Carol has a friend whom she sometimes refers to as “Sailboat Chris” — this distinguishes from the other Chris we know. He’s Sailboat Chris because he’s a naval architect who has lived aboard his sailboat for the past fifteen or so years.

Carol and Chris were talking about the leadership of a local community group. Chris contended that there are two different ways to be a leader in such a group. You can be the biggest sheep among all the other sheep — just one of the gang, but bigger. Or you can be a sheepdog — an entirely different species whose role is to provide guidance and leadership, and care deeply about the others, but not necessarily try to be everyone’s best friend.

I like this metaphor. It does not completely describe all aspects of leadership, but it helps me to see how some leaders prefer to be part of the pack or herd (depending on which animal you use for a metaphor), while other leaders are willing to give up intimacy and friendships in order to provide a different quality of leadership.

At the risk of stereotyping, I would also say that Baby Boomers in the United States tend to prefer being big sheep, whereas leaders from the G.I. Generation tended to be sheepdogs.