Leadership beyond LinkedIn
In an age of loud leaders, this one listened
In 2022, footballing champion Diego invited the cleaners to celebrate his team's win of the Copa de Brasil.
There are a lot of LinkedIn posts on leadership and what it is supposed to look like.
As part of my doctoral thesis many years ago, I researched leadership in labour unions, immigrant communities and management in low-wage sectors.
There are two components of genuine leadership which stand out to me. Kairos (the ancient Greek word meaning 'the exact or critical time'). The other one is 'dialogic leadership', implying that leaders don't only command from above but immerse themselves, listen and learn to those at the bottom in society and organisations.
Diego, the captain of Flamenco football club, displayed such leadership when he took the Cup he just won to the stadium cleaners. He didn't do it in the changing rooms, he didn't do it three days later in an E-Mail.
He went to the cleaners on the spot. That's what leadership looks like.
We need more of this, especially as today's politicians are displaying types of leadership that will be adopted by CEOs, managers and others if we don't have showcase that other forms of leadership exist out there and are effective.