A few days ago I had a very interesting chat with one of my employees about leadership, its nuances and the relationship it has with management. Leadership is a very interesting concept, one that seems simple to understand and common to all; and yet, it is absolutely not the case.

There are many theories about leadership, their existing styles and association with management. If you check out Wikipedia, you will notice that in the English version defining leadership is considered as challenging, whereas in the French version leadership is a concept easily defined. This brings us to understand that each culture has its own perception of the word.

I actually met several CEOs, philosophers, coaches and members of organizations that activate leadership and I found out that nobody seems to agree on one common definition for this unique word. Tuesday I attended an event organized around the theme of “active citizenship” where the people often referred to the importance of leadership and the fact that the leaders in our society are the people who take the initiative and are the most apt to be active citizens. That’s a lot of bull shiitake to handle (as Guy Kawasaki would call it).

This has lead me to realize that being a leader,  having leadership and getting a leadership position are three different concepts.

Let us start with the latter one. The fact that someone got access to a leadership function such as a C-level manager in a company, a general in the army or a top politician does neither mean that this person has leadership over his subjects or followers, nor can he be considered as a leader. It just means that this person succeeded one way or another into getting a position that theoretically should require a capable person (which can also be the case here).

Therefore, a leader is not defined by his official role or title. Let’s move on with defining leader. There are two theories, the trait theory stating that we are born as leaders and the behavioral theory that suggests leaders are made rather than born. On the other hand, many people define leadership as a process. Based on these propositions, we can deduce that the trait theory does not consider having leadership as a prerequisite for being a leader. But can someone be a leader with nobody to lead? It’s like the falling tree riddle, if you’re not there, will a falling tree make any sound? Interesting isn’t it?

To be a leader means you have to lead, you are in charge or in command. To have leadership means that you hold influence over people and can direct their actions. Leaders require thus leadership to guide their flock. This however doesn’t mean that someone with leadership is automatically perceived as a leader.

Ah! We arrived again to this magical word – perception.

George Berkeley who promoted the theory of “subjective idealism” said that “to be is to be perceived”; if you do not see an act of leadership, there is no leader in sight. Consequently, participation in a specific situation is what triggers the perception of leadership. That’s how someone’s perception gets influenced.

Whether you are born a leader or you became one it doesn’t matter, the fact is that someone can only be called a leader by people who shared a common experience. So, if being a leader is the result of a mutual agreement based on immaterialism, then we can say that having a leadership function is a material agreement. Someone can be born with leader traits but requires an environment to nurture it. It doesn’t matter if it’s charisma, intelligence, strength or something else, people will regard you as their leader if they believe you are the one they should trust and they will give you the necessary authority to handle the situation. They grant you access to express your leadership (style).

Having leadership on the other hand is more nuanced. You can have a leading position and still not be perceived as a leader. You are the leader, not THE leader. You can for instance have taken leadership because no one else wants to take responsibility. People might listen, they may even follow, but they will not consider you as their leader, just the one “managing” the place.

And that’s how we get to the next post.

Time is the essence.
Time is what fuels our days and yet is devoid of any substance.
Time is everlasting, endless and has no intrinsic meaning, but nevertheless we try to control it.

Time is patient but makes us run against the clock.
It has neither length nor depth or width, however when getting short, it feeds us tension, making us run amok.

Time is restless and makes us grow wary.
It corrodes our habitat, influences our body and mood without ever touching us.

Time is a currency we learn to manage and yet we don’t find the time to do what we want and waste our time on puerile things.
Gaining time is just a sham while losing time is a bad habit.

More than others, time forces leaders, managers and entrepreneurs to prioritize and yet…
We don’t seem to understand that time is _______________

What is it in your opinion?

Well, here I am. First post and already a blank page…Which is normal, every page starts blank.

If you haven’t read my about page yet, I suggest you start there. It will buy me some time and will help you better understand what you’re dealing with here.

Read it? Ok let’s then continue.

So, what’s a CEO of a small Belgian internet startup supposed to talk or write about?

Should I start with the shitty December weather here at the capital city of Europe? Or would I better begin with the nonexistence of any revenue? Right now, we’re like most American internet companies, we have a nice website, but that’s where it ends. This situation reminds me the beginning of a TV show. Well, that’s one big headache.

I made some research in order to give a direction to this blog. We both want it to be valuable time spending, right?

As a CEO, you first have to ask yourself why you want to start a blog. Though it is true for anyone, a CEO has a responsibility towards his company and fellow colleagues. You can’t take the jump without having a minimum of preparation. Brandon from CEOblogwatch wrote an interesting post about the subject.

According to Yves Doz and C.K. Prahalad (1993) good management must work hard to instill coordinated organizational components so that efficiency and creativity can be achieved simultaneously. It is not clear yet how to achieve this, but I hope this blog might lend a hand in bringing some insight.

It’s a whole program and I can’t say I have a blueprint ready; so I think I will start by studying a few other CEO blogs.

Here are already a few famous ones:

Just by looking at them you can immediately tell, these blogs are written by very different people. Reading these blogs will help me position mine. What about you? Do you know any good CEO blog you could share with us?

We have the subject of the blog, but what about the layout. I decided to go for the Urban Elements template from Press75.com. It is  beautiful yet simple, well structured, has many widgets and ad-space, and possess this dark touch with shades of grey and a modern city as background. It reminds me one of my favorite movies. This is exactly what I need for a “blog behind the veil”

Ok, we have the basics now. So let us start!