Leadership Simplified
Just as another summer season of leadership development programs lies ahead, this post from the inimitable Tom Peters strikes precisely the right note. It may be one of the briefest and best pieces on leadership I can remember reading. I first met Tom almost 30 years ago when he consulted to the hospital where I worked as a junior administrator. He had just published a little book with Bob Waterman entitled, In Search of Excellence, that set the standard for hundreds (maybe thousands) of other business books. Pretty sharp guy--always bombastic, interesting and very, very smart.
Among the best lines in the new piece are these two nuggets:
What do leaders ... DO?
First and foremost they assemble and then develop a topflight team of people.
And ...
So the story here will be simple in outline—challenging as all get outin implementation. I'm arguing—not exactly original—that leading, likefootball or music or theater, can be largely broken down intoactivities. And until those activities are trained in and practiced andmore or less mastered, it's premature to deal with the high falutin'stuff like vision and values and energy and enthusiasm. (Vitallyimportant as these characteristics are!)