InSIGHTS
A publication from the Albers School of Business and Economics THE CENTER FOR LEADERSHIP FORMATION S P R I N G 201 8
O
rganizations need leaders in order to guide people in different roles to accomplish large goals. Importantly, they need people who not only have leadership titles, but who understand what leadership is and how to perform that role well. To aid our discussion, we will draw on a familiar framework of “what,” “why,” “how,” and “who.” We summarize the “what”, then focus on our core topic for this issue — the “why.” We will next briefly review the “how,” and reserve our discussion of “who” for our next issue.
“WHAT” At its simplest, Kotter (1999) states that the leader’s job is to set direction, align, and motivate people. Our past articles on setting direction discussed
BY MARILYN GIST AND ALAN MULALLY
how leaders need to set the vision and strategy for their organizations. We indicated that a leader’s most important contribution is to hold him- or herself and the team collectively responsible and accountable for a compelling vision, comprehensive strategy, and relentless implementation. Without knowing this, many leaders confuse being extremely busy with “leading.” They may be doing many things well without carefully examining whether they are doing enough of the “right” things. In essence, without the right direction and implementation, organizations do not progress well. Yet the question is “WHY”?
“WHY” The goal of leadership is to accomplish societal and organizational
objectives that create value for all stakeholders. To do that, leaders need to help their organizations both survive and thrive. Survival requires us to avoid threats. It is often easiest for leaders to see the need for guidance when major crises hit. Natural disasters, geo-political events, public relations debacles, and so on require leaders to step up with guidance on how to move forward. Yet just as important (and more commonly needed) is the need to address business-related challenges — whether current or impending. One of the most obvious signals calling for new direction occurs when an organization is experiencing (or anticipating) financial difficulties. This signals a failure to thrive, requiring leaders to CONTINUED ON PAGE 4