leading leadership
What is lead leadership?
According to Wikipedia, a meek is “any entity in a given domain that serves to create or influence trends or foreshadow future events.”
That definition serves the subject of this article well, as what I hope to convey are those leadership qualities most conducive to influencing others for positive change.
Interestingly, the etymology of the word “spring” is more instructive, even profound. One story goes that English shepherds used to use a castrated ram, also known as a wether – to help manage the herd. Despite the Ram’s lost manhood, the flock of sheep, not knowing any better, followed him anyway. To make it easier to locate the flock in large fields or thick fog, the shepherds hung a bell around the ram’s neck. Hence the term barometer.
Today’s multinational business environment is gripped by a storm of financial instability, a thick fog of indecision, and a terrifying lack of leadership. Today’s executives and entrepreneurs must weather this storm. They must lead those who choose to follow them with courage, inventiveness, innovation and vigor. Most importantly, they must lead from a position earned through effectiveness and reliability, not simply dictated by their CEO title.
A good example of this is IBM. Bridget van Kralingen, general manager of IBM North America, explained in a recent Forbes article: “If you go back about a quarter century, IBM was at the pinnacle of success,” she began. “Over the previous two decades we had virtually invented general-purpose computing for business. We had helped put a man on the moon. Our researchers won Nobel prizes. Our revenue and market share skyrocketed as customers clamored for our latest products. By 1984, they were the toast of Wall Street.”
“Less than a decade later,” he continued, “we were fried. In 1993 we posted what was at the time the largest loss in corporate American history, $8 billion. We had missed a number of key technological changes. Customers …we were being abandoned for faster, more agile competitors. One major business publication labeled us a dinosaur. Another said our era had passed.”
“Finding our way back to growth and success was a difficult and painful process,” he concluded. “But it illustrates that companies on the brink can turn things around if they do what’s necessary.”
What is necessary for reference leadership?
Courage: Doing what is necessary often means instituting fundamental change, and change can be scary.
Furthermore, leadership presupposes leading from the front. You can’t run your company from the side, or from a comfortable office separate from your followers. They need to see you on the battlefield, bravely risking yourself for them. An effective leader should never ask his co-workers to do something he is not willing to do himself. Leadership worthy of the term requires courage, because courage inspires.
Inventiveness: Being successful as a leader means never giving up. Failure is not an option. If you have resources, you can always find a tool to solve the problem. Your task as a leader is to find appropriate, inexpensive, multifunctional tools (learn how to use them yourself) and then teach your followers to be experts too. Having done this, you will find that your coworkers bring you solutions, not problems.
Social Media is the Swiss Army knife of the online toolbox. Whether your goal is to expand your customer base, build your reputation, beat your competition, provide timely and efficient customer service, or reduce your cost of doing business, there is easily accessible functionality for that purpose.
Finally, diligence and creativity require you to constantly review technology, always looking for the next tool to increase your effectiveness and efficiency.
Innovation: There is nothing as powerful as a new idea.
Leadership is much more than a skill; it is a perpetual mental process, creative and infectious. The resulting innovations are the hallmark of inspiring leaders.
Your mental discipline is best used when you are always pushing the outside of the envelope, and your organization’s reach must always exceed your reach. An effective leader is never satisfied with the status quo.
Companies like Apple have conclusively demonstrated that innovation is the most reliable weapon in the corporate arsenal. Without it, a company stagnates, and with it, a company becomes remarkable. Innovation is the shortest path to profit, the most direct path to brand recognition, and the most satisfying reward for both your employees and management.
Vigor: Physical or mental strength, energy, the capacity for natural growth and survival, strong feelings, enthusiasm, intensity and even legal effectiveness and validity are elements of vigor.
An effective leader must approach every task, every decision, and every competitive situation with strength and resilience. He must create an atmosphere of corporate well-being and must inspire his co-workers to do the same. He must exude passion for his work, his company and his mission. Most important, a vigorous leader is always ready for action, and action is always the harbinger of success.
