Where is the Leadership Problem?
So, where is the leadership problem?
It is clear that in the world today, not only do we have the economic crisis, but a crisis of leadership also. At the highest level of politics and business we are paying the high cost of low trust. The general public doesn’t trust its leaders. There are, perhaps, many reasons for this.
Certainly too many reasons to get into now, however, the basis of it all probably comes down to the dehumanization of the act of leadership on the part of political and business leaders. They have concentrated on the machinery of society as opposed to the human aspect that makes up society. They became managers of the machine instead of leaders of humans. The simple leadership concepts of setting the example, both in ethics and values, and taking responsibility for those that make it possible for them to position themselves at such heights have been forgotten. The world is crying out for the humanized leader.
This is not only a problem in the highest forms of leadership but, in Spain at least, every level of society. In business, where I concentrate my work, leaders are created for all the wrong reasons. You can, in the worst of cases, find leaders that have become so because of their year’s service in a company. This is, however and thankfully, becoming less and less. What you will find, however, is that the most technically competent workers find themselves in leadership roles. That in itself is not a problem if they have excellent emotional intelligence to match their technical strengths.
If, however, they lack emotional intelligence, the misuse of resources can become debilitating to a company. Not only does it deprive the prize technically-gifted staff of the ability to do what they do best, but places them is a position where they are doomed to failure and frustration. These leaders, filled with frustration, misunderstand their role, believing the authority bestowed on them is enough to lead teams and departments. This frustration filters through these same teams and departments as individual and group potential becomes unrealized at all levels. This, ultimately, can be the difference between being productive or unproductive, success or failure, both critical in this day and age.
Technically gifted employees need to be optimized. Emotionally Intelligent employees need to be optimized. Great leaders will probably have both but the human side must remain priority.
We must stop managing the machine and start leading humans. Emotion is what motivates and the last time I checked humans still have the edge on machines in emotion.
I’m looking forward to my class in the EOI today. Putting the human back in leadership.
Below, Simon Sinek gives a great speech on how to Inspire.
And Daniel Pink on Motivation
EOI Management Skills Course.
By Chris Metcalfe