Becoming a Guardian
Being a leader isn't about getting a list of things done or even involving people in the team. You need to really care about what happens with the team and its members, the organization, and the goal. Another old-fashioned word that helps frame the idea is guardian. A leader, particularly within the organization, has to watch over everything and have a properly caring attitude.
Guarding the Goals
Paying attention to the group's goals and principles should be old hat at this point. But being a guardian of the goals is a touch more expansive. You no longer look only to achieve them. As a guardian, you keep a watchful eye over the goals. They become something you want to promote and even protect, which in itself orders what you do in the organization. When in doubt, you, as a leader, are there to make sure that the group moves forward toward the goals.
Guarding Others
As a leader within the organization, you know that it takes a team to achieve the goals, which is why you also have to be a guardian of your other team members. The welfare of the organization and its goals depends on the welfare of these people. Helping others to work for a goal involving principle helps them connect to what is important to them. You help them find satisfaction and remember that doing work for an organization is more than punching a time clock.
In guarding others, you want to be sure never to tell people how you view yourself. It would seem unspeakably arrogant on your part, which would reduce your effectiveness. As important, you don't want to mention this objective because of the danger that it will become part of an expression of ego and not of leadership.
There are times that guarding others means acting as the de facto group spokesperson. Listen to all that each person in the group has to offer: complaints, suggestions, and new ideas. Then you can communicate those ideas — diplomatically, respectfully, and without pretending that the ideas are all yours — to the people who institute change. You deepen your relationship with the other people on the team and come to be seen by authorities as the voice of the group.
Guarding Management
You'd think that people in the actual positions of power in the organization could take care of themselves. That is generally correct. But they have their own responsibilities that play into overall success. To be a guardian of the people at the top is to watch over their time, to be sure that the team takes care of virtually everything it can so as not to pass any problems upwards. You can also work to bring the organization's core principles into existence through action. By doing so, you help those in authority to see their vision come into being. That creates meaning for them and acts as a reminder that the underlying principles are important, even in the face of mounting bureaucracy.
