Comments

The ‘leadership’ challenge we face is wonderful. For me (and many friends I speak to in my situation of independent single hander status) leadership is no longer a ‘person’ or a ‘theory’ but the less tangible ‘personal accountability.’ I am ‘led’ by my own drive, my own ambition, my own optimism and view of the world and then by my customer. As more and more people get to be in charge of their own destiny at work the ‘leadership’ they have will be rooted in self-motivation. I welcome that because I believe standards will go up – after all we are our own most discerning critics. That does not mean 'doing away' with contact and guidance from another human being of course and the model I commend is to have a valued supervisor to ensure there are the necessary checks and balances but let the leadership come from within.

Posted by Trevor Gay at January 15, 2007 8:48 AM

1. Modern Seanworld decrees "Trevor-Free" in '07 ... as a clear path to Neo-liberalism

2. And people must have a shot @ fame & fortune - 2.007 must be RealityTV_World for all those with a valued idea & networking to make it happen

3. The Stones earned almost $500M [Madonna $80M] in their last tour - is their an Entertainment Culture modern model there?

Posted by sean_world_2.007 at January 15, 2007 12:06 PM

It's all too easy to get 'lost' in the leadership literature that's 'grown-up' in the last 15 years.

For me, the single most useful paper was in the HBR in March - April 2000 by Daniel Goleman where he described 6 styles of leadership (4 were unfailingly positive). The other 'touchstone' work I use is Warren Bennis's work from the mid 80s.

You can see more on both of these sets of ideas on recent posts on my blog.

Posted by Steve Pashley at January 15, 2007 1:00 PM

Dale Carnegie said that "90% of all management problems are caused by miscommunication." The flip side of that coin might be that "90% of all leadership successes are caused by effective communication between leaders and their followers."
Any modern theory of leadership should include empowering employees and to be successful at that leaders must communicate the boundaries of that empowerment as well as providing examples of how to execute it. Then the leaders should seek out feedback in order to stay on top of the changing environment.

BTW, I've learned a great deal from Tom, his staff, and the people who comment. Thank you.

Regards,

Glenn

Posted by Glenn (Customer Service Experience) Ross at January 15, 2007 1:47 PM

In our small 25-person entrepreneurial company, we have created thought-leader advisory boards for each department. The thought leaders, in turn, act as my i.e. CEO thought network. The Advisers give outside perspectives - which challenge our people to madly evolve. Prior to activating the advisory boards, we collectively crafted a clear vision. My task as a leader is to challenge my people through thought leaders - and I read ferociously to keep up with both my teams and the thought leader advisory boards. So, we are fusing "people-centric," "engagement-centric," "personal growth-centric," "service-servant based" into a new type of leadership, for which we internally call "networked thought leadership".

Posted by Abu Noaman at January 15, 2007 10:39 PM

The more I think about this stuff the more I believe that one style (e.g. command and control or coaching) is not right or wrong it's simply appropriate/ inappropriate depending on the circumstances

Command and control is absolutely the best style if you need to get people out of a burning building quickly.

The real leadership skill is not in being able to do more than one style - it's in being able to judge which style is the best in a given situation and apply it

Posted by PaulH at January 16, 2007 7:17 AM