The Myth of Leadership: Creating Leaderless Organizations

Once we give up our egotistical attachment to rank-based concepts of managing, we can no longer justify our traditional leadership and supervisory positions and professions . This does not mean the important tasks of supervision are ignored or neglected ”rather, they are redistributed throughout the peer-based organization to the crossfunctional, and now rankless, councils and task forces. Key leadership functions will be exercised as well in peer-based organizations; however, they will be distributed through the peer council system as opposed to being identified with a hierarchical position in a rank-based organization. This leads to the following characteristics of a peer-based organization:

• Proactive mentality ” employees feel they can make a difference

• Expectations not of entitlement, but of contribution

• Vision ”everyone shares in strategic thinking

• Healthy balance between innovation and tradition

• Fewer crises and better work/life balance

• Everyone thinking and acting like an owner

• High levels of trust ”because there are no secrets

• Willingness to admit "I don't know" ”because there are no privileged elites

• Consistent, open , honest communication

• No communication barriers ”everyone talks to everyone else as needed

In business organizations, these characteristics produce greater productivity and lower costs, which generate higher profitability.