The backbone of all Human Endeavors!

Leadership is the backbone across all aspects of human existence; Social, political, business, spiritual, etc.

When you look up the definition of ‘lead·​er·​ship,’ according to Merriam-Webster, it is the act of molding individuals into a team to achieve a common goal by someone in a leadership position with the capacity to lead. When you look up the definition of a ‘back·​bone,’ it is, in the literal sense, the spinal column, and in the figurative sense, the foundation, the most substantial and the sturdiest part of any structure.

So, tending to leadership is directly linked to the health of the backbone, which is the most substantial and sturdiest part of all human endeavors. Without that, we would still be in caves eating raw food 😊!

When this ‘tending’ to the health of a backbone has been done with intent and vision, there has been tremendous progress, promise, and hope. Like the United States after the revolutionary war; England after Magna Carta (the 1215 document to put in writing that the king, and his government, were not above the law); the French Republic following the French Revolution; India’s democratic institutions after her independence from Great Britain; Reconciliation in post-apartheid South Africa under Nelson Mandela’s leadership that, in large part, laid the groundwork to make South Africa an economic and social powerhouse in Africa and the world, etc.

‘Tending’ of the backbone has equally profound and positive outcomes in the business context. Like how Southwest handled the aftermath of 9/11; how Toyota's transparency on Digg during the recall crisis; how the Redfin blog started by its CEO saved the company; how TDIndustries avoided bankruptcy by trusting its employees; how Toro added empathy to its lawsuit policies reducing lawsuits from an average of 50 a year in the ’80s to 1 in 20 years since the change!

In my experience, of almost three decades, of building high-performing teams, I have seen leadership come from all parts of the team and not just from the folks at the top of the pyramid. In my observation, the necessary condition(s) for leadership is the ‘capacity’ and ‘capability’ to have a vision and implement it. No matter the challenges, no matter the time, no matter the resources, no matter anything!

Similarly, leadership is the backbone of all organizations. Leadership should not only be defined as a small group of Senior Leaders in the C-Suite. Instead, leadership should include all leaders who are paid to lead inside an organization. How should we develop and tend to the health of all segments of this organizational backbone in a way that makes it robust and able to weather all situations of volatility? The answer is to provide leadership development access for all leaders who are paid to lead. Not just the director-level, general management, or C-Suite executives but should include sales managers and territory executives, account management and service executives, team leads, and operational line leaders.

The reality is that we are not supporting the entire backbone. Only a tiny percentage of senior leaders are given access to leadership development inside organizations today. This is like the human body deciding that only the top 4 vertebrae need nutrition; the other vertebrae can figure it out on their own! What do we think would be happening to our bodies if that were the case? This sounds silly, right? However, this is precisely what happens in the name of leadership development inside organizations today. Millions of leaders, who are paid to lead, should have access to robust leadership development vs. the mere thousands who receive it today!

All organizations must achieve their mission, vision, and values to deliver on their promise to exist. To accomplish its mission, vision, and values, the organization must serve customer satisfaction. To serve customer satisfaction and loyalty, all employee needs must be served. Further, leadership must be tended to serve all employees’ needs and the needs of the backbone.

It is not enough to democratize access to leadership development; Providing substance and structure within leadership development programs is critical to creating robust leaders. We must work hard to understand leadership capability and capacity and seriously consider how to help all those leaders grow inside our organizations.

Here is a story to reinforce the significance of leadership, the criticality of structure, and substance. There is a legend that George Washington was asked to be King, and he refused. This story, for the most part, has been highly exaggerated. However, what is not exaggerated is that there was much discussion of replacing the defeated power structure with a “monarchy” type construct, and George Washington had no appetite for that. Given the new nation's vulnerability in the political and financial crisis in those early days, it would not be difficult to imagine that someone less committed to a republic could have easily exploited the situation. There are many examples in human history when leaders used the confusion and churn following revolutionary wars to “make maps” and consolidate personal power.

The fact is that George Washington willingly gave up his commission as General at the end of the war. This, in my opinion, forever set the “backbone” of the republic in place. This act fundamentally created an expectation of transference of power and the requirement to distribute the capacity and capability to lead a new nation to various individual and institutional entities. It made fertile ground for democratizing leadership and ensuring that the nation's backbone could be tended to and strengthened with the structure and substance of institutions and their practices.

Is the union perfect? Like most works in progress, it is not. Does it have the potential to be perfect? Absolutely yes! Due to this backbone, I would argue that the state of the union is more ideal today than it was in 1776.

So, to recap, leadership is the backbone of all human endeavors. It is not enough to anoint “leaders.” We must find ways to democratize leadership development so that not a single seat on the leadership bench is ever empty. We must find ways to institutionalize tending to this leadership bench in continuous, sustainable, and accessible practices.

Then watch the magic!