|
 A
Leadership Crisis
Last year I had the esteemed honor to participate on
a panel with Ira Jackson, the Dean of Peter
Drucker’s School of Business in Claremont. Mr.
Jackson’s coauthored book “Profit with Principles”
explores the social responsibility of corporations
and was the impetus for the event.
During the interactive dialogue, I was struck by a
recurring theme: Independent of the problem, world
hunger, absence of clean drinking water or global
warming, leadership (or lack of) appeared to play a
significant role in every issue being discussed.
Influenced by the event, I began to notice the
words, “lack of leadership” cropping up in all my
experiences. In an article published by the Newsweek
Washington Post, William M. Gumede the Associate
Editor at Africa Confidential writes, “Serious food
shortages and inflation, which in some places have
spawned unprecedented riots, protests and marches
across Africa, are due in part to bad local
leadership and lack of democracy.”
Professionally while working with middle market
companies I have the rare opportunity to examine the
inner-workings and become intimately involved with
the owners, management and employees. Plagued by
tough competition and eroding margins, these
companies are often struggling to survive. With that
said, the tough economic conditions could be
overcome but the lack of leadership is what will
ultimately hinder the companies’ growth.
Theoretically, the next logical question is, “What
happened to all the leaders?” Is there a leadership
void caused by the absence of a leadership
incubator? This thought process led me to consider
how a leader is formed and thereby the proverbial
question of whether they are born or made.
Independent of a blessed genetic inheritance, I
still believe a leader must learn through emulation,
a mentor of some sort. Traditionally the process of
mentoring began in the home with the parents, was
furthered by teachers though the school system,
advanced in college and then polished in the
business setting as the employee moved “up ranks”.
There were enough opportunities for exposure that
even if one of the legs were missing, such as an
lack of family structure or a misguided teacher,
somewhere along the way an individual would gain
exposure to a suitable mentor. Today however,
parents are not always home, schools are lacking,
and globalization has quicken the business pace to
where the “GE” slow progression and grooming model
no longer exist.
The word “crisis” has become a staple to our daily
vocabulary: environmental crisis, economic crisis,
banking crisis as well as a slew of others. Since
serving on the panel I have given the topic of
leadership much thought and I now believe we have
overlooked the underlying cause of all issues; a
leadership crisis. |