Leadership continues to be the hottest topic of conversation in business today.
It’s no wonder it’s become such a growth industry; it also appears that everyone is an expert on it with varied levels of experiences. I think the days of judging leaders solely by their experience and ages are numbered.
I believe the most important people in any organization are its leaders. This is contrary to what I learned many years ago when the mantra was that people were the most important thing. While this is not incorrect, I’ve learned to recognize that leaders are the people that communicate and supervise the delivery of the organizational strategy designed for growth and the service of all its clients.
Leaders are the points of connection with the internal customer which in turn deliver goods and services that ultimately bring about organizational growth and personal wealth.
The old leadership development programs that focused solely on traits and attributes requires scrutiny as resources become scarce and businesses look to reduce costs on overhead, particularly in their payroll.
A much more productive approach is the design of leader development programs that are directly linked to the organizational vision and specific mission. Having well-articulated goals that are measured and tied to organizational systems and processes make for a better recipe for achieving and improving results at the appropriate levels of any organization. Here is a logical starting point:
Leadership & Business Management
· Assess. Know your talent. While talent is not enough; it’s important to understand how
leaders prefer o behave, what drives them and what they consider important in their
decision making process
· Develop. Grow your leaders through well-developed growth programs; these must be tied
to your goal achievement processes
· Align. Leaders must know their function. They must be your experts, the ones that teach
and supervise your internal systems that deliver goods and services to your clients
· Achieve. Achieve results through improved performance. Employ the right set of metrics
to measure goal accomplishments
