I used this engine – train metaphor to stress the importance of investing in leadership development. One guy cleverly pointed out that often the engines push the train so that, in fact, the train can get to the destination before the engine.
While I wasn’t sure what point he was making, it was that very night I listened to a newscast about the sad situation where the guy deliberately parked his car on the tracks causing a terrible wreck and several needless deaths. In the analysis of the event, a new policy was suggested that engines should always lead passenger trains. In this case the engine was pushing and if it had been in front, they said, the situation would not have been nearly as tragic.
You hate to overuse metaphors where human tragedy is involved, but folks I want to come back to the reality that it really is all about leadership. We’ve spent years mucking around trying to fix something down there among the rail cars; investing in the most technologically advanced cars; running around the country looking for ‘best practice’ rail cars and on and on we’ve gone. Where we need to be investing is in our leadership engines.
From decades of working with senior executive teams around the world I’ve concluded there are five essential elements for a high-performance leadership engine:
• A Crystal Clear Corporate Vision (I
don’t mean the neutered generic mush we see most of the time where
an organization wants to be the biggest, best, richest, etc. I mean a statement
of destiny and higher purpose so compelling it literally makes those who
work there tremble with awe and gratitude.)
• Unassailable Unity and Collaboration (Most corporate struggles are self-inflicted
wounds caused by the lack of unity among leaders. This silo-mentality is hurting
your bottom line big time and there's absolutely no need for it. Senior teams
especially need to be able to deal with the most difficult of issues and come
away more energized and unified than they began.)
• Contagious Passion and Inspiration (I'll go so far as to say that if
one isn't inspiring others, one isn't leading. Passion isn't some chore where
you serve employees pancakes and wear the "Come alive in '05" sweatshirt.
Passion comes from the soul. It's there...it just needs permission to be visible.)
• Courageous Innovation (This observation may hurt, but I've concluded
that it’s not the rank and file most resistant to change...its managers,
especially senior managers. Notice I didn't use the word 'leaders', because leaders
are by definition innovators. They go ahead of everyone. If your company is running
around looking for "best practice" it is likely that innovation is
one of your weak points.
• Strategic Wisdom (I continue to be puzzled as to why ‘wisdom’ isn’t
part of daily business jargon. Look at your management competencies and I’ll
bet money ‘wisdom’ isn’t listed. And yet if we could wish for
one thing, wouldn't it be to know our decisions were truly wise?)
Pretty simple stuff, don’t you think? So why does leadership continue to be such a challenge? The answer is found in what drives “leaders” today – and this is where things get very, very scary.
In March of 2004 a report came out (I got it from the St. Louis Dispatch) on what motivates Fortune 1,000 CEOs. Brace yourself…in the number one spot with a shocking 43% was FEAR!
22% said they were motivated by “Power.” That’s a misuse of the word power, what they really meant was “Force.” In third place with 7% was “Money.”
So what is leadership all about these days? Fear, Force and Finances. And we wonder why we have trouble enlisting the unfathomable spirit of our people to fulfill our corporate goals?
This really gets my juices going because until
we show people how to replace ‘fear’ with purpose, organizations
will continue a futile struggle not with an external marketplace or with
competitors – but with themselves. If the engine has no purpose, the
train ain’t goin’ nowhere.
Speaking of Leadership — please check out one of the most results-oriented
and mind-expanding executive development programs available today. Go to www.transformationalexecutiveevents.com expecially
if you're on a senior team. If not consider frowarding this site to your CEO.
It really is an amazing program. Thanks. IDP