Do We Have a Leadership Problem?
Doyle Slayton | Jan 03, 2010 | Comments 47
I’ve been working through some new ideas on leadership. Everywhere you turn you hear the experts talking about how, “We lack the leadership needed to carry us into the future.”
That’s a problem.
After considering it for the last six months or so, I think I have some of the answers… things that I don’t see anyone else talking about.
Before sharing my ideas, I’ll put it out there and let our readers share their opinion. What do you think…
What is the biggest problem with leadership? What is the solution?
I’ll share my ideas next week!
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Filed Under: Blog • Leadership • Reader Questions
Biggest problem with leadership I see is that so many leaders are afraid of making the hard calls, trying to make everyone happy, not doing what it takes and taking a stand.
With more uncertainity, adversity and high volatility ahead, a special breed of leader is needed. Leaders who live by their values, know what their personal mission is, and can lead from humility (Level 5- Jim Collins) are/will be in short supply. Adversity usually brings out the best/worst as we have seen this past year.
If we think 2009 and before was a challenge, we have not seen anything yet.
The call for leadership with character, purpose and a servant mind will be in high demand.
Joe
Joe-
I could not have said what you expressed any better. I think your comments are entirely on the target!
Dana
That was very well said Joe. I have NEVER been one who feels the future looks dire. However, I see that as opportunity. In turn, your take on how leadership responds, to this change and pressure could not be more accurate.
Leaders seem to me to have been losing touch with what they are responsible for, which is to ignite and rally others to get the job done.
There are as many ways to accomplish this as there are leaders, but the tendancy since the economy first tanked (and continuing still) has been to be more focused on how to generate more revenue to right the ship, when the target should instead be on innovating, value-adding and customer catering.
In other words, leadership alone cannot a successful business make.
Leadership with a purpose and carefully defined goal (that’s specific, flexible, realistic, and due-dated) will accomplish more.
Productivity has as much to do with purpose as with those fulfilling the mission. Effective leadership starts with clear definition of purpose.
NOW is the time to define 2010.
Good topic, Doyle. Thanks.
Best for ‘10! Hal
Dead on Hal! As the pressure increases the pure manager/leaders get sorted out and the rest are cast aside.
I agree a big issue with leadership is the inability to make the tough call. That has often been the case. But how about going in a different direction? I see a big issue with leadership is too much focus on numbers and painfully little on behavior. Numbers only give hints as to what is happening in the business. Understanding behavior gives you the ‘why’ behind the numbers.
The problem that we face today with leadership are leaders who lead for one simple reason, power.
Here is a question for all of you. What airline has been operating in the black for nearly 30 years now? Southwest, why because of one simple fact, Servant Leadership. No one is bigger than the organization. Employees are empowered to make decisions and act on the strategies and goals set forth by executives. Here is another question; Colleen Barrett is the current past CEO of Southwest. What was her role prior to the CEO position that she held? Executive Assistant to the CEO. Colleen lead the organization for over 5 years and under her watch Southwest saw growth and profits while other airlines filed for bankruptcy went out of business or simply merged with other airlines. I saw one of the comments above where a Level 5 reference was made. Here is a thought, over half of the Level 5 organizations mentioned in Tom Peters book either filed for bankruptcy or took TARP. Not one servant lead organization took TARP or filed for bankruptcy last year or in 2008. Pretty amazing!!
If organizations want to be successful in this millennium something needs to change. We and the rest of the world cannot continue to bail these companies out. Leadership needs to change and why not look to something that is already proven and working–Servant Leadership.
I agree with Jason 100 percent! True we need leadership like never before. I feel the reason for that is that many forgot what leadership is all about. The greatest leader is the greatest servant.
-kory
I think that in general as a society we lack the idea that EVERYONE is a leader. No matter what anyone says they must make decisions for themselves the those decisions will affect others.
Until this is taken into account I think much of society will stay stagnant while others that understand there is no escape from taking a leadership role will excel.
There are many problems with leaders. Excellent, uncompromising character is certainly one, as well as the many others mentioned here.
But you asked what the biggest problem is and the solution.
Over the past 15 years or so,organizations have been cutting “middle management”. In many cases for good reason by the way. All the while the workforce is aging. The senior leaders, who took on more responsibility, are starting to retire. Partly because of the increased responsibility and lack of middle management positions, they have neglected to focus on developing new leaders. This either has or will create a “leadership gap”, where the upcoming workforce doesn’t have the skill sets to lead. This is leading to a crisis, which some CEO’s and one government head I spoke with understand.
