“The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men (women)
to do what he (she) wants done, and the self restraint to keep from meddling
with them while they do it.”
– Theodore Roosevelt, 26th president of the United States
Where have all the leaders gone? Where can you find a real leader today? The state of leadership today within organizations is at a critical point and how senior most leaders decide to act now will dictate what we experience in our tomorrow’s!
To listen and observe senior leadership today, whether within the military (alarmingly, far too many senior officers are no longer cognizant of basic functional operations they are tasked with nor capable of running around the block without a needed trip to a hospital), within government (managers appear incapable of getting employees to work together and accepting an environment of disfunctionality as you can’t get rid of a bad employee without a seemingly act of Congress) or within the business place (whereby a protectionist mindset to keep one’s own job by mid level managers causes a guarded interaction with others), would lead an outside observer to conclude that leadership development is evaporating before one’s vary eyes.
It seems, far too often great followers and future leaders are stymied by poor and ineffective organizational leadership development programs and opportunities. Recent studies by the American Business Institute and reinforced by a client survey by JMI revealed some powerful reasons that this mindset may be breeding.
Shockingly, survey data consistently revealed that the first mindset of a man when promoted in the workplace is around the theme of, ‘what must I do to get the next promotion and how fast.’ Whereby the first mindset of a women, promoted in the workplace centers around, ‘what is expected of me in this new position to succeed?’
A simple solution is to establish an environmental mindset of growing successful future leaders and placing present leaders on notice by active participation in some sort of a “Leadership Mentor Development Program”. Some effective guide posts for designing an effective Mentoring approach to cultivate and grow true leaders is to:
1. Select solid performers (not political lackies) that are at least two direct report positions removed from the individual to be mentored. This positional space between mentor and the mentee allows for greater interaction and giving on the part of the mentor.
2. Allow the relationship to be both ‘Formal’ (measurement protocols and assignments) and ‘Informal” (conversational and relationship driven) in contact.
3. Have predetermined objectives for both mentor and mentee and an objective means by which to measure and hold all parties accountable.
Most organizations in their efforts to remain competitive in the past have actually created their vary problems of the present by expecting great leaders from within to step forward and lead teams to greatness. By creating environments of competition within, individuals have actually seen what gets rewarded is what they will do, and for most this seems to be how do I attract the spotlight directly to me and at me in a favorable manner and do so at any cost.
The costs of the past will pay heavy penalties in our future unless senior leaders remove reality blinders and institute rigorous developmental programs to ensure a prosperous future.
Jeff Magee, Ph.D., PDM, CSP, CMC can be reached at jeff@JeffreyMagee.com, toll free 1-877-90-MAGEE or www.JeffreyMagee.com for more information on keynotes, training seminars and skill development resources. For more information and ideas get your copy of, YIELD MANAGEMENT: the Leadership Alternative, by CRC/St. Lucie Press (ISBN# 1-57444-206-6 / $29.00) and of ADVANCING IN YOUR CAREER (ISBN# 0-9641240-7-6 / US $15.95) … to see other exciting resource book, audio and video titles, go to www.JeffreyMagee.com/library.asp !
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