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In the Trenches 1
- By Business World
- Published July 12th, 2010
- Business School
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In the Trenches 1
“Running the business is the role of the managers; building the business is the role of leadership” From the book Building Leaders by Jay A. Cogner and Beth Benjamin
Background
SMALL and medium enterprise in the emerging economies often failed to outlast their founders because of so many reasons that include inadequate capitalization, lack of capacity, lack of succession plan and outright disregard for proper alignment of skills/ attitude with responsibilities. Even where most of the parameters listed above are absent the issue of leadership have often been mired in cronyism and nepotism, people are always at the heart of any organization and irrespective of the strategy, culture or financial sophistication that an organization may possess, once the leadership is skewed towards mediocrity, the downfall of that organization is imminent. The corporate environment is like the a war front, the carcasses of those that are inept, careless or visionless litter the battlefield, those that are fighting for their dear life are either in the hospital wards receiving lifeline or recuperating from the injury sustained. Mind you, not all of the injured or the vanquished got to their present position through negligence on their part, some got there because of those they associate with or vice versa. Before you get into the trench of entrepreneurship, choose those who will be there with you careful, have them trained and have a succession plan that will stand the test of time. In their book Building Leaders, Jay A. Cogner and Beth Benjamin gave different ways through which leaders can be built, from active learning, experiential exercises, scenario building up to mentorship. Making an enterprise sustainable and durable encompasses strengthen the human resources and synergizing their vision with the corporate objective.
Laying a good Foundation
There are certain fundamentals attributes required for budding leaders that was pointed out by Cogner and Benjamin, all of them and others not mentioned are required in other to be among the chosen view, therefore entrepreneurs should look out for these attitudes, train where deficiencies are noted and then reap the benefit in future. The leadership dimension chosen as the best example in the book Building Leaders was FedEx Leadership Evaluation and Awareness Process (LEAP), all the dimension through which their leaders were chosen are highlighted below;
Charismatic Leadership- those that can stand as symbol of success in the organization, enthusiastic about their work, command respect and have a sense of purpose. Those that others will want to be associated with and will be ready to instil pride, faith and respect for the vision of the organization among the subordinate
Individual Consideration-they must be ready to teach, lead by example and develop others, this will involve acknowledging the fact that followers need to learn and mistakes on the job and it behoves on the leaders to appraise the work of their followers, praise and correct when necessary.
Intellectual Stimulation- leaders must be ready to stir imaginations, point problems out to subordinate and provide alternative solutions suited for it. Leaders must also be ready to promote insightful reasoning among its subordinates and colleagues rather that emotional stimulated reaction.
Courage – leaders must have confidence in his/her ability to steer the ship in the right direction must be ready to take unpopular decision and not run away from confrontation when necessary.
Dependability- leaders are those that take responsibilities, work without supervision, admit his/her mistakes and keep his/her commitments to the organization and colleagues
Flexibility-leaders are those that multi-task without losing focus of the critical issues, they provide stability and effective leadership in a changing environment.
Integrity- those that adhere to business ethics and moral value are potential leaders, they behave in a manner that is consistent with the corporate environment and professional responsibility “they are not only seen to honourable but their honourable deeds are verifiable”
Judgement- leaders must be able to use logical, factual information and consideration of human factors to reach sound and objective evaluations of all actions that will present themselves to them. They must be ready to use their authority with utmost caution and take into consideration different futuristic scenarios before settling for the most suitable, adaptable and feasible one.
Respect for Others- leaders must have belief in the value’s of individuals that make up the organization; they must churn nepotism and cronyism. Works or opinion of others must not be belittle or ridicule, where correction is needed it must be done with utmost care and concern
All the attributes stated above and numerous other skills are what must be seen in a particular individual before been chosen to move forward and take the mantle, some organization are fizzling out today because they have failed to put a round peg in around hole and even when the peg was square they failed to sharpen it and make it round before forcing it into position. Retaining the best brain in your organization is one of the best ways of assuring longevity and sustainability in that organization, the second part of this article will be devoted to retaining the best in the park.