To address the crisis, some organizations, including government agencies, are creating “leadership institutes”. Essentially developing non-management employees to assume these roles.
The solution? Organizations must identify who their future leaders will be and engage them, even if they don’t have a management position available, now.
Training will be very important but not by itself. The leadership skills that are taught must be broken down into specific skills that have desired outcomes attached, and then practiced. There are follow-up strategies that can accomplish this but it must be focused.
This is a good topic and I’ll be interested to hear your assessment, as well as the others.
Best Regards,
Bob Branson
The probem with today’s leaders are as echoed in a few of the threads above already… and they are:
1. all about power
2. too short term focused
3. lack of inspiration and
4. It’s all about how many followers
The reality is that good leadership comes from the need to serve. It is not about the number of followers but rather the number you serve and inspire. And any of the great leaders will alway tends to demonstrate such traits.
As in most challenges, there is not just one big problem, but rather numerous smaller elements that create the performance gaps and these are different in size and nature. Self leadership of individuals is one element because if you cannot lead yourself you cannot lead anyone else. Not knowing what the desired results are. This may be because of failed communication to no or poor planning. Lack of alignment between strategy, structure, processes, rewards and people is another element. Drucker is quote as saying “Leadership is all about results.” I agree with him but must add this caveat – “Embracing and Using clearly articulated positive core values.”
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This is a big subject, and can give you content for all of 2010.
I recently discussed a lack of leadership in developing strategies that are market driven versus something cooked up internally in my blog : http://tiny.cc/W6UGf.
If the strategy is off, you can not “manage” your way to winning.
Mark Alllen Roberts
Yes, we have a leadership problem. In a word: Ego.
Mason and others have intimated as much with their word, “power.” Yet, it all comes down to ego.
When one’s ego is driving the car, leadership will always take a back seat.
Listening and empowering others provides an immediate rest stop to park the ego.
Great topic, Doyle! Happy New Year
Poppy,
You took a different spin on this than I did, however, my 35 years of experience working with leaders suggests you may have the best answer so far.
Hopefully someone that fits your description will read your post and make a change. I’ve seen it happen before.
Thanks.
All of you have given wonderful responses to the problem with many leaders, so I don’t need to repeat.
On the flip side – in order to provide GOOD, STRONG leadership – a leader must be ethical, compassionate and have a vision for the LONG-TERM.
A good leader must look into the future and help develop other leaders who will also think long-term.
It is doing right in the long term, (as opposed to a short term, instant gratification mind set) that creates consistent growth and stability in ANY facet of life (economically, politically, personally, etc.)
The biggest challenge that we face today is society’s desire for instant fulfillment instead of having patience for better rewards later. And until we all change our thinking, we will only accept leaders that give us this type of immediate satisfaction.
I believe the problem is that many leaders are still looking over their shoulders waiting for someone else to …well…lead. We are no longer in a position where we have the luxury to wait for someone else to lead the way – we as leaders must take personal responsibility and begin to move in the direction necessary.
I believe there are several issues and not just one big issue with leadership (or lack thereof). It can start when the top performer, and for the sake of this forum – the top salesperson, is “rewarded” for a job well done with the “prize” being a management position. A top salesperson does not equate to being a top leader. One needs only to look to the sports arena for an example – some of the best coaches were in fact not the top athlete in their field. Yes, you can have a sound knowledge base from what you have learnt but, when it comes to being a successful coach, ex-athletes run the risk of flying by their reputation rather than the knowledge they have. The new sales “leader” will be no different. There is a difference between experience and knowledge. The key competencies for a top sales performer do not completely match the key competencies for a leader. A plumber doesn’t become an electrician from one day to the next.
Once the “prize” has been accepted, the snowball only gets bigger. If the new sales leader is to have a winning chance of being successful, a new “toolbox” needs to be provided by way of management and leadership training which is essential and should be further supported by regular coaching to ensure retention. If top athletes are always coached, organizational leaders should be as well. Whilst many organizational cultures still employ the mentality “if you can’t do this, then why did we hire you?”, others may impose this mentality only upon themselves. Then there is the fact that we live in a very ego-centric society where leadership is perceived as power. Unfortunately this is ill-used more often than not.
“Servant leadership requires listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, growth and building community.” These characteristics are also essential components of effective leadership – be that for ourselves, our families or our organizations.
In my observation (as a leader in my last organization), the greatest challenge leadership faces is corporate politics. There are any number of bright, innovative leaders out there who are stifled by the demands of their boards of directors (who are often far removed from the trenches and out of touch with the pulse of the business). The intense focus on stockholder value and the opinions of analysts can cause corporate glaucoma and hardening of the arteries. Innovation is risky and when times are challenging, risk aversion becomes the boundary line past which only the very brave will cross.
