Quickthink

One of the topics we discussed at Jäneda during the Estonian Euromanagement Institute programme is how “crisis” demands leadership. We may be able to fly on auto pilot when things are basically ok. But when things get tough, that just doesn’t work.

The problem is that leadership doesn’t pop up out of nowhere just because it is needed. When we don’t nurture leadership, we tend to create a leadership vacuum. This is our problem now in Estonia. We are in a crisis. We need leadership. But we can’t seem to find the leadership that we need. Leadership has to be nurtured along before a crisis hits so that leaders are in the right place at the right time with the right authority, skills and agenda.

That was one of Marshall’s great contributions to the US before the war. He reinvigorated leadership in the US officer corps. Lucky for the US he had the authority and wisdom to do it. Wait a minute. Lucky???

It would be a mistake to rely solely on luck for leadership.  One thought we worked on at Jäneda is how to identify key leadership characteristics and test them against institutional challenges. With this tool, people can test what they are doing against a leadership standard. They also can measure leadership characteristics of their institution.

Interesting. Leadership incubation? That would be great.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Three steps to leadership (billbennettnz.wordpress.com)
• People and Leadership: Management by Quotation (slackermanager.com)
• What makes a child want to be a leader? (nycid.blogspot.com)
• Project Management and Using Leadership Skills (business-project-management.suite101.com)

This entry was posted on Friday, January 30th, 2009 at 11:09 am and is filed under Professional Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.