HOT TOPICS
LEADERSHIP
One of the key themes of IFMA's World Workplace in Philadelphia this past fall was the issue of Leadership, and the importance it plays in the success or failure of a business entity. Both keynote speakers carried through on the theme, suggesting that the key to success for the top firms with consistent growth rates over consecutive years, can be attributed to a commitment to "Stewardship", another variation on Leadership.
A presentation by Jeremy L. Campbell at World Workplace, titled, "Creating Organizational Greatness, Rethinking Leadership"; went into more depth on the issue of Leading in the new century. Jeremy introduced the participants to "The Excellence Model", that includes the following key concepts for an exceptional leader of a company: "Leaders develop the mission vision, values and ethics and are role models of a culture of excellence; Leaders are personally involved in ensuring the organization's management system is developed, implemented, and continuously improved; Leaders interact with customers, partners, and representatives of society; Leaders reinforce a culture of excellence with the organization's people; and Leaders identify and champion organizational change."
We always have been told that the leader who gets down to the worker level and rolls up his or her sleeves to inspire and empathize with the person interfacing with the customer will be more successful than the distant, faceless, beauracrat at the end of a corporate memo. However, leaders of organizations have to have more developed skills than just the back slapping, everyman who workers see as "one of them". They need to be able to manage people through change in a highly competitive workplace that is morphing at light year speed. Truly great leaders in the new millennium will develop a vision, identify symptoms and causes for weak performance and correct them, and in fact "develop a culture to allow others to improve systems, products, and services is a must", again according to Jeremy's concluding summary.
Although it may seem like an impossible task, today's leader has to look past the horizon to mold the organization to adapt and change to a fast paced environment. One of my favorite quotes from the late Peter Drucker is, "Management is doing things right, Leadership is doing the right things." Good luck with applying these leadership concepts to discover what the right things are for your organization.
If you want to push further into this topic I can recommend visiting the web site of the Center for Creative Leadership, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving leadership excellence at http://www.ccl.org/leadership/index.aspx
Mark Mankin, Assistant Manager for Structural Services, University of Delaware
