What Makes a Leader?
Successful companies and organizations spend a lot of resources to hire and keep good CEOs and people who can lead various departments, teams and projects.
There can be a difference between management and leadership. Many middle management jobs tend to be bureaucratic exercises involving record keeping, communicating deadlines on work, violations of job descriptions and administering organization policy on timeliness and behavior on the job.
Being a leader goes beyond those expectations.
America has been blessed with leaders over the centuries who have arrived at critical times in our history and led the country through difficult times, generally ending in success.
I’m not just talking about government, although real leaders have played key roles in that arena. We’ve had great leaders emerge in business, health care and education that have changed our lives and made us a better, healthier and a more prosperous society.
So, what makes an effective leader?
In attempting to answer that question Peter Drucker, a well-known and renowned business and education consultant and writer, outlined the following eight practices of effective leaders in his experience and research:
- They asked, “What needs to be done?”
- They asked, “What is right for the enterprise?”
- They developed action plans.
- They took responsibility for decisions.
- They took responsibility for communicating.
- They were focused on opportunities rather than problems.
- They ran productive meetings.
- They thought and said “we” rather than “I.”
Answering the first question is critical. And it is very different from the question “What do I want to do?” Too often that latter question and the answer get executives and their organization in trouble. There are few things more mortifying than to think you’re a leader, get out in front of everyone/thing you’re responsible for and find yourself alone.
Answering the ‘what needs to be done’ question means a leader will honestly assess the operation, employees and customers – and the governmental and competitive environment.
One of the people I’ve always considered a guru of executive leadership was Jack Welch, after he became CEO at General Electric and led to it be one of the world’s biggest and most successful companies. In answering that first question he set a list of priorities – things that needed to be done before anything else. He also did not try to address that list of priorities by himself. He took personal responsibility for the top one or two priorities and delegated the rest.
One of the characteristics of all true leaders is high expectations of results by the people working for them. Welch had a reputation for being ‘ruthless’ when it came to getting desired results and released (fired) those people who did not adequately fulfill their responsibilities and objectives. The people who effectively worked with him shared in the rewards of accomplishment – both in promotions and compensation.
There are many great leaders in the history books. One of them was Napoleon Bonaparte. Several things made him so – and are present in all good and effective leaders.
- He aimed high – never settling for “good enough.”
- He was present where and when he was needed.
- He was willing to “get his hands dirty.” He didn’t ask of others anything he wouldn’t do himself.
- He didn’t deliver any empty promises – meaning simply, “say what you mean and mean what you say.”
When I look around in 2021 and assess our governmental, business and education leaders, I see major voids in each.
I see so-called government leaders who do not take responsibility for their decisions. Too often we hear ‘blame’ for mistakes made by somebody else. I do not believe anyone raises him/herself by tearing/talking down another person or group. The role of a career politician doesn’t interest real leaders for long.
I see too many business CEOs who cater to the current whims of the government and the media – and lose focus on their people and their customers – and trend toward “stakeholder capitalism.” (see https://spiderinstitute.com/woke-capitalism) I see some major corporations publicly supporting partisan politicians and partisan leanings. How that attitude and approach fits business objectives is obscure to me.
Along with the current administration’s directives that all government employees – including the military – participate in required CRT training, corporations have entered the ‘race to disunity’ arena big time – now commonly called “inclusion, equity and diversity” training. In that training all employees must agree that white people are privileged oppressors. It’s not training, it’s indoctrination.
I see states and cities where recent decisions have resulted in the loss of property, personal safety, livability, and confidence by their citizens. Many who can afford to move, leave, including potential leaders, who might have made a positive difference in those communities and states.
I see educators who have taken up the banner of a history rewrite and ideology over the Three Rs of basic schooling. “Reading, writing, and arithmetic” seem to be secondary to what they expect from schools – and certainly not what we or parents expect. Many of our public-school systems are failing and there’s little or no accountability for it. Too many high school graduates can’t read to any acceptable life-serving level. Our students’ academic achievement and acumen is falling against most other countries – where the US now ranks 26th out of 34 OECD countries in math, 21st in science and 17th in reading. At the same time, we rank 5th in K-12 spending per student.
We seem to have a dearth of leaders – and we sorely miss them.
What will it take to get real leaders to the fore again?
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Have a great and prosperous week.
Hug somebody.
References:
https://hbr.org/2004/06/what-makes-an-effective-executive
https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/4-actions-to-be-a-good-leader-during-covid-19-disruption/
SPIDER Bites
Amid all the noise re: the Afghan debacle and COVID mandates, our largest economic rival, China, is using strong-arm tactics on Western companies operating there. The major issues are zero COVID tolerance, tariffs, climate, change and China’s bent on government ownership of businesses. The differences between the two country’s economic approach to the issues may result in major losses to the US if we continue the trend to try to control our businesses. China sees us as weak now and is more than willing to take advantage of that assessment. Many of our supply chains for various products are dependent on China.
HHS launched a program last week to ration the distribution of monoclonal antibodies – an apparent effective treatment for COVID and prescribed by many physicians. The program cuts the widely used treatment to seven southern states with Republican governors. Hospitals and Medical Societies are alarmed, to say the least. This should not be a political football. If there’s not enough supply, increase it!
SpaceX launched another 51 ‘Starlink’ satellites last week. That satellite system is meant to share information in space without land-based stations. It’s part of Elon Musk’s dream of making space a tourism destination and expanding use of the internet. He also put another four civilians in orbit on Wednesday, recovered them last night. BTW, the satellite launch on Monday recovered the first stage booster of the Falcon 9 rocket for the 10th time, landing again on the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You. Science fiction is becoming reality.
California voters decided to keep their governor. People sometimes get what they deserve.
Just in case you missed it, following another Biden EO, the Dept. of Health and Human services launched the new “Office of Climate Change and Health Equity” (OCCHE) on August 30. The purpose of the new operation is to address the effects of climate change on public health. Rest assured the new office will find climate change is not good for our health. ‘Mandates’ likely to follow.
For all you iPhone lovers, the 13 came out last week – same price as the 12. At the same time, imported food in August is up 10% year over year. Domestic food prices are up 5.4%. Oil climbed to $72/barrel last week – the average price/barrel a year ago was $41. Feeling it? Since we’re all having so much fun, let’s have our reps spend more of what we don’t have and make it worse.
Researchers at the U. of Kent (UK) have uncovered the universal mathematical formula to describe any bird’s egg existing in nature, a feat which had not been achieved. Because of the structural soundness and other ‘perfect’ characteristics of eggs, engineers can now build egg-shaped cargo ships and barges and other stuff. BTW, the new universal mathematical formula for egg shape is based on four parameters: egg length, maximum breadth, shift of the vertical axis, and the diameter at one quarter of the egg length (sphere, ellipsoid, ovoid, and pyriform [conical]).
