Sep
15
Leadership that is effective appears to have a natural lifespan. Top managers are usually more ineffective in their older years.
CEOs might be tempted to get sucked into a certain management philosophy that places priority on doing things right over doing the right things.
What’s more, charismatic leaders sometimes have a tendency to get addicted to their own power, and they lose touch with reality as a result.
The ability to realise you’ve made a mistake and to atone for it, however dire, is a more important leadership attribute than charisma.
A renewable leader has to be at the helm, whether the business is prospering or floundering. You have to change with the times and top people need new ideas more than anyone else.
Take the following test and answer these four crucial questions truthfully (true or false):
• I am influenced in my management by what is typically true, so I miss possibilities that contradict this accepted view.
• I usually judge the probability of an event by the ease with which relevant examples come to mind – so I judge the risks of failure in a new venture from previous experience in the marketplace, rather than via available data.
• I confirm what I expect to find by selectively accepting or ignoring the facts.
• I am too influenced by my own emotions – people I like are more likely to get a positive response.
If you answer ‘false’ for all four, it’s likely you’re in denial. Faced with a host of choices, the mind reverts to short-cuts and general rules which make decision-making simpler and faster.
Do not be too easily led by others’ actions– you should be looking at what they are not doing, or not doing sufficiently, to influence your leadership stance.
What’s more, be open to all the information you can find –whether it fits your preconceived ideas or not. And try not to have favourites – give people a chance to win favour with everyone by their quality of thought.
Robert Heller regularly writes articles on management philosophy for business management website Thinking Managers.
Article Source: Business philosophy: when CEOs get it wrong