Why Leadership Is Important

Bob Jordan

Leadership is to management what the lean manufacturing philosophy is to corporate operations. Leadership allows an organization to get the most results, in the fastest time, with the highest company morale, and provides a clear competitive advantage. The waste of human energy and potential is minimized in direct proportion to the strength of the leadership of the organization.

Pity the company that has weak executive leadership - one where employee retention is abysmal, one where growth is flat (or even declining), one where accountability for results is more a slogan than a reality. This is like trying to develop new products without a plan, without a process, without clear requirements. The results is a tremendous waste of money, time, and company profitability. So too in leadership. Turnover is a killer to profitability. The energy to find, recruit, train, and get a new employee productive, only to watch them leave, leaves any company in a competitive disadvantage. While you're repeating the hiring and training process, your competitor is making gains

So here's what you do: if you are running a company, examine your leadership level (on a scale of 1 - 10, with 10 being the highest). If you are comfortable where you are (be it a 2, 4, 8, or 10), then make sure you don't hire a person with a leadership level higher than your own. It's OK to hire someone technical smarter than you, but don't hire someone with a higher leadership level than your own and expect it to last indefinitely. Eventually it will catch up and be costly. The leader you hire will see more opportunity than you will, and will be pressing to raise the leadership bar. If you don't want the bar raised, then watch out for a train wreck.

This is not to say that leadership is the only quantity worth considering, but it should be the highest quantity considered for management positions. Measuring leadership is not all that difficult. Here's some leadership attributes to consider:

• What do they read? Is it related to leadership? If they don't read, they're not a leader of people.

• What do they do and what have they done in their career? Management or leadership roles? Results?

• Do they lead outside of work (e.g. volunteer organizations, coaching sports, PTA, etc.)?

• Do people follow them? Do they hire well? Do they retain staff? Do they get results through people?

• Do they love people? Do they build people? Can they read people and is their staff morale high?

• Are they product focused or people focused? This is critical. Chose one or the other.

• Can they follow? Good followers can make good leaders one day.

There are umpteen leadership tests one could take. See how well you do and some of them. Ask around to people that will tell you the truth. John Maxwell says the highest level of leadership in anyone is found in volunteer organizations, where the promise and need of paycheck is not the reason why people are there. If you can lead volunteers you can led anyone.