In yesterday's post, I said that we haven't really improved our leadership over the last few decades. So where did that come from? Simply put, from the data.
If you look at studies on leadership and on how effective leaders are, there hasn't been a significant improvement in leadership, at least from the view of the 'followers' over the past few decades. Yes, we've talked about it a lot, and we've bought a lot of books, but there really hasn't been a whole lot of change in behaviour.
If we want to change and reach a goal, we have to be honest with ourselves about where we are. Only then can we really move forward.
I think the major reasons things haven't changed are the systems - or to put it in plain English, it doesn't count. What drives almost all organizations, public and private sector both, are the financials. Did it make budget? Was it profitable? What was the return to shareholders?
Financials are only part of the picture, and if you take the balanced scorecard viewpoint, they are all about history, not about future performance. In addition to lagging indicators like financials that show you the past, you need leading indicators that will predict future performance, like leadership and corporate culture. Yet how many organizations annually measure leadership with 360-degree surveys. And of those that do, how many make it count as much as the financials? When push comes to shove, when it comes to making the quarterly dividends/budget or doing the right thing, the dividends win. How can we hope to have any change in those circumstances?
If we're truly going to change things, we have to be honest about where we are, measure where we are and where we're going, and make those measurements count. There's huge potential in this new year and to take advantage of that potential, we have to do things differently. If we want to grow leadership, we have to measure it, and hold people accountable for it.
That's my two cents. What do you think?


