Unlocking Organizational Value Through Leadership
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Word count: 717
Summary: The author asserts that most organizations have a great
deal of value locked away and thus unused. Through misguided
leadership, they neglect to tap the deep reservoirs of their
members' motivation, talents and skills. Here is a surprisingly
simple and powerful way to make unlock that value both on an
organizational level and personal level.
Unlocking Organizational Value Through Leadership. By Brent
Filson
For more than two decades, in many ways, in many forums, with
thousands of leaders, I've taught that organizational results
are limitless.
Those leaders who don't understand this don't understand the
soul of leadership. When I say "soul", I don't mean it in a
religious sense, but in a human sense, and not as a static
entity but as a fundamental process that manifests the value
inherent in all organizations. The soul of leadership is that
which triggers and guides the best organizational activities to
achieve the best results.
However, there is another soul at work here. It is the
leadership soul of the individual leader. Again, I am not using
the word in a religious sense but in a human sense, and as a
fundamental process that manifests the human value inherent in
each individual leader.
The leadership soul of the leader is that inner strength and
commitment an individual draws on in order to carry out the
activities of the soul of leadership.
Mind you, I am not counting angels on the head of a pin. The
difference between the soul of leadership and the leadership
soul of the individual leader is not a philosophical fine
distinction. The difference may not be readily apparent, but it
is manifest, and it is decisive. It's a difference most leaders
and their organizations are not aware of -- to their detriment.
The soul of leadership looks outward, the leadership soul of the
individual looks inward. Working in tandem, both outer and inner
directed activities can notably increase the effectiveness of
your leadership. When both the soul of leadership and the
leadership soul unite, great things can happen.
That's where limitless results come in. Most organizations have
far more value locked up than their leaders realize. Those
organizations consistently fail to tap the deep reservoirs of
their members motivation, talent and skills. After all, most
members of most organizations want to do well. In fact, in each
organization, the members, naturally and collectively, represent
an on-rushing current of ardent commitment to succeed. However,
through misguided leadership, leadership that is tyrannical and
micro-managing, leadership that coerces rather than motivates,
that current can be blocked, impeding results.
The blockage occurs when leaders focus exclusively on ordering
the establishment of surface drivers such as sales and marketing
activities, logistical dynamics, organizational strategies and
tactics, financial strategies and tactics, human resource
undertakings, and the like -- what business schools teach.
Clearly, the surface drivers are necessary in realizing the
value an organization possesses, but they're not sufficient. In
focusing exclusively on the above drivers, leaders often neglect
the deepest and most important realm of all, the realm which
largely determines the success or failure of the organization,
the realm of human relationships -- what business schools don't
teach.
For example, I'm sure you've heard of the classic case of the
railroads of the mid-20th century neglecting to understand they
were in the transportation business and losing out to airlines
in the passenger market. Railroad leaders did a fair to middling
job of dealing with sales, logistics, administration, etc. But
their hierarchical, top-down management structures and culture
that viewed their employees much like rail cars to be pushed and
pulled here and there, probably prevented them tapping into the
immense collective value of those employees. If the employees
had been empowered, motivated and unleashed, they would have
brought a richer vision of market dynamics to railroads that
could have forestalled their decline.
On the other hand, I know of a company that has consistently
tapped into the strengths of its employees. In the 1930s, they
were in the tea bag business. However, they didn't see
themselves in the tea bag business but in the materials'
business. As markets kept changing, their offerings kept
changing and today, their tea bag paper products have morphed
into hi-tech thermoplastics. They couldn't have done it without
tapping into the value of their employees. There are many ways
to unlock value in an organization. Those are not the purview of
this article. The main point I'm making is about the leadership
soul of the leader and unlocking its value. Just as the
results-potential of organizations are limitless, so the
interior of each leader is a limitless world of value.
To unlock the value within an organization, leaders must unlock
the leadership value within themselves.
What is this leadership value? It is the value you have simply
being a human being. All human beings have a powerful capacity
for transformation because they possess an innate capacity to
direct a strong sense of determination and action in whatever
direction they choose.
Furthermore, humans also have an powerful capacity to form and
manifest deep, transforming relationships. And it is in the
on-going transforming of relationships that you find and unlock
the leadership value within yourself.
How do you unlock the value inherent in your organization and in
yourself? Fortunately, there is a simple, powerful tool to do
that. I call it the Leadership Imperative: "I will lead people
in such a way that we not only get results but grow as leaders
and human beings."
Make this principle live in your daily actions, and you'll be
unlocking and unleashing great organizational value -- as well
as great value in your career and your life.
2006