Are Leaders Fragmented?

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The anatomy of leadership is complex and ambiguous at times. Anyone in a leadership position or with influence at the organizational level can relate to the challenges faced in daily operations. One could stretch one's mind and imagine if the situation befits the analogy of a leader navigating the work environment like a dancer on stage or a wrestler in the ring.

In his Meditations, Marcus Aurelius is recorded for the reader today to remember that a person's character is revealed during times of challenge and for the reference and better analogy than was prefaced, especially applicable in today's environment of complexity in healthcare delivery, consider the wisdom of a renowned Greek Stoic. "The art of life is more like the wrestler's art than the dancer's, in respect of this, that it should stand ready and firm to meet onsets which are sudden and unexpected" (Adler, 1952, p. 283).

Leadership is like a dance, whereas a person skilled at moving across the stage, in tune with the rhythm of music, must remain flexible and agile to coordinate footing with the melodies of sound and action. Likewise, more often than not, and in many cases, leadership is tantamount to the wrestler in the ring, and those in leadership positions are ready to navigate and respond to situations, as mentioned by the late Stoic, that are sudden and unexpected. Suppose the reader keeps an open mind when they occur randomly and sometimes unpredictably. In that case, this concept of sudden and unforeseen events in the work environment can expose a leader's strengths and competencies or their weaknesses and deficiencies. However, that may not be a bad thing.

The Fragmented Leader

Scholars have studied in depth and navigated much theoretical practice in leadership types, strategies, and observations in organizational and business leadership and strategy, what is working and what is not in terms of managing operations, meeting the needs of company mission, vision, and values, and keeping an edge in competitive markets. Some scholars have identified, which is worth noting, that being fragmented, wanting, or lacking in a leadership role may have its benefits, as Ancona et al. (2007) describe.

From the great insights discovered in the journal Harvard Business Review, the person in a leadership role must remove the myth that they are at the helm of the organizational ship. However, an illustrious and tempting idea, though the idea that leadership is at the top and often romanticized, does not exist (Ancona et al., 2007). Instead, leadership scholars describe four elements of the role for best practices, such as the leader practicing daily deciphering and interpretation of current events, or in short, making sense of the daily environment, practicing authentic interpersonal relationships, having the power to see potential forecasts and outlooks and finally being a proponent of creating and developing new ideas to support growth in the organization (Ancona et al., 2007). In a nutshell, the real demands of a leader are to try and make sense of the work, identify with organizational constituents, cast a great vision, and use and implement new ideas. The reality and tough facts regarding actually implementing these four core elements can be daunting because, in actuality, no individual leader could perform all of these functions flawlessly. Without support, a leader feels inadequate, incompetent, or incomplete, as the authors highlight (Anconan et al., 2007).

Although those who engage in leadership perform such roles and do so often from a sense of duty or calling, it is mindful to remember, as Ancona et al. (2007) spearhead, that leaders should do their best to practice and work towards their strengths, which often come easily for them. At the same time, others in the organization can help offset the areas in which they are less developed and skilled, "Because no one person can possibly have all the answers, or indeed, know all the right questions to ask, its crucial that leaders be able to tap into a network of people who can fill in the gaps" (Ancona et al., 2007, pp. 96-97).

References:

Adler, Mortimer J. (1952). The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. In The Great Books of the Western World. (Vol. 12, pp. 253–310). Encyclopedia Britannica.

Ancona, D., Malone, T. W., Orlikowski, W. J., & Senge, P. M. (2007). In Praise of the Incomplete Leader. Harvard Business Review, 85(2), 92–100.