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ISomething I took away from the “Dawn of Systems Leadership” reading was the claim that systems leaders have great contributions due to the strength of their ignorance. This made me pretty annoyed, to be honest. The reading claims that their ignorance “gives them permission to ask obvious questions and to embody an openness and commitment to their ongoing learning and growth.” I think that you can be open and committed to learning and growth without being ignorant. To me, this little section seems like the authors are making an excuse for leaders who claim to be “systems leaders” but don’t know what is going on. I might be mad because I was listening to the podcast Pod Save the World and it was all about Rex Tillerson (not a fun listen). He probably considers himself a systems leader because he is looking for big shifts and changes and is doing it by being ignorant to diplomatic norms and international relations. He is “so convinced that something can be done that [he] does not wait for a fully developed plan.” Does this sound like a good leader?? I really did not think so when reading this article and reflecting on Rexy. (OK friends, rant over. Sorry.)

I do, totally understand that a lot of leadership is learning by doing. As an undergraduate, I took over an organization that sent students on service-learning trips across the country during spring and winter breaks. The previous leaders didn’t feel the need to clue me in to how things were done, so I had to jump in and figure everything out as I went along. My executive board and I met frequently to reflect on our work and what we could do better and we also talked about the future of the organization. Sometimes, I had to learn to let it all go. I’m a control freak, sometimes, and because I loved the organization so much, I was even more so. But, I learned that not everything can be controlled and I had to go with the flow. For example, my publicity coordinator was always late on deadlines. He did a great job, but not in a timely enough manner for me, an early bird. It always worked out, and after a couple times of being frustrated, I realized I had to let him work at his own pace. Even though learning on the job was exhausting and I just wanted someone to guide me sometimes and I wanted everyone to work on my very exacting timeline, it was a successful year. Am I a systems leader? Sure, let’s go with that.

 

 

It has been real, blog group. LATER GATORS.

Comments

[Brysen Daughton]

Holy cow, I hated that part on leaders and ignorance. It reflected so much of what I hate about the current administration. I wasn't even listening to that podcast... In my opinion that point made me think much less of the paper as a whole. I do agree that learning is a very important part of leading, though the want to learn is necessary if we are going to elect ignorant leaders.

[Max Margolin]

I too found that this section of the article was interesting, but did not find it as striking as you and Brysen did. I think there is some truth to the claims of ignorance in certain leaders, but this is not an overarching attribute that all leaders have. I kind of think of this type of approach to a problem is similar to the way that children look at issues. Instead of harping on the negative aspect of ignorance, I think that it can be looked at as coming at a problem with a new perspective. When children look at a problem, they are sometimes capable of finding new solutions that experts were unable to fine because of their extensive engagement with the issue. I think that the ignorance of systems leaders can be seen in a good light.