Is Consensus the Absence of Leadership?
Margaret Thatcher once said that indeed consensus is the absence of leadership. In the political arena our nation is noting that the choosing of a leader hinges on a presidential candidate managing to achieve a majority of the votes cast. That means a sizable minority, nearly half of the voters, will not be part of a consensus about who should lead. By implication it also means there will be no consensus as to what steps the leader proposes. For many years this very problem has led to gridlock in Washington.
Business leaders can learn much from what is happening in the political arena. Those who lead the millions of businesses that make up the economy wrestle every day with the challenge of making decisions. There are the everyday decisions about all aspects of the business. There are longer term decisions about company policy: what should it be? And there are overarching decisions about the mission ofthe company: what is the business plan? These decisions must be accepted and implemented by the work force, the customer, the vendors and all the other people associated with the business, no matter what opinions and viewpoints to the contrary. For a business to succeed, once a decision is reached everyone needs to move on and do their best to implement the decision.
The true test of a business leader, therefore, is twofold. First, the leader must make good decisions. As the saying goes, good leaders make hard decisions and sometimes they are right!
The second test of a business leader is how well that leader can motivate and inspire everyone involved to make the decision work effectively.
Not everyone has the ability, skill, knowledge, temperament and contacts to achieve this. Among those who have all of these factors going for them, not everyone has the desire and energy to be the business leader. Murphy's law comes into play as well, in that good leaders are careful not to get promoted beyond their level of competence!
These are some of the considerations in the two day training seminars being offered this year by the team of Ted and Larry. These seminars are being offered as open events in six states: North Carolina in May, Michigan in June, Tennessee in July, Minnesota in August, Nevada and Oklahoma in October and Nevada (Las Vegas) in November.
Dealing with serious issues does not need to be grim. These trainers make it fun and helpful because they have themselves been through the process of learning to lead while also learning to enjoy leadership development. So: sign up now!
del.icio.us · digg this · spurl · reddit · furl this
