LEADERSHIP FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

LEADERSHIP FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

By Tommy Franks, Ph.D.

The same old "same ole" type leadership for the last century will not be productive for this century! Fear tactics, intimidation, domination, manipulation, threats, and Napoleon tyranny will simply NOT work anymore! Now, we come to the question…Are leaders born or made? Most experts cannot agree on the answer to this question; however, they do agree that leadership is a set of learnable experiences and that exceptional leaders are learners.

I believe that Leadership Development is a process of self-development. The very first element of leadership is to discover who we are and where we are going. If we don't KNOW where we are going, how can we expect anyone to follow?

We are all unique individuals! Most of us do not see ourselves as others see us. This is simply a human fact. All of us, especially me, have some blind spots that can sometimes hinder our ability as leaders. Leader Development requires continuous probing of our blind spots. For this, we need the help of others.

In today's world, we sometimes see both a leader's strengths and weaknesses, yet we find it difficult to tactfully or constructively bring this information to the leader's attention. We fear punitive backlash or fallout. If we acquiesce and say nothing, it's a lose/lose situation for everyone!In the past century, only the direct supervisor gave this kind of feedback, but in today's world, people are working across departmental, functional, and cultural boundaries. We have customers everywhere…both inside and outside the organization from every type of background.

We now work more closely with teams than with supervisors. The view from above is somewhat limited and certainly will be different from the views/perceptions of peers, teammates, customers, and subordinates. Yet these are the people who most often are affected by the leader's performance.An assessment in leadership competencies are (in fact) measurable!

The first question is: What is important to our organization? How do we treat others? What is our attitude toward the customer environment? What are our values for the organization? When we answer these questions, we will identify those categories of leadership behaviors which are important to our organization's success.

Some experts say that we can create group norms for the entire organization and then compare individual performances to the group norm. The only problem with this type of thinking is…The group must have high standards and values.Jim Whittaker (the first American to climb Mount Everest) said, "You never conquer the mountain. You only conquer yourself."Leaders are NOT just born. They are made through discipline, hard work, inter-personal skills, people skills, education, training, life experiences, and a high value system. Can they be developed? Yes! Do we want to develop leaders? Absolutely!

As we mentor others, they will grow in leadership skills, practices, and traits that will be more effective in our organization and will be ready to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow.Developing leadership in our Command is an investment with tremendous and significant returns. In these precarious times, skilled leaders will provide the customer advantage for successful organizations to reach their maximum potential and productivity. Training and mentoring leaders help to inspire the entire workforce to become more effective, efficient, competent, successful, energetic, and visionary for the challenging days ahead.

Success in the workplace/marketplace during this century depends on more than just meeting traditional goals and targets. Success in today's complex environment also demands a new kind of leadership, such as: creative problem solving, visionary strategies, strategic thinking, Encouraging and Inspiring Others, motivational management by participation, creating networks of relationships (within and outside the organization), Teamwork, and communicating effectively with a wide variety of people.Success indicators are increasingly becoming part of the leader's performance expectations. It is not enough to measure only what was done, but also how it was accomplished. However, this is more difficult to measure in traditional performance management systems because they are currently based on numerical objectives, targets, and results.

Many organizations in the future will add multi-rater feedback on critical competencies to their performance management systems. This will emphasize the importance of "how results" are achieved. This feedback will be from team members, customers, colleagues, and subordinates. This emphasis will encourage development of individuals to become better leaders with acceptable behaviors.

Today, let's look at two important concepts in sound leadership…efficiency and effectiveness. Leaders/managers must be able to focus on these two essentials. Busy leaders must manage their time and direct it to things that count for success in their organizations and in their personal lives.In short, leaders/managers should use efficient means to achieve effective results. They do things right, but also do the right things. We must be able to distinguish between the two. This is critical to organizing efforts.

Efficiency means doing things right. We use its tools to achieve effectiveness. It disciplines the pursuit of effectiveness, so that the price is not too high. Efficiency emphasizes form and process. It addresses how well we accomplished something, but not necessarily its substance; ie., clearly defined procedures, streamlined operations, timely and accurate information, and well-maintained equipment.Effectiveness means doing the right things. It stresses substance of the outcome: A worthy cause, challenging objectives that support the mission, our focus on priorities, quality products that customers want/accept.

Efficiency and effectiveness go hand-in-hand. Effectiveness is difficult to achieve without efficient ways of managing. Efficiency is irrelevant unless applied to worthwhile pursuits. Killing flies with a sledgehammer may be effective, but it’s not very efficient. Timely and accurate reports may indicate efficiency, but if unnecessary, they contribute nothing to effectiveness. Therefore, effectiveness is paramount! It's senseless to do things right if they're not the right things.

Those who pursue efficiency for its own sake betray their own lack of vision and perspective. They live in a world of narrow views and immature solutions… deficiencies that visionary leaders cannot tolerate.If efficiency becomes an end in itself, it can replace effectiveness as the ultimate goal. The two may become antagonistic rather than complementary. If they conflict, they can tear down the moral fabric of organizations. Lacking a focus on effectiveness, people may work hard, yet achieve little. They'll drift into the so-called activity trap. This occurs when an organization lacks a worthy mission or its leadership fails to clarify goals or demonstrate commitment to achieving them.