Wednesday, May 11, 2011
So all I need is vision….right?
Really interesting article. This article outlines three key traits for effective leadership from a widely popular secular magazine. The article outlines that vision, communication and judgment are the essential qualities of leadership. Something that we have not talked about this quarter yet but that this article stirred in me is the understanding of right decision making (right judgment in the article), “Good strategy judgment frequently means a leader must find a new path when his organization is heading in the wrong direction. How well you can do this depends on your ability to scan the horizon and ask the right questions.” I think that often times we conclude that if you have a vision you are an effective leader. If you have a good team you are an effective leader. If you can communicate well you are an effective leader. As long as you have a mission statement, goals, and action plan you are an effective leader. Nope.
If only the sheer presence of these things counted for anything. The substance and content has to be there. We can exegete a culture, provide vision, and create a strategic plan but if it is an inaccurate strategic plan, or going in the wrong direction you will be labeled an ineffective leader. You can be a horrible leader but if you have an accurate vision that is heading in the right direction you will be known as an effective leader. We need to have the right vision, the right mission, and the right direction, in order to effectively lead.
(http://www.forbes.com/2009/04/29/vision-communication-judgment-leadership-managing-ccl.html)
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ReplyDeleteI found this article interesting, but I was disappointed by the treatment of judgment as a one of the three fundamentals of effective leadership. The author used one anecdote to illustrate the importance of judgment. In that example, while powerful, I found myself wondering if it was judgment or the leadership style of Ann Mulcahy that enabled her to lead the corporation back from the brink of solvency. She seems to have focused on vision casting and consensus building in order to motivate employees while instituting organizational change. Certainly, sound judgment had to be part of her efforts, but the article does not delve into her decision-making process so much as the overall vision she had of making Xerox a profitable and effective company again. He also describes how she communicated with key executives and the sales force. He emphasized vision and communication in this example which was supposed to outline judgment as a leadership trait. Some of the questions I would might have raised include: How do you make decisions? Who do you include in your decision making process? How are decisions evaluated? What is your system of accountability when making decisions? What resources/value system do you utilize in making decisions?
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