Learning to lead

Second to last day at my current employee. Tomorrow only return my laptop, phones and such.

And have a coffee with my very good friends.

The weather was beautiful. Snowing. A lot. I went for a walk with a friend of mine. We always have such lively discussion. Talking about whatever is in our minds. Whether something bothers us or not.

Or just discussing how to make the world a better place. Starting from ourselves.

It's refreshing. It indeed is.

Today we discussed quite some time about being an 'opinion leader' compared to having an authority. I'm not very fond of authorities. In fact, when people discuss about 'leadership without formal authority' I'd really like to question the essence of the topic - is there any other kind of leadership?

Authority does not make one a leader. Authority too often makes a very poor excuse for not listening to others.

She asked whether I have authority in the organizing committee of the Turku Agile Day conference. I replied 'I hope not'. I do not object of being a leader and influencing the organizers. That's definitely part of me.

But do I have authority. Still I hope not. But I have to think.

Note to self: not having authority does not mean hiding from responsibility & accountability. On the contrary.

What would the nature do?