28 Leading with NLP
Authority
Our cultural thinking on leadership has been entangled in
wars and battles and heavily influenced by military history.
Say ‘leader’ and for many people a picture pops up of troops
being led into battle (even though in most cases, the general
in charge was at the back directing operations). This military
metaphor still colours our view of business leadership and
powers the ‘command and control’ management paradigm.
It strikes deep. The world of sales is packed to the hilt with
military metaphors. Managers talk of ‘leading the troops
into battle’, ‘fighting the price war’ and ‘a cut-throat mar-
ket’, as if the primitive urge to deal with the competition by
bombing their boardroom and interning their sales people
still appeals. No wonder sales people tend to suffer from
battle fatigue known as ‘burn out’. Any metaphor becomes
destructive when taken too far and this one has had its day.
‘Customer partnerships’ should be what we hear now.
Leadership by authority
AuthorityLeadership space