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written on May 11, 2007
Revised and
Updated on July 07, 2008
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Secrets of Successful
Leadership
Very often
people ask the secrets of successful leadership. We have
provided the words of wisdom of two wise men. However, all
successful people in all fields have one common quality across
the board which is, the ability to implement the decisions
taken, quickly. The first major problem is that many in this
world do not take decisions, keep dilly-dallying or
vacillating or delaying or take very quick and impetuous
decisions without thinking about the resultant consequences.
Some of them can't take decisions at all. All
decisions carry risks. The risks have to be minimized. That's
all a leader can do. Decisiveness is the most important
quality of a leader according to Mr.
Lee Iacocca.
The second major
problem is that once the decisions are taken, the
implementation is neither quick, nor carried out properly.
This is often the case with large, democratic and bureaucratic
set ups. This is the single most important reason as to
why individual driven, autocratic organizations are more
successful in any field. However, the risk of failure is also
high. The reason is when the leader fades away from the
scene, the organization stumbles. It is very difficult to
replace such great entrepreneurial leaders. Individual driven
organizations do not have the inherent capacity to develop
leaders, because the potential leaders get eclipsed, however
good they might be. Many management thinkers and academics
paint the picture that being autocratic is bad. It is not
completely so. If you want to implement decisions, you have to
be autocratic.
Wal-Mart
is a typical example of such an organization after the demise
of Mr. Sam Walton. If it has grown very big after his
departure, it is due to the large momentum gained.
Professional driven organizations do not experience problem of
such nature. GE is one such organization after the departure
of Dr. Jack
Welch. Mr. Jeffrey Immelt is doing an equally good job
under the changed circumstances, but he can't be called a
charismatic leader. It is not necessary to be charismatic to
be a good business leader. Mr. Donald Peterson had the
charisma of a 'dead mackerel' according to Dr. Pascale in the
book 'Managing on the Edge'. Unfortunately, the school led by
Burt Namus and others have stressed too much on
charisma. Professionally managed large organizations have one
more advantage. One mediocre leader gets replaced by another
mediocre leader. The organization doesn't suffer much.
Charisma plays
an important role in the political field. John Kennedy,
Pierre Trudeau, Jawaharlal Nehru, Fidel Castro, Margaret
Thatcher, Indira Gandhi and Bill Clinton are such
charismatic political leaders. Implementation calls for
unique leadership qualities and the quote of the second
richest man in the world today is given in the banner above.
Compiled
and written by Madhavan T Gopalachary
The
views, opinions and interpretations are personal.
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Copyright, Jul-08
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