{"id":2229,"date":"2021-03-30T08:08:16","date_gmt":"2021-03-30T06:08:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/?p=2229"},"modified":"2021-03-30T12:03:17","modified_gmt":"2021-03-30T10:03:17","slug":"de-lead-yourself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mesg.ch\/en\/de-lead-yourself\/","title":{"rendered":"De-lead yourself! The best managers are those who make themselves superfluous."},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

2021\/03\/30<\/p>\r\n

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by Dr. Gunter Nittbaur<\/a><\/p>\r\n

The beauty of these \u201cperspectives\u201d that my colleagues and I regularly publish here is that they are exactly that: a perspective. And a perspective is characterised by the fact that it can be subjective, that it should polarise and that it can also be a cause for critical debate. So: Let\u00b4s get started!<\/p>\r\n

In the public debate and in my consulting projects, I am currently noticing a strong increase in the importance of the topic of leadership. A new type of leadership is being called for everywhere, one that is to be dominated by real \u201cleaders\u201d. The search is on for a person at the top of companies and organisations who is supposed to be nothing less than the archetype of a figure of light. If one believes the 877 million entries on Google on the subject of \u201cleadership,\u201d then our economy, society and politics are doomed, as it were, if only true superheroes are not sought, found and qualified for the top jobs as quickly as possible. In the future, it will only be possible to score points with personalities who are characterised by a high degree of emotional intelligence, systemic creativity and authentic innovative power and who are elevated to the status of idols by their followers. Historical comparisons are then quickly drawn with personalities such as Steve Jobs, Theodor Roosevelt, Mahatma Gandhi or even Jesus Christ himself. Amazon is reduced to Jeff Bezos, Tesla to Elon Musk, the German Green party in Baden-W\u00fcrttemberg to Winfried Kretschmann and the Social Democrats in Rhineland-Palatinate to Malu Dreyer.<\/p>\r\n

But what about all the other people in the organisation? Are they then just \u201cfollowers\u201d who are supposed to do just that, follow? Does such a wealth of power, concentrated in one person, still leave enough room for counterargument and critical discourse? Doesn\u2019t the leader live in constant danger of surrounding himself only with minions who take the \u201ctone of the top\u201d as the prevailing doctrine and pass it on unreflectively? In my projects, I have experienced time and again that this form of leadership faith has given rise to a sometimes toxic cult of personality, and that the success or failure of the company has been made extremely dependent on the behaviour and decisions of a single person. And when this leader was suddenly no longer there for whatever reason, this often put the entire company in existential danger.<\/p>\r\n

One thing is clear: an effective form of leadership is needed in every collectively structured organisation. But the belief that it is only this one person at the top who will fix everything through his leadership and has the right answer to every question is misleading. Rather, I take the view (\ud83d\ude0a) that it is the following attributes that distinguish an effective leader:<\/p>\r\n