There is little doubt that both leaders and leadership matters. Individual leaders shape strategy, execute decision, manage talent, develop future talent, and act with personal proficiency.
Being a successful leader requires knowing what is expected and doing it. But, organizational leadership matters more. Leadership occurs when the organization builds a cadre of future leaders who have the capacity to shape an organization's culture and create patterns of success.In this chapter, we answer the question what is leadership" by focusing on an outside/in view of leadership that draws on business values more than psychological principles. We identify four key principles and questions that shape the definition of effective leadership. 1.
Clarify why leadership matters: What are the outcomes of good leadership? 2. Nail the basics: What must every leader know, do, and be? 3. Create leadership brand: How do we develop leadership (not Just leaders) from the outside/in? 4.Ensure leadership sustainability: How do leaders make long-term change really happen? By mastering Hess four principles, leaders can build leadership that lasts over time. Advances in Global Leadership, Volume A few years ago, one of us was asked to write the preface to a book of readings on leadership. The editor asked that the preface integrate the chapters in the book into a cohesive whole.
The various leadership authors had written articles on far-ranging topics such as trust, authenticity, servant leaders, tough-minded leaders, difference teen managers and leaders, effective conversations, power, decision-making, judgment, and a myriad of other topics. We were stumped. There seemed no way to pull this hodgepodge of ideas together. Eventually the preface simply stated that the current state of leadership was like alchemy, that the various authors were attempting to turn lead into gold, and that authors had varying insights about how to do it.This story personifies leadership concept clutter.
There are millions of articles about the topic and few barriers to entry to publish your (or our) point of view. L This letter of "leadership signage" calls out to leaders to take care of yourself, be authentic, exercise Judgment, build on your strengths, and so on. The problem with this signage is that much of it is piecemeal and some of it is completely nonsense. We have been on a Journey for the last fifteen years to resolve leadership concept clutter by approaching leadership from a unique perspective.
Most leadership authors of the last fifty years draw on the discipline of psychology - the leader must understand what is inside oneself. From fish to cheese, from habits to conversations, room self-empowerment to servitude, most leadership thinkers have struggled to distill the essence of what makes an effective leader. We appreciate this psychological tradition but believe that other disciplines like marketing and finance may inform and synthesize how we think about leaders. In a simplistic way, these perspectives are more outside/in than inside/out because they are based on business logic.We want to build leadership on a foundation so that business value is created. In this chapter, we share our answer to the question, what is leadership" by reporting our leadership Journey.
To date, we have identified four key principles and questions that derive from an outside/in, businessman-driven leadership approach: 1. Clarify why leadership matters: What are the outcomes of good leadership? 2. Nail the basics: What must every leader know, do, and be? 3. Create leadership brand: How do we develop leadership (not Just leaders) from the outside/ in? . Ensure leadership sustainability
