Friend and colleague Scott Noelle wrote about “Two Kinds of Responsibility” in his daily reader, in-box delivery. He’s a parenting coach, and his thinking keeps me thinking, about parenting, and today, about leadership.

“The word “responsibility” can be confusing because its meaning changes depending on the “active worldview” of the person using it. The old worldview is one of scarcity and competition, where one seeks empowerment through controlling people and conditions, and by being “right.” In that worldview, responsibility means obligation, duty, and/or blame. The new worldview is one of abundance and creativity, where empowerment comes from within and is expressed through partnership. In that worldview, responsibility is the *ability to respond* creatively, and it’s an acknowledgment that each individual creates his or her own experience of life.” Scott Noelle (Italics mine)

Sounds like a definition of cutting edge leadership. What if a powerful leader was defined as someone who effectively partners with all the stakeholders in her project? Who, together in relationship with those partners, discovered and generated solutions to the challenges of the organization and all those partners affected by the organization? What is there to be learned by how we raise our children – as parents and as a society – in our development as leaders?