What can organizations do to position themselves for success in turbulent times? Most people offer an obvious and simple answer: we need to develop effective leaders. I agree we should keep things simple, just not this simplistic. Developing effective leaders is a simplistic response to a difficult question, and it has fueled an unbalanced leader-centric focus in the United States. Let’s take a look.
Organizations from all sectors sponsor development initiatives designed to produce the organizational leaders of tomorrow. But what about
Organizations must accept turbulence as a given. Hyper change, new technologies, industry disruptions, and new business models are some of the elements defining these turbulent times. Let me offer the beer industry as an example since I was in Belgium, and Belgian beer is a thing.
Sitting at an outdoor café in Brussels, sampling a flight of Belgium beers, pretending to be a connoisseur knowing the difference between a Trappist and Abbey beer, I realized that this wasn’t the watered-down
Effective leaders and managers both positively impact the leadership process. They are both critical for long-term superior organizational performance. Unfortunately, the internet and social media have bombarded us with GIFs, memes, articles, and TED talks that glorify leaders at the expense of managers.
The pendulum of popularity has swung dramatically from valuing managers to valuing leaders. And while the importance and value of leaders should continue to be highlighted, it shouldn’t continue in a manner that devalues and marginalizes managers.
Excellence continues its reign as the most sought-after goal. Manufacturing excellence. Sales excellence. Marketing excellence. Leadership excellence. Personal excellence. You get the point, excellence in everything. But here’s the thing: excellence shouldn’t be the focus, the pursuit of excellence should. Recognizing this subtle shift in focus requires an understanding of the different types of goals.
Too often, people and organizations only set outcome goals, the lag indicators of focused effort, not the lead indicators. Trophies, titles, and awards, or market share,
High performers are people who reliably get the right results, the right way. Day in and day out, year after year, they add value. There is no secret sauce, proprietary method, or hack that will magically transform you into a high performer. It is consistency of effort, results, and behavior.
Sports have taught me a lot of invaluable lessons, but one that all athletes understand is that the game does not care who you are. The game does not care