Building Leadership Vocabulary
Tom Friedman makes an interesting argument today about leadership. Here is the link to his editorial. His major point is that in the 21st Century every aspect of production will be ”commoditized” around the globe, which means (presumably) that competition between regions will heat up more. But two things resist the trend. They are (1) imagination, and (2) good governance. According to Tom, there will remain an uneven distribution of these resources. He argues that the US dominates in the first category but is producing suboptimal results in the second. Why? Gridlock in decision making weakens commitment to long term vision.
I think we all agree that “imagination”. especially when it leads to “innovation” is valuable. And I haven’t met anyone who wants “bad governance”. Yet we get it. My point — the words Tom uses are conclusions. They describe results rather than processes. The more important question, it seems to me, is how do we build institutions that produce those results more systematically. Here Tom just doesn’t help us.
Dave Logan offers a bit more comprehensive framework for analyzing and promoting effective “team” or “tribe” activity. Here is a link to Dave’s TED talk which is worth watching. Here is a link to a 5 question survey that you can fill out to see how well your organization works in light of “tribal leadership” qualities.
A few comments about Dave’s system. First, it is useful because it helps build a process to take us from disaster to success in a step by step manner (rather than offer a silver bullet that answers all questions). Building faith in such a process could reduce the “opt out” effects one sees when people give up on the groups they are forced to live with.
Second, it is useful in building a vocabulary to describe the things that we see and feel. The vocabulary allows us to talk about what is going on, and learn faster. But — this is not religion. We need to go beyond Dave’s model by testing it, and testing it again.
FOLLOW - Tom Peters offers some thoughts on why leadership is a “sacred trust”. Here is a link to his YouTube video. Why? It is about taking on responsibility and the jerks who don’t do that. But notice — Tom is talking about individual leadershiptraits rather than building groups and institutions (leaving the way individuals take accountability within groups for your imagination). It’s a pep talk (and Tom is good at that).
Tags: Leadership