There is very little consideration of ‘pleasure’ in leadership – which is curious; perhaps there is a particular type of pleasurable demand, or demanding pleasure, to which the capacity for leadership in all of us can relate. And even less consideration of the pleasure in followership, the act of being led. Paul Bloom, in his recent book How Pleasure Works develops a central concept – that pleasure is linked to ‘essentialism’ – what we believe about something or someone is the source of our pleasure; and if we find something is inauthentic – a fake, or forgery, say – we lose pleasure (and the capacity for it). So, this has led me to wonder about
- the pleasure of leadership,
- the pleasure in leadership,
- the pleasure in and of being led; and
- how that relates to one’s sense of the beliefs the leader may hold – about themselves and about you as a follower
Might this be an aspect of reverie, in an organisational setting? If I find my leader – or my own leadership to inauthentic – I certainly take no pleasure in either following her, or exercising my own.
Slingshot