Snippets #2: on leadership...

anyone who's been paying attention would have seen aphorisms here and there about how some people are great, and some have greatness thrust upon them, but greatness isn't what i'm talking about here so put that out of your head. i just find it interesting that when you have a group of people working together on some task, great or small, that when there's no one person in the group with the assigned task of leading, someone will tend to assume the role. personally i've never REALLY sought it out, regardless of what some of my detractors may say. it's just that i get so pissed off that no one else will step up that i've got into the habit and have wound up taking the reins in one way or another again and again and again.

sometimes it's been out of boredom, othertimes frustration. over the last couple of weeks i've gone and started coordinating the guys i work with in a general attempt to stop everyone from tripping over their own feet, and a hope that i can get them working as an actual team rather than a 50/50 split of workaholics and slackers, with me sitting in the middle just trying to get through my days. it's worth noting that this is not what i signed up for here. i just wanted to sit around the office and fix things for a few months while my days trickled away and my savings account waxed quietly in the corner.

it kinda makes me wonder a little whether there's not something more to it - that i might actually be a closet control-freak and glory-hound. i wonder how much it actually matters one way or the other.

oh well. i'm having fun with it at the moment and i seem to be making some positive changes around the place. morale's on the up, and the team's working more cohesively than it was a month ago so i think i'll keep nudging things along until i get sick of the idea or i leave... the worst that can really happen is that someone gives me some actual responsibility and makes me actually attend meetings or something. now that would get awkward - i've got in the habit of putting my feet up on my desk while i'm working and that can look bad on the boardroom table...

at some point, though, i think i'm going to have to take an honest-to-gods Team Leader job so that i can crash and burn and prove once and for all that i'm not cut out for it. heaven-forbid that i somehow do WELL - if that happened i'd get completely incorrigible and there'd be no stopping me...