The Rooted Leader

It seems pretty stormy right now.

Here in Europe, it's mid winter, with the politics exhibiting an equal lack of warmth.

Which takes me to leadership. Outside my window, the trees are bending in the wind, but the trees don't move (It's not, after all, Middle Earth).

It seems a reasonable metaphor for leadership. The trees are both rooted, and connected and in it for the long haul.  (If you haven't seen it, there's a beautiful short video on the "Wood Wide Web" from the BBC that describes this eloquently)

Leaders are like trees. They're grounded, connected, and up for the storm.

Managers are different. They're highly mobile. Most of us here on LinkedIn will have made, or be making, our living as itinerant managers.

According to the FT, we need to plan for five careers in a lifetime, and all the indications are that number itself is a short term forecast.  For my own part, I've managed businesses in five different sectors in five different countries. The management skills are very similar, bu…