Leadership vs Fellowship

This morning I came across a very interesting article on Leadership vs Fellowship by Bob Marshall at http://flowchainsensei.wordpress.com/2012/07/30/leadership-or-fellowship/. It said that our focus on leadership and leaders caused followers and increased the pattern that a few people were thinking for many.  

My perspective is that leadership is something that is within everyone. Every person can practise leadership, at least for themselves. Stephen F Covey said that leadership is about communicating to people their own worth and potential so clearly that they see it in themselves. Sometimes we need someone taking the lead, to support us to grow. Sometimes we need the mentor by our side showing us another perspective, another worldview or our own potential. If that is called leadership or fellowship, I don´t know. I just know that this ability is within everyone and it shifts between people depending on the situation.  

That is why I like Open Space Technology, Whole Person Process Facilitation and similar methods for collaboration, because they create a space where everyone can practice their leadership and choose to work for a topic that they see is important for their organization or community. Those methods are not just methods in that they can be used to achieve results in singular meetings. They also, as any meeting methodology, are based on values that creates an approach, a pattern, a way to be, in the organization. These meeting methods are based on values that each single person is important and brings with them much wisdom to the whole. They value collaboration, are open to new ideas and experimentation. They invite each participant to come with their whole self, take leadership and work together with joy and openness for learning and surprises.

 The methods used at work, such as meeting methods, work processes etc, are constantly communicating to us the values they are based on at an unconscious level. So when organizations are still using meeting methods from the industrial era and working in processes that were launched in the early 1900, we are still influenced to think according to the values of that century. Which means that one person is thinking for many. And that is a loss of great wisdom from all our fellow workers.