There is a lot of wisdom here that is so rarely discussed in traditional leadership books.
You mention warmth. Real, human, authentic support and connection. Absolutely.
You also hint at a crucial idea - the team as a collection of DIFFERENT people each bringing something unique and important to the mix.
Tom DeMarco and Tim Lister spoke to this idea in their seminal work PeopleWare. They talk about a high-functioning team where a woman played the role of "glue" that bound that team together. Made everyone better. Management didn't understand what she did and nearly fired her because that contribution was hard to measure.
Two other ideas for leadership that are vastly underrated:
There is a lot of wisdom here that is so rarely discussed in traditional leadership books.
You mention warmth. Real, human, authentic support and connection. Absolutely.
You also hint at a crucial idea - the team as a collection of DIFFERENT people each bringing something unique and important to the mix.
Tom DeMarco and Tim Lister spoke to this idea in their seminal work PeopleWare. They talk about a high-functioning team where a woman played the role of "glue" that bound that team together. Made everyone better. Management didn't understand what she did and nearly fired her because that contribution was hard to measure.
Two other ideas for leadership that are vastly underrated:
Leader as coach
Leader as servant
Neither is about authority. They are about supporting the team in ways that help it achieve its potential. And grow in that. I wrote about the servant idea here: https://smmoulder.substack.com/p/he-called-me-a-servant?r=2xahz&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=post%20viewer
I love ‘leader as coach’ and ‘leader as servant’ and agree — we need to expand our collective understanding of what good leadership is and looks like.