When it comes to developing leaders and leadership skills, a client of ours wrote in an article, “I’m a sucker for a good management fad…and I like my leadership theories delivered from the mouth of fashionable deities. Give me a good guru at a country retreat any day.” Well in the leader and leadership business he’s got plenty to choose from, both ancient and modern, from Lao Tzu through to Jack Welch.
It’s been said that leaders transform and managers maintain. Leaders are all about change, whereas managers are all about maintenance, efficiency and stability. Warren Bennis wrote that most losing organisations are over-managed and under-led. He said, “Their managers accomplish the wrong things beautifully. Managing is about efficiency. Leading is about effectiveness.”
We design and run specialised programmes to develop leadership skills with individuals, and a leadership ethic in organisations as varied as distilleries and hospital trusts. The successful organisations of the future will be, as they have always been, those where leadership is a prized and valued commodity.
Thinking about leaders, how does your organisation fare in this leadership quiz?
If you answered no to more than a couple of the questions, then you should give us a call. We will listen sympathetically and uncritically to what you see as the leadership issues for your organisation and discuss the kinds of solutions that would be productive for you.
So pick up the phone or send us an e-mail now.
Admitting there might be a problem is the first step to solving it.