{"id":1091,"date":"2025-07-21T12:01:22","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T12:01:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cdschrock.com\/home1\/?p=1091"},"modified":"2025-07-21T15:51:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T15:51:15","slug":"leadership-privilege","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cdschrock.com\/home1\/leadership-privilege\/","title":{"rendered":"Leadership is not a privilege"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Leadership is sometimes referred to as a privilege. I don\u2019t think so.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I ran across a post a few days ago that was talking about the importance of leadership. And they reverentially referred to leadership as a privilege. This author was addressing the idea that leaders need to accept the privilege with humility rather than hubris. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While that\u2019s always good advice, I think the idea of leadership as a privilege may be unintentionally strolling down the wrong path. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Privileges are special rights, honors, or advantages that are granted to someone. Privileges are about preferential treatment. And the notion of a privilege often carries the associated idea that these special rights may not be earned through any special action, skills, or capabilities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I look at leadership as a responsibility, not a privilege. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be a leader, you need others who are willing to join you in pursuit of delivering some type of meaningful outcome.  They\u2019re trusting that you know what you\u2019re doing. They\u2019re trusting that you\u2019re working – honestly and fairly – toward some common good. When you\u2019re a leader, you owe others<\/em> your best efforts. You owe them <\/em>results. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are responsibilities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want a leader who\u2019s focused on what they owe to their followers. Not enjoying their privilege – even if they’re being humble about it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The difference between viewing leadership as a privilege or a responsibility may be subtle. But I think it’s important. Think of someone you would tag as a great leader. Would you be more likely to describe them as motivated by enjoying a privilege? Or owning an important responsibility?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So when you find yourself in a leadership role, as we all are from time to time, don\u2019t worry about demonstrating humility while enjoying your accomplishments. Focus, instead, on what you owe to those who are counting on you to lead them to a meaningful result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leadership is sometimes referred to as a privilege. I don\u2019t think so. I ran across a post a few days ago that was talking about the importance of leadership. And they reverentially referred to leadership as a privilege. This author was addressing the idea that leaders need to accept the privilege with humility rather than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1094,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-governance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cdschrock.com\/home1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cdschrock.com\/home1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cdschrock.com\/home1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cdschrock.com\/home1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cdschrock.com\/home1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1091"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/cdschrock.com\/home1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1096,"href":"https:\/\/cdschrock.com\/home1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1091\/revisions\/1096"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cdschrock.com\/home1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cdschrock.com\/home1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cdschrock.com\/home1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cdschrock.com\/home1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}