Led Poisoning The best cure for bad leading is a good dose of following.

If there's one subject I dread writing about, it'sleadership. What else has been as overdone? Just look in the"leadership" section of any bookstore. You have your TheLeadership Engine, The Heart of a Leader . . . not to mention"The Leadership Secrets of" everyone from Attila the Hunto Charles Manson. But with all that reading, how will you ever getaround to leading?

And who follows all these leaders we're creating? After all,isn't a leader someone people follow? Authority isn't athing. It's an interpretive process that, while tangible,resists the solidity of a thing. Weak leaders can't wait tomake it solid-hence scepters, big chairs, executive washrooms, etc.Real leaders don't need to assert their authority; people justnaturally follow them. Think Gandhi and Martin Luther King.

So what will the leader of the future look like? The Ted Turnermodel doesn't work for me anymore. The sign on Ted's deskread, "Lead, follow or get out of the way." It's atad too 12th century. In the third millennium, we all have areas welead in and others where we don't. Consider Dell, which has noR&D department. They've chosen to lead in"assembling" other people's R&D.

Now, whose opinions do you pay attention to outside of work? Canyou use those opinions in your work life? What can your kids teachyou, not just about using a computer, but about living in acomputer-centric society?

Once you start asking the questions, don't be surprised ifthe best answers come from within. After all, who better to leadyou than you?

WATTS WACKER-lecturer, bestselling author, politicalcommentator, social critic and CEO of FirstMatter-is one of theworld's most respected futurists.