Leadership and the "Information Renaissance"
The term leadership in this day and age has become a blanketed term that allows seemingly everyone to believe that they portray leadership in some form or fashion in the professional setting as a supervisor or manager. Unfortunately, and in my opinion, this is simply not the case.
I recently discoursed in an unpublished essay the difference between leadership and management. To summarize my two key points within the discourse effectively, I will extend a definition and a theory. First, my definition of leadership is that leadership is the innate ability to guide others to produce effectively for a chosen cause while sharing and believing in the goals of a chosen leader. Secondly, I base my discourse from a viewpoint shared with the Great Man Theory of Leadership. (Carlyle, T., 1888) Simply put, the Great Man Theory of Leadership states that leaders are not made or trained; rather, they are born with leadership qualities.
You, the reader of my blog, are probably wondering what the above discourse has to do with the title of this blog. Dr. Jay Gillette of the Center for Information and Communication Sciences at Ball State University coined the phrase “Information Renaissance” in his essay entitled "Leadership for the Information Renaissance: Clarity, Challenges, Opportunity". Within Dr. Gillette’s essay he speaks of “a knowledge society driven by an information economy.” (Gillette, J.E., n.d.) Hence, we are now living with an “Information Renaissance.” Dr. Gillette goes on to state that “this new horizon of social and economic change is rightly seen as a huge challenge, chaotic and not easy to manage.”
Dr. Gillette’s point of management in his essay is what led me to the focus of my discourse mentioned above. Below I have included an excerpt from my unpublished discourse.
“Unfortunately, not all “managers of others” exemplify what this essay exhibits as leadership. Peter F. Drucker stated it precisely, “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” (ThinkExist.com, 2010) In my opinion, true leaders are few and far between.” (Evans, R., 2010)
I concur with Dr. Gillette that our society will continue to appear “chaotic and not easy to manage” until many leaders (not managers) step up to the challenge. In addition, please refer to my colleague Chelsea Sigler’s blog for a more detailed review (entitled "The Renaissance of Information") of the essay mentioned above authored by Dr. Gillette.
Works Cited:
Carlyle, T. (1888). On heroes, Hero-Worship and the Heroic in History. [p. 2]. (Questia Digital Version), Retrieved from http://www.questia.com/read/1444983#.
Evans, R. (2010). Leaders stand up! Managers, please sit down. (Unpublished paper, Center for Information and Communication Sciences, Ball State University, Muncie, IN).
Gillette, J.E. (n.d.) Leadership for the Information Renaissance: Clarity, Challenges, Opportunity. (Unpublished paper, Center for Information and Communication Sciences, Ball State University, Muncie, IN).
ThinkExist.com. (2010). Peter F. Drucker Quotes. Retrieved from http://thinkexist.com/quotation/management_is_doing_things_right-leadership_is/11721.html.