadership was US President Abraham Lincoln. He possessed authority due to his position as President of the USA but used this position to lead the country towards the abolition of slavery and a new age. He challenged the norms that were in place and helped his people move towards a better future.
In comparison, Martin Luther King Jr. was a leader without authority. While he had both formal and informal authority over a large group of people, his target audience and the people he wished to lead were those over whom he had no authority at all, those who were indifferent or who outright opposed his ideas. King’s leadership, activism and efforts in pushing for racial equality and inspiring the wider community have made him one of the most incredible and well known leaders in history.
As for authority figures who do not show leadership, most of these people are not game changers, but we need not look to far to find them. Authority figures are essential parts of societal institutions from households, to governments. Examples of these are school principals, prime ministers, policemen, mothers and fathers. We all trust these figures to meet a purpose and they do so, without necessarily being leaders. But this is not always because they lack the capacity, but perhaps because the situation does not require a leader. The needs of a stable environment differ to those of one in disequilibrium.
An example of this was when despite his incredible ability to lead the United Kingdom to victory in World War II, in the subsequent stability of 1945, Winston Churchill was defeated in the general election due to his inability to convince the public of the need for social reforms and their perceived image of him as only a “war time prime minister”.
Leaders emerge when the need presents itself while authority figures are always present due to their necessity for society to function. If I had been elected into a position of authority during my time at school, I don’t think I would have been a leader in the true sense of the word, but simply an authority figure, an important one to the function of my school environment, but an authority figure nonetheless.
In a sense, maybe it is a good thing that I never gained this role, because if I had, perhaps I would have never grasped the difference between a title and a leader.
More information on leadership and authority:
Heifetz, R, 2011, 'Debate: Leadership and Authority', Public Money and Management, vol. 31, no. 5, pp. 305-308.
Heifetz, R, Grashow, A and Linsky, M 2009, The practice of adaptive leadership, Harvard Business Press, Boston.
Heifetz, R, 2011, 'Debate: Leadership and Authority', Public Money and Management, vol. 31, no. 5, pp. 305-308.
Heifetz, R, Grashow, A and Linsky, M 2009, The practice of adaptive leadership, Harvard Business Press, Boston.
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