Embracing new technologies to create efficiencies, investing in training everyone who touches a client (or prospective client) and revising compensation plans to better reflect the company’s business priorities are all areas that I think demand the attention of leadership, but that too often get no more than lip service in meetings or written business plans.
My favorite example is what’s going on in domestic politics today. The Chinese and others clearly see the direction world energy demand is going and are way out front on developing the means to meet that demand. Meanwhile, the folks in DC bicker over whether or not the demand will be there and whether or not we should invest in becoming a player in this emerging market. It’s the same lunacy that created Asian superiority in the US auto business.
Some excellent answers so far. Again, Doyle manages to hit on a great topic!
I’ll twist this around though with a somewhat tongue-in-cheek digression.. Is the problem a lack of leadership, or the lack of followers? If everyone is supposed to be a leader, then who is left to implement the decisions that are made? In this “gotta have it now” society we’ve created, where most job titles are meaningless because everyone’s begins/ends in Manager or Director or Supervisor or Head (ie, the guy cooking the fries at the local McD’s is the “Head of Potato Preparation”), everyone seems to have a sense of entitlement to have the title, and confuse managing a process with leadership. It’s the corporate equivalent of doing away with small-medium-large and replacing with large-extralarge-supersize but keeping the package size the same….
Actually, I believe that great leadership is out there, and certainly in no shorter supply today than at any other time in history. In my opinion, the ability that exists today for young people to start companies (and ok, fail early and often doing so…) only improves the leadership pool of tomorrow as more people get more experience earlier. Those that develop the ability to attract and manage resources, whether monetary, human, tangible or intangible, will again reinforce the natural law of survivial of the fittest.
Last thought. Excluding perhaps spiritual leaders, what other great leader lacks an ego? If one doesn’t firmly believe at a base level that what one is doing is the right thing to do and you are the right person to do it, how do you convince others of that and to follow you? Hum, other than dangling a paycheck in front of them…:>)
There have been several excellent comments to this question and it’s a great topic.
In corporate America I think the biggest problem is a lack of strategic thinking caused by the massive layoffs / streamlining that have occured in corporate America since the 1990s. When I started my corporate career I remember that people would ask whether director level positions were “working” or “managing” director positions. Now, you would be hard pressed to find a director level position that is not a “working” position meaning the director is building the financial model, running the financial model, and then presenting the financial model. That’s not necessarily a bad thing by itself but with today’s workloads the vast majority do not have time for in-depth strategic thinking. They don’t have time to meet with their peer in marketing and operations to gain a different perspective. Thus, they are not as effective as leaders.
From BIG EGO to not knowing what to do once reaching leadership, to not making the hard calls, and forgetting that despite all the technology it is PEOPLE that make things work.
Interesting that I just pulled out my copy of Dale Carnegie “How to Win Friends & Influence People” this morning… maybe time to look back to look forward?
Thanks Doyle
I’m convinced that most people want to do what is right by their superiors, subordinates, colleagues, shareholders, partners, and so forth and be successful leaders.
Problem is, they don’t know how to lead. And they don’t know have any real mentors to learn from or emulate.
Being in a position of power is not the same a being a leader. You can’t be promoted into a leadership role either. But, more importantly, you don’t have to be in a position of power to lead. And once you are in a position of power then it’s important that you grow as a leader.
How to Grow as a Leader. http://bit.ly/6HsYNx
There’s a similar discussion in the Professionals in Pharmaceuticals and Biotech Industries group on LinkedIn – the premise is how many leaders, though, in your career you’ve encountered who are truly outstanding. Currently, the majority of responses are in the 2-5% range.
I personally do believe there is a massive leadership problem currently. Many people want to be viewed as leaders and believe it’s a skill that can be learned.
Most companies promote people who excel at selling, but are very poor intrinsic leaders. I’ve seen this countless times in my career. If someone is an excellent sales person, let them remain in their element. Putting an unnatural leader in a leadership role makes everyone frustrated.
Ultimately, in my industry, too many people in leadership roles are making decisions on areas of which they have no expertise (though they think they do). A marketing person who’s never sold shouldn’t be making decisions on how a sales person should do their job (and vice versa).
We need to find a way to leverage more people’s intrinsic leadership qualities (and we each have them) and put them to work for the collective good.
Thanks for the interesting discussion, Doyle.
Dana
One of my favorite topics, leadership. I will agree with 90% of the previous comments. Servant Leadership, dropping the ego, focus on outcomes and people, building people are all needed for strong leadership.
