Here is a different spin on leading. Why do we need to lead at all? The entire premise of leading is that someone must take responsibility of heading actions to make a group of others successful. Be it transformational, transactional, or any other model followed, the idea that one person “lead” means that the followers are incapable of working things out on their own. Perhaps we can evolve to a new level of organizing that requires each of us to be responsible to each other to achieve our goals. Perhaps the concept of leading is keeping us from a true distributed leadership model.
When I first began in this field, there were many workshops and presentations about how to work in teams. Today, professionals know how to work in teams, technically. A successful team seems to not depend on leadership so much as good behavior, mutual respect, collaborative skills, and corporate citizenship. In a great team, the “leader” is really an organizer, coordinator, and representative. In fact, the best team I have participated in made me feel that no one was actually leading.
So the question is: As we continue to evolve as professionals, is our focus on understanding what leadership was yesterday holding us back to realizing what good organizational behavior is tomorrow? Will we need leaders tomorrow, or will we need something else?