“Running the business is the role of the managers; building the business is the role of leadership” From the book Building Leaders by Jay A. Cogner and Beth Benjamin
Background
SMALL and medium enterprise in the emerging economies often failed to outlast their founders because of so many reasons that include inadequate capitalization, lack of capacity, lack of succession plan and outright disregard for proper alignment of skills/ attitude with responsibilities. Even where most of the parameters listed above are absent the issue of leadership have often been mired in cronyism and nepotism, people are always at the heart of any organization and irrespective of the strategy, culture or financial sophistication that an organization may possess, once the leadership is skewed towards mediocrity, the downfall of that organization is imminent. The corporate environment is like the a war front, the carcasses of those that are inept, careless or visionless litter the battlefield, those that are fighting for their dear life are either in the hospital wards receiving lifeline or recuperating from the injury sustained. Mind you, not all of the injured or the vanquished got to their present position through negligence on their part, some got there because of those they associate with or vice versa. Before you get into the trench of entrepreneurship, choose those who will be there with you careful, have them trained and have a succession plan that will stand the test of time. In their book Building Leaders, Jay A. Cogner and Beth Benjamin gave different ways through which leaders can be built, from active learning, experiential exercises, scenario building up to mentorship. Making an enterprise sustainable and durable encompasses strengthen the human resources and synergizing their vision with the corporate objective.
Laying a good Foundation
There are certain fundamentals attributes required for budding leaders that was pointed out by Cogner and Benjamin, all of them and others not mentioned are required in other to be among the chosen view, therefore entrepreneurs should look out for these attitudes, train where deficiencies are noted and then reap the benefit in future. The leadership dimension chosen as the best example in the book Building Leaders was FedEx Leadership Evaluation and Awareness Process (LEAP), all the dimension through which their leaders were chosen are highlighted below;
Charismatic Leadership- those that can stand as symbol of success in the organization, enthusiastic about their work, command respect and have a sense of purpose. Those that others will want to be associated with and will be ready to instil pride, faith and respect for the vision of the organization among the subordinate
Individual Consideration-they must be ready to teach, lead by example and develop others, this will involve acknowledging the fact that followers need to learn and mistakes on the job and it behoves on the leaders to appraise the work of their followers, praise and correct when necessary.
Intellectual Stimulation- leaders must be ready to stir imaginations, point problems out to subordinate and provide alternative solutions suited for it. Leaders must also be ready to promote insightful reasoning among its subordinates and colleagues rather that emotional stimulated reaction.
Courage – leaders must have confidence in his/her ability to steer the ship in the right direction must be ready to take unpopular decision and not run away from confrontation when necessary.
Dependability- leaders are those that take responsibilities, work without supervision, admit his/her mistakes and keep his/her commitments to the organization and colleagues
Flexibility-leaders are those that multi-task without losing focus of the critical issues, they provide stability and effective leadership in a changing environment.
Integrity- those that adhere to business ethics and moral value are potential leaders, they behave in a manner that is consistent with the corporate environment and professional responsibility “they are not only seen to honourable but their honourable deeds are verifiable”
Judgement- leaders must be able to use logical, factual information and consideration of human factors to reach sound and objective evaluations of all actions that will present themselves to them. They must be ready to use their authority with utmost caution and take into consideration different futuristic scenarios before settling for the most suitable, adaptable and feasible one.
Respect for Others- leaders must have belief in the value’s of individuals that make up the organization; they must churn nepotism and cronyism. Works or opinion of others must not be belittle or ridicule, where correction is needed it must be done with utmost care and concern
All the attributes stated above and numerous other skills are what must be seen in a particular individual before been chosen to move forward and take the mantle, some organization are fizzling out today because they have failed to put a round peg in around hole and even when the peg was square they failed to sharpen it and make it round before forcing it into position. Retaining the best brain in your organization is one of the best ways of assuring longevity and sustainability in that organization, the second part of this article will be devoted to retaining the best in the park.
