Positional Leadership

Episode 16:  The Ringbanger

Hawkeye:    We got us a real “ring banger” here.

Trapper:   A “what banger”?

Hawkeye:   Didn’t you see the way he kept banging his ring on 

           the chair?

Trapper:   Yeah.

Hawkeye:   A little reminder that he’s a quarterback and we’re 

           just the water boys.

Trapper:   I got a feeling he wouldn’t be so tall if he weren’t 

           standing on so many bodies.

An over zealous colonel comes to camp injured, exerting his authority and eagerness to return to the front line to kill more of the enemy.  Hawkeye and Trapper try and prevent him from returning to battle by convincing him he was suffering from ‘battle fatigue.’

There are many different styles of leadership; from task-oriented to people-focused, bureaucratic to servant, autocratic to participative, and many others in-between.  Regardless of the style or situation, it is commonly agreed that leadership is more about influence than position.  Position asserts the rights of a leader, whereas influence accents the responsibilities of a leader.  Position is self driven, influence is others driven. Position exerts power over others, influence empowers others. While positional leadership is a reality in most organizations, leaders have a choice about how they use their position.  In his book, The 360 Degree Leader, John Maxwell, who teaches that “leadership is influence – nothing more, nothing less,” defines the relationship between position and influence by stating, “Influencing others is a matter of disposition, not position.”