One thought, Flexibility in today’s world market, a long term plan might be 6 months and the entire market changes! Being able to adapt quickly and have the team ready to change at all times is more in demand than ever. This thinking is not always the norm,can be developed, but is seen in only a few.
The answer to all this, be continually building people and developing new leaders before they are needed. This may take years, but most business leaders put this as an after thought, rather than in the top 3 priorities. Wonder how many issues this lack of development creates?
I honestly believe that leadership is at a turning point in our market place. The only person that can change this is us. It starts with each person, if you cannot lead yourself, then who would follow you? It starts with character. If you build a strong foundation of character, people will follow. I just read 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell, what an awesome book! “Adversity is a crossroad that makes a person choose oneof two paths:character or compromise. Everytime he chooses character, he becomes stronger, even if that choice brings negative consequences.”
A lot of great dialog –
My two cents is simply this, I don’t think we lack great leaders, I find that we lack consistency in great followers, and leaders who are willing to uphold their levels of expectations.
Year after year I find that as leaders we have continued to lower the bar in staffing and development, lowering our expectations as the workforce has changed and resources continue to be squeezed.
If I know the industry average for the position I’m hiring for is 60K, and my resources based on budget are no greater than 45K, chances are I will have to lower my standards in order to fill the position based on what the budget allows. In a better scenario, I should look for the diamond in the rough, and put forth the effort to DEVELOP that individual, but many times as leaders we make the choice to simply settle for a less qualified candidate and not put forth the effort.
As it relates to great followers, I find that many do have the expectation, as others have mentioned, that they should be leading the team, or “I should be a director already, I’ve been here for 8 years”. What happened to working your tail off, showing worth, raising profitability, growing the business, and thus growing your opportunity to become a Director or VP?
In my business, I am focusing on culture, changing the way we operate as a team, and re-establishing the minimum expectations – NO more back slide, we run as a team, or you don’t run with us!
Again, great dialog!
Great points given. I believe we have forgotten how to lead as a result of worrying too much about all other issues that have nothing to do with leading. The CEO has a job that requires him/her to follow the mission statement and to make a profit for the company. If the mission statement doesn’t address why the company is in business then there will be no path to follow.
Most companies forgot why they are in business and then what to do to insure in reaching that goal. The employees are not committed to reaching the goal either: they worry about everything but why they were hired. CEOs are then babysitters, forgetting the goal. And, since self has been injected into the equation, we loose sight of civility and the purpose for the company: to reach its goal while turning a profit.
The biggest problem we have throughout all industries is that leadership has become short sighted. Our world evolve on a quarter by quarter basis. We have lost our ability to think and to have a long term strategic view. I think most of our financial incentives are short term in nature and we drive behavior in that same manner. In the sales world, it could mean the difference of getting the right client for our company (one that drives long term value, alignment, etc) for a short term quick hit that could cost the company more in the long run. Incentives need to be aligned in such a way that we encourage profitability and balance.
Do We Have a Leadership Problem? http://bit.ly/53DGm1 #news #sales
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RT @SalesBlogcast Do We Have a Leadership Problem? http://bit.ly/4J9W2b #sales
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RT @SalesBlogcast Do We Have a Leadership Problem? http://bit.ly/4J9W2b #sales
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RT @SalesBlogcast Do We Have a Leadership Problem? http://bit.ly/4vEAxy
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RT @SalesBlogcast Do We Have a Leadership Problem? http://bit.ly/4vEAxy
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RT @SalesBlogcast Do We Have a Leadership Problem? http://bit.ly/4vEAxy
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RT @SalesBlogcast Do We Have a Leadership Problem? http://bit.ly/4vEAxy
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http://bit.ly/4vEAxy
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RT @SalesBlogcast Do We Have a Leadership Problem? http://bit.ly/4vEAxy
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Nice post: RT @SalesBlogcast Do We Have a Leadership Problem? http://bit.ly/4vEAxy
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RT @SalesBlogcast Do We Have a Leadership Problem? http://bit.ly/4vEAxy
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RT @SalesBlogcast Do We Have a Leadership Problem? http://bit.ly/92noS9
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RT @PoppyATR: RT @SalesBlogcast Do We Have a Leadership Problem? http://bit.ly/92noS9. I say, “yes.” Problem = ego.
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Do We Have a Leadership Problem? RT @PoppyATR http://bit.ly/92noS9. I say, “yes.” Problem = ego.
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RT @SalesBlogcast Do We Have a Leadership Problem? http://bit.ly/92noS9
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