The role of a leader in the 21st century is to maintain overall organizational performance and to "shift" that performance in an ever-improving direction.
Some 20th century leaders were good at:
1 - "castle building"
2 - "trouble shooting"
3 - "maintaining status quo"
The 21st century demands leaders capable of all three of those characteristics...
Let's look a bit deeper into those three...
Characteristic #1 could be called a "visionary"
Characteristic #2 could be called an "analyst"
Characteristic #3 could be called a "manager"
It is the combination and active presence of those three characteristics that make an individual a leader...not one or two...ALL THREE!
If an individual possesses #3 and is not effective with the other two...he/she is a manager...
If a person possesses #2 and #3 but lacks vision...leadership is still not present...
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I have personally watched many organizations schedule a majority of their meetings focused entirely on budget performance (the "missed your goals" side), and negative performance reviews...
This is the analytical side of leadership...
They totally neglect the stabilizing efforts (managing)...
And...
Do not have time to grow the business...(visionary)...
If an individual lays claim to leading an organization...they are admitting that they have full responsibility for the losses, the stability and the growth...
Leaders can not claim to that they were unaware of what was going on under "their watch" because they were distracted by work in another area...
"I was blind-sided! I didn't realize...that my business was failing in that important sector...because I was focused on sales in this new area..."
This is an admission of incompetence!
"I didn't know that illegal activity was going on! Our company was growing fast and I left well enough alone..."
You get the picture!
A 21st century leader must be involved in three important activities...
1 - The things that are hurting or will hurt the company must be stopped...(the left side of the curve)
2 - Holding on to what the organization has...(the middle of the curve)
3 - Repeating the fleeting successes...(the right side of the curve)
Even a 20th century leader can not "plausibly deny" he or she was not aware of bad things happening in his or her organization...or say that they didn't know why great things were happening...that is pure insanity if they think that we'll believe it!
AND IF IT IS TRUE...
They really shouldn't be leading a company...
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If you aspire to be a leader...you need to hone all three of those skills...
You must be an analyst, a manager and a visionary!
The 21st century is demanding that...
What it takes to be a real 21st Century Leader and how to meet those challenges.
