Leadership Substance, Style and Shadow 37taken parents and significant adults as role models when we
were children. When we have children we automatically be-
come a role model for them, whether we want it or not.
A coach can be a leader. The British tennis player Greg
Rusedski went from fifty-sixth in the world rankings to sixth
in a few months under the guidance of his coaches, first
Brian Teacher and then Tony Pickard. Rusedski is a talented
player and his coaches were able to inspire him to play to his
talent. Great athletes lead by example and they usually have
great coaches – who are leaders of a different sort. Coaches
in business help a colleague solve a problem or improve at a
task through discussion and guidance. When coaching deals
with personal issues and where the personal qualities of the
coach become as important as their business skills, then
coaching shades into mentoring. You may not be able to pick
your coach, but you always choose your mentor.
A healer can be a leader, usually through the knowledge
they have. Doctors and therapists are leaders when they lead
people to greater health and well-being. Internal and exter-
nal consultants can heal organizational rifts.
A steward, someone entrusted to guard what is important,
is another kind of leader. In his book Stewardship(Berrett-
Koehler, 1996), Peter Block writes of service in the cause of
a larger vision, of accountability, and an end to a blame and
control culture in the workplace. Much of this I would apply
to leadership. I use stewardship in a more limited sense: as a
style of leadership.
The steward’s role as a guardian of what is important
and worth keeping is important, for example in business, for
although businesses must continually renew themselves, too
much change is as bad as too little. Without any change a
company will freeze and stagnate into an uncompetitive di-
nosaur, but with too much change the company risks losing
the valuable parts of its business. A steward identifies and
preserves what is worth keeping, what keeps the company
stable. That is successful change – keeping the good things
about the present and letting go of the rest. Any leader must
be a steward to some degree.