Being the leading ship is true leadership

If you look up the etymology of the word “leadership”, you’ll only find an explanation for “lead”. It’s derived from laitho, meaning “finding your way”. If you search for the meaning of the “ship” suffix, it’s explicitly stated that there’s no relation to the sea vessel. I think they’re wrong.

Close your eyes and imagine yourself as a ship, like a luxury yacht or a large oil tanker sailing the ocean. You’re part of a fleet, but you’re positioned in the lead. You’re leading in the sense that you’re navigating from the front, rather than leading by control, or being the boss. This, of course, is just a metaphor. A metaphor for a vision to achieve something and wanting your colleagues to follow you in your ideas. It’s quite interesting, the similarities that exist between leadership and being the leading ship. The following are four examples that I consider to be the most important leadership skills.

First of all, the leading ship is not physically connected to the other ships. If you change direction, it doesn’t mean that other ships are sure to follow. The only way to make them follow you is by influencing them to do so. Of course, you could try to make a physical connection by tying a rope, which would definitely speed up the process of changing directions. But it would also mean that you have to work harder to keep everything moving. There’s also a very reasonable risk that the rope might break, which presents a host of other potential consequences. More importantly, however, this would be leadership by force instead of influence and would result in coercing your colleagues to follow you. If you’re the boss, this is certainly an option, but I still don’t believe that this is a sustainable solution for keeping the lead.