What do you think?

Recently I read an article revolving around the strategies and habits that make “thinkers,” which got me to think…what do great leaders do?

Thinking is defined as, “the process of using one's mind to consider or reason about something. To have a particular opinion, belief, or idea about someone or something.”

Certainly great leaders exhibit most, if not all the examples presented in the article, but the real question is what is it they expect from their followers?  Do the leaders of great organizations develop, nurture, and foster thinking throughout the entire company, or do they inspire and value the thinking of only a few?  Is it healthy for the whole to think, question, and debate, or more practical to restrict that behavior to a select few while the remainder simply go about completing the tasks which were designed by “the thinkers?”

What if I were to ask those in your company what it was you perpetuated as the leader, how do you think they’d respond? Do you embrace, value, and trust the thinking for all or only a select few?  At what point in time, if any, does the thinking have to stop and the “doing” begin? Can they go on simultaneously in tandem, or must they be separated from each other as not to bog down the process? So many questions…so many various possibilities…what do you think???