Visionjuice - LEADERSHIP

Leadership is about excitement, passion and direction. It is not about control.

Traditional models of leadership are based in a world where the future is predictable and strategy is about planning for this future. For most organisations these models do not apply. You can never know the future yet there is still a feeling that success comes from being able to foretell the future in order to control it. This leads to the demand for detailing what we do and what we are planning to do in order to produce the illusion of control. Many people feel that they are spending more time on measuring and planning what they do than on doing it. A few organisations exist in a simple stable environment that can be planned for. They might well be able to exist with a leadership model based on command and control where the future is predicted, activity is measured and control comes from detail. These organisations are few and far between. Most organisations exist in a complex world where the future is unknowable and unpredictable. In such circumstances leadership is about creating a desired future rather than reacting to an expected one. In this model leadership is about high levels of direction and low levels of control. Increasingly organisations are saying that they need to be creative in order to compete. Creative organisations all exhibit a leadership style that emphasises direction and avoids control. Leaders in such organisations create an environment for and boundaries around creativity and innovation. Part of their role is to protect this environment from the onslaughts of the outside world. In a complex world an organisation needs to be a complex adaptive system that can reinvent itself from moment to moment. In this world direction does not mean telling people what to do. It means enthusing them with an excitement and a passion for a desired future and then allowing them to create that future in the best way possible. In this world control can only come from the strength and clarity of direction. In a world of complexity the key to leadership direction is simplicity. Leaders will have a few simple messages and guidelines that they communicate and the organisation will work with these. As an example of this Sir Edmund Hillary’s team that climbed Everest had three simple rules. We get to the top. Nobody gets hurt. We come back friends. Great leaders possess the skills that allow the organisation to exist in the world of uncertainty that comes from letting go of control. Great leaders enthuse an organisation to create a desired future with crystal clear direction, passion and enthusiasm. To contact us click here.