Authentic Leadership
Exceptional times demand exceptional leadership.
And make no mistake about it, these are unprecedented times.
Our world is more joined up and interdependent than it has ever been before. Information spreads at digital speed and no economy is immune or unaffected by the force, velocity or impact that decisions can have.
In the past a good management team and a strong brand were good enough to ‘get by’; in the new world these strengths alone will solve little.
Let’s be explicit. By management we mean strategy, process, procedure, task, execution, KPIs etc. Everybody practices management now and it is readily available to all. Each and every aspect of management has become commoditised and all your competitors have similar access and are subsequently playing by similar rules.
They are no longer a differentiator and they no longer cover the cracks of a failing business.
Many of the great British corporate institutions still cannot escape the pull of the past and even now in a time of crisis they look for answers from their history and from previous experience; breeding an approach of slowly “making sure” and not wanting to lose.
But looking backwards counts for nothing if the business terrain is new. In unprecedented times the only way out of the darkness is leadership. And authentic, inspired leadership at that.
By leadership, we mean – vision, people, teams, culture. If management is the hardware then leadership is the software.
It is how you inspire your people towards your vision and naturally create more leaders for the organisation, in a virtuous circle that means the best of the best talent continues to be drawn towards the business.
Underpinned by the central tenets of positive outlook, optimism and passion, leadership is about balancing EQ (emotional quotient or intelligence) with IQ. If management is what you do then leadership is how you feel when you’re doing it.
What has become apparent is that it is imperative not to waste a good crisis because THIS is the time to re-invent your culture and unleash the leadership within organisations.
Let’s be clear. When all around are polishing their management books and tweaking processes to try and make sure that mistakes aren’t going to happen again, the best of the best are inspiring their people into giving that extra 15% discretionary effort and asking the magic words,
“What do you think?”
The answers to the problems for most businesses lie within the organisation itself and yet time and again their people are rarely consulted and rarely listened to.
If they did the game could change forever.