Thriving!
A Strategy Beyond Survival
Learning to Grow Leaders, Again!
By
Dan S. Woodward
If
2004 is to become a year of recovery, senior leaders must exercise muscles that
have atrophied. As executives look to focus on growth over cost-cutting in 2004,
a renewed focus on a set of core strategic pillars to include the actions and
metrics of success will allow them to achieve sustained growth in any economic
environment.
Growth
has little or nothing to do with industry maturity, geography or business cycle;
rather, successful growth is possible in any industry, in any region at any
time. Growth isn't dependent on external factors but is critically dependent on
the internal attitude, behavior and actions of the company’s senior
leadership, which by action and example, is the company.
Throughout
the last three years, executives in many industries have been laser focused on
contraction to survive. Words like outsourcing, downsizing, consolidation and
discretionary spending moved well beyond the vocabulary of the CFO right down to
the entry level employee. By the way, there weren’t very many of you as a
result of the hiring freeze.
Leadership
behaviors have been altered by their experience and with the advent of increased
spans of control, e-mail as a communication tool, telecommuting and a survival
mentality. Newly deemed non-essential programs, like leadership development have
become things of our management past. Well, it is time to bring back the
golden-oldie, management development, now known as leader development and its
old friend, mentoring.
Leaders
have a choice as to the outcome of 2004, whether it is one of more of the same
or if it is a recovery, in their company, as a result of a renaissance in the
form of good old-fashioned management attention to selecting, nurturing,
developing and leading great leaders.
Beyond
survival as the corporate strategy, senior leaders can begin anew to develop
their future leaders with a commitment to:
•
Nurturing and developing leaders
•
New talent infusion as a strategic imperative
•
Identifying core leader behaviors and attributes
•
Assessing behavior and coaching – start at the top to set the tone
•
Modeling the appropriate leadership behavior
Senior
leaders can use the following seven behavioral attribute statements to guide and
assess their progress in becoming the leader that others will want to emulate.
•
Personal Conviction
Senior
leaders must demonstrate a strong personal conviction to a core set of
•
Vision
Senior
leaders must demonstrate a well-developed sense of what the future will bring,
•
Trust
Senior
leaders must establish bonds of trust with individuals and teams.
•
Inspiration
Senior
leaders must stretch the team to a higher level of excellence and achievement,
•
Team Leadership
Senior
leaders must recognize and demonstrate that a team can achieve more than a
•
Risk Taker
Senior
leaders must understand that gain can only be achieved with a commensurate
•
Drive To Excel
Senior
leaders must constantly seek to improve themselves, their team and their
The
tool is not nearly as important as the action. Leadership voids are costly; do
something. Now! Assess your current people strategies, learn what resources are
available, think about your plan, act with a sense of urgency, set the
appropriate internal expectations and measure your progress and success.
“A
purpose to believe in”, articulating your strategy, that includes the
development of leaders is a necessary start.
Dan
S. Woodward is a management consultant and author of THRIVING! – A Strategy
Communication Framework. A twenty year veteran of the IT industry, CIO Magazine
CIO-100 recipient and featured CEO in True Leaders: How Exceptional CEOs and
Presidents Make a Difference by Building People and Profits (Dearborn Trade
Press), he assists companies in solving business imperatives.