My thoughts this week have been turned towards leadership. The museum sector is constantly trying to develop leaders. Why is that? Do we lack the right stuff? Is it proof that leaders are born and as such aren't naturally drawn to looking after old things?
Who is the greatest leader living today? Arguably it's Nelson Mandela. Can you imagine Nelson Mandela as the most charismatic outreach officer in the history of the Iziki Museums of South Africa? It's a nice thought, but could he have applied himself to museums? Alas during his trial in 1964 he failed to say the following.
"During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle for museum visitors. I have fought against middle class visitor domination, and I have fought against community group domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free museum in which all persons visit together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."
So is the first lesson in leadership to be prepared to die for your museum? By this measure I am not a true leader, although I am prepared to sacrifice my staff and put them on trial. Realistically a man as great as Mandela should be saving a nation and not saving a museum - but isn't that my point?
How about something a little less political? Is the modern day curator a St. Francis of Assisi? Zookeepers obviously are I suppose, but what about the rest of us? As a justification of our trade in 1220 St. Francis failed to say,
"My little visitors much bounden are ye unto your Curator, and always in every place ought ye to praise him, moreover he preserved your objects in the museum, that your history might not perish out of the world; wherefore your Curator loveth you much, seeing that he hath bestowed on you a lovely label; and therefore, my little visitors, beware of the sin of ingratitude, and study always to give praises unto the museum."
That seems much more familiar and comforting, much more befitting of our status.
So what have we learned so far?
Great leaders sort out national problems while we think we are all St. Francis and treat visitors like ungrateful sheep - is that leadersheep?
Now I can see why we spend so much on leadership development.
From St. Francis to Mandela in a two hour PowerPoint session? If there's one sector that believes it can do it - we can! In the words of Winston Churchill,
"I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and ongoing leadership training."
"During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle for museum visitors. I have fought against middle class visitor domination, and I have fought against community group domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free museum in which all persons visit together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."
So is the first lesson in leadership to be prepared to die for your museum? By this measure I am not a true leader, although I am prepared to sacrifice my staff and put them on trial. Realistically a man as great as Mandela should be saving a nation and not saving a museum - but isn't that my point?
How about something a little less political? Is the modern day curator a St. Francis of Assisi? Zookeepers obviously are I suppose, but what about the rest of us? As a justification of our trade in 1220 St. Francis failed to say,
"My little visitors much bounden are ye unto your Curator, and always in every place ought ye to praise him, moreover he preserved your objects in the museum, that your history might not perish out of the world; wherefore your Curator loveth you much, seeing that he hath bestowed on you a lovely label; and therefore, my little visitors, beware of the sin of ingratitude, and study always to give praises unto the museum."
That seems much more familiar and comforting, much more befitting of our status.
So what have we learned so far?
Great leaders sort out national problems while we think we are all St. Francis and treat visitors like ungrateful sheep - is that leadersheep?
Now I can see why we spend so much on leadership development.
From St. Francis to Mandela in a two hour PowerPoint session? If there's one sector that believes it can do it - we can! In the words of Winston Churchill,
"I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and ongoing leadership training."
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