Leadership or leader shit?

I have been working as a PR consultant for consultants for around 30 years. Accordingly, I have already written many articles on leadership concepts, as it feels like every second consultant (also) specializes in the topic of leadership.

Leadership concepts are a dime a dozen

Some of the countless labels under which I have written articles on the subject of leadership on behalf of consultants and placed them in print and online media are listed here in alphabetical order:

• Agile leadership
• Change Leadership
• Conscious Leadership
• Digital Leadership
• Empowerment Leadership
• Future Leadership
• Inclusive Leadership
• Influencer leadership
• Lean Leadership
• New Leadership
• Next Generation Leadership
• Next level leadership
• Mindful Leadership
• Modern Leadership
• Positive Leadership
• Professional Leadership
• Remote Leadership
• Situational Leadership
• Transformational Leadership
• Virtual Leadership.

All leadership concepts are - more or less - right

And can I tell you something? Ultimately, all of the aforementioned leadership concepts were right. Because if you disregard the focus in some of them on certain groups of people such as women or members of generations y and z, on changed framework conditions such as increased work in hybrid or virtual teams and on real needs or those that consultants have recognized in companies, such as agility, change and transformation, then the core statements of all the leadership concepts mentioned have been almost the same for 30 or 40 years. They are:

• "Leadership must change."
• "The mindset of managers must change." And:
• "Managers must develop into relationship managers who empower their employees."

Please value the managers and their performance!

That may be true. But I sometimes ask myself: What is going on in the mind of a manager who is confronted every three or four months with a new leadership concept that purports to "revolutionize" leadership, and who for years has been reading "leadership must change", "the mindset of managers must change", etc. in what feels like every second leadership article, as if nothing has changed in the area of leadership in companies in recent decades, even though completely different people are in management positions today than 30 or 40 years ago.

I suspect that as a manager I would become depressed in the long run or at some point think: "Leave me alone with your 'bullshit'. You have no idea about leadership; you're just spouting ideology."

Leadership is a highly complex and multi-layered task

And I have to admit, from my point of view, managers would even be partially right. Because if you take a closer look at leadership concepts, you often get the impression that (employee) leadership is an end in itself. However, this is never the case in a business context. In this context, leadership always has a serving function: it serves to ensure that the area entrusted to the manager fulfils its function in the organization. Anyone who sees this differently is spreading ideology!

In addition, when reading some leadership concepts, one gets the impression that the only task of managers is to lead their employees or to be their "leader". This is not true! Every manager is also a division, department or team leader who must ensure that the area entrusted to them makes its contribution to the success of the company and achieves its (usually predetermined) goals. This is and remains their core task.

In addition, every manager is and remains the disciplinary superior of their employees, who also decides on their professional well-being and advancement. The "Duz" culture in many companies does nothing to change this. Due to this function, managers must also make tough decisions from the perspective of their employees or support and implement decisions made by their own superiors - which is currently the case more often than not at a time when many companies want to (or have to) make savings and cut staff.

Empowering managers to maintain their confidence

In my view, anyone who negates the aforementioned functions of managers - such as being a division manager, disciplinary superior, etc. - is also negating the complexity and multi-layered nature of the management role, which is precisely what makes it so difficult and challenging to perform effectively. As a result, it ultimately cannot contribute to the fact that for fewer managers, "being challenged" turns into "being overwhelmed" and they increasingly resign (or even burn out).

In my view, however, such "empowerment" is currently urgently needed. After all, if managers increasingly lose hope and resign because they are overwhelmed, then they no longer radiate the confidence "We can overcome the challenges ahead of us if..." in their dealings with employees.

However, it is precisely in difficult times or times of rapid change that they must radiate this, so that their employees maintain a positive view of the future despite all adversity and have, if not the belief, then at least the hope that "We will make it if...".

Managers need a positive view of the future to be effective

That's why, for example, I can really get behind the positive leadership concept, as advocated by the Positivity Guides, Berlin/Braunschweig in their book "Positiv führt! Empowering Teams and Organizations with Positive Leadership", because: This concept places a strong focus on promoting and preserving hope - even in bad times, when many employees increasingly lose their confidence because they can no longer see any light at the end of the tunnel due to the many crises etc.

The same applies to the influencer leadership concept of IFIDZ founder and director Barbara Liebermeister, Wiesbaden, as it emphasizes the importance of managers as influencers of the mindsets of those around them, which is increasingly becoming a core task of leadership.

To the author:
Bernhard Kuntz is the owner of the PR and marketing agency Die PRofilBerater, Darmstadt (www.die-profilberater.de). Among other things, he is the author of the education and consultancy marketing classic "Die Katze im Sack verkaufen: Wie Sie Bildung und Beratung mit System vermarkten" - offline and online". Time and again, he also critically reflects on various topics relating to his consultancy mandates, including in marketing.