Every Picture Tells a Story

Please take a look at our brand mark above for a moment.

Most people comment that it’s colorful, seems to move from left to right, and feels “directional.” We agree.

But the mark is much more than the decorative part of our logo. It’s a visual expression of how we understand leadership.

It appears on the cover of our book Leadership Actually, on our business cards, and on most of our correspondence.

The Mark as a Whole

It shows five separate, different-colored ribbons moving from left to right, converging into a knot from which a single arrow emerges.

Each of these three elements — the ribbons, the knot, and the arrow — represents something essential about leadership.

•             The ribbons represent people

•             The knot represents competence and commitment

•             The arrow represents movement toward a goal

Taken together, the elements of the mark express the clearest definition of leadership we know.

Elliott Jaques and Stephen D. Clement write:

“Leadership is the process of getting other people to move along together with you, and each other, with competence and full commitment to achieve a goal.”

Look again at the mark and you’ll see each part of that definition:

•             people coming together

•             collective competence and commitment binding them

•             collective movement in a shared direction toward a goal

This single image captures what we mean when we use the word leadership.

It’s just as Jaques and Clement assert, a process — not a role or a title.

The Ribbons

The ribbons represent the people involved in any collective effort:

a work team in a workplace,
a teacher and students in a classroom,
or a coach and members of their team on what we like to call the “fields of friendly strife” (to borrow from General Douglas MacArthur).

Notice something important:

The ribbons aren’t stacked behind the arrow like followers trailing a heroic leader.

Each ribbon moves forward in its own color and path before joining the others.

Leadership, in this sense, doesn’t erase individuality.

It aligns it.

Different experiences, talents, and perspectives move toward a shared effort.

Actual leadership — like the kind we write about — engages people as participants, not as parts in a machine.

The Knot

Where the ribbons meet, they form a knot.

This is the most important part of the mark.

The knot represents the moment when individuals begin to move together with competence and full commitment — where cooperation and collaboration become real.

Getting people to move is not especially difficult.

Pressure, hierarchy, or fear can do that.

But movement alone is not leadership.

Genuine leadership understands that people support what they help create and acts accordingly.

But, as the title of one of Ringo Starr’s songs says:

“It Don’t Come Easy.”

It takes determination, grit, and practice — practice, and more practice.

In many organizations, this is the point at which things break down.

People may move in the same general direction, but without competence fully engaged and commitment freely given, the knot never truly forms.

The result is people going through the motions — movement without cohesion.

Where, in your own work right now, do you see movement… but no knot?

The Arrow

Beyond the knot, the ribbons move forward as a single arrow.

This represents collective movement toward a goal.

Not activity for activity’s sake.
Not busyness.

Direction.

Leadership helps people see where their work is headed, why it matters to them, and gives them a real hand in shaping what happens next.

When those elements align, something powerful happens.

People rise to meet extraordinary challenges — and very often prevail.

Previews of Coming Attractions

Over the next several weeks, we’ll explore both sides of leadership:

the illusion of it,
and what the actual thing looks like in practice.

Illusory leadership can produce activity, compliance, and even short-term results.

From the outside, it can look convincing.

But something essential is missing.

The ribbons never truly tie together.

Actual leadership is harder.

It requires leaders who create the conditions where people move not only with direction, but with competence and commitment — with each other.

That’s the knot.

And when the knot holds, the arrow moves with real power.

In our Friday Field Note this week, you’ll see a story about the genuine article.

P.S.
If you’ve read Leadership Actually and haven’t shared your honest opinion of—and experience with—the book yet, your perspective helps others understand what they might experience and decide whether it’s something they want to step into.

Cheers.