Leadership and Democracy

Another lesson learned in 'The apprentice' show. Did I mention that I am a reality show junky? I guess this becomes very obvious.

In this week's Celebrity Apprentice show, Lennox Lewis (a Heavyweight-Boxing Champion) was a project lead. Piers(a Brit judge in the 'UK got talent', and 'American got talent') challenged his leadership because it seemed that everything that comes to a decision, Lennox would cast a vote. He called that democracy, but Piers called it incompetent, and lack of leadership.

To some degree, I agreed with Piers, but at the same time, I kinda feel for Lennox. The stuff that they were doing (task was to come up with a window play to promote Vera Wang & Serta Mattress) was definitely not one of his areas. So when you are dealing with something that's out of your element, would you not rather be extra careful? Going for the 'democratic' way may be the safest way to get the most popular decision. The main reason I agree with Piers is that all good leaders tend to be control-freaks. It's probably very hard for them to reach decision by casting votes. They would rather have a bad decision than letting others get into their way. But then a good leader would also need to listen to others, and take in the advice, digest and reach to the right decision.

Without subconsciously thinking about leadership, I think I might do the same thing as Lennox. Simply because doing something that is not in my element would somehow lower my confident level, hence, naturally want less responsibility. But when no one in the team is familiar with the area, I would for sure take the flame. Oh well, I guess the moral of the story is that how we can walk the fine line between democracy and have the right control.