Are you a leader of leaders? Ah leadership. Some might say that a leader needs to be a dictator. Some that a business leader needs to be a bit of a demagogue skilled in the art of politics who plays on people's desires and prejudices.
Truly effective leaders gets the right things done at the right time for the right reasons and take action based on facts or evidence. They know the benefit in creating leaders out of those who follow, which is being a leader of leaders. The point about the right time is particularly important. You cannot be everywhere at once. In business, as in life in general, timing is everything.
When a critical situation arises can it really be right for everything to wait while you get there or information is passed up the traditional chain of command and for a decision to come back down? Remembering what we said about the importance of situational awareness in the last blog, might it be better if people at the scene are empowered to take action?
To be those other leaders, everyone in the business must feel this is our business. That is, in both senses of the word. That is people both feel that they are truly part of the company or other organisation and, when they see a situation develop, that they are responsible for ensuring the necessary action is taken.
In the Flow & Feedback (2F) Diagram, below, the foundation for effective leadership anywhere in the organisation are the aims: the values, purpose and vision. A clear idea of what the organisation stands for, what is does for customers and where it is headed give leaders at any level strong guidance for taking timely, effective action.
Next time we will look at the next to last step in closing the feedback loop in the 2F diagram. That is, taking action to improve the situation that we call 'Processes to design and redesign the system'. Does that sound a bit dramatic? Well, you know what they say:
“If you always do what you’ve always done, you always get what you’ve always gotten.”
So see you next time, when once again I will draw on both my book Picture Your Business and on our new ebook Simply Manage. Picture Your Business is available from me priced £12.00+P&P. The latest version of the companion 2F Worksheet is now available free in MS Word or PDF on request from me either via a Linkedin message or emailing me.