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Article
A Call To Action
By
Steve Callahan
Practice Development Director Recently, while browsing through some old executive training materials from a Fortune 100 company, I came across courses that had been used to train management on techniques of effective leadership. As I reflected on the applicability of the various techniques, my eyes wandered casually over to the packaging or, more specifically, its name: Leadership in Action. What a great phrase to express actionable lessons for succeeding as a leader.
Being a little bored at the time (it was the weekend) and faced with an overactive imagination fresh from some implementation challenges, I mentally morphed the well-designed name into a representation of what, at least to me, seemed to be a growing issue in today’s organizations. It was a simple transition—say it fast, take out one space, and there you go: Leadership
Inaction.
After the chuckle brought on by the wordplay, the reality of how more organizations have found a way to neutralize the effectiveness of their leaders sunk in. Whether in the arena of corporate ethics, strategy setting, or even at the operational level of individual and team management, numerous examples of “leadership inaction” came to mind, many of them attributable not to mistakes of action but to failures to act, such as:
 | Unaddressed and long-standing personnel problems that suck the motivation out of other employees
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| Dormant or dying product lines ignored despite their drain on resources
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| Arduous project approval processes that act as constraining filters instead of enablers
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| Rapidly growing staff functions that count, price, design, consult, file, or audit business lines that are unable to cut operational expenses enough to cover the more expensive staff roles
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| De-layered organizations with an overabundance of management meetings, leaving front-line staff effectively on their own
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| Antiquated transactional systems left in place while the appeal of custom-developed web portal, e-commerce, and self-service solutions are pursued
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These are only a few examples that came to mind as I contemplated the debilitating conditions that many businesses inadvertently internalize today.
How many do you recognize?
One of the many challenges we face as leaders is to identify this cultural leadership inaction that contaminates our effectiveness, and then to take action to eradicate all traces of it. Consider supply and demand curves from economics, where equilibrium is achieved by sliding along the curves until they cross, until a significant economic event causes an entire curve to shift position. Similarly, leadership has reached a sub-optimal point in its effectiveness, requiring a shift to the next level in order to enable continued growth and profitability. Make no mistake: the deterioration in leadership effectiveness is costing our industry every day.
Today’s leaders are more informed, competent, motivated, and technologically supported than any preceding generation, making this needed transition neither an issue of ability nor incentive. What is needed are wake-up calls, yanking the covers off these organizational encumbrances, putting them under the blinding light of day so that action can take the place of inaction and strategic intent replace habit.
Finding these covers can be as simple as taking a fresh, unbiased look at exactly where your profits are coming from, what the underlying value propositions are, and how opportunity costs are being allocated. Once the encumbrances are identified, the process of correction is relatively easy—even fun. Rest assured, you will have the minds and hearts of your front-line staff supporting the removal of these burdens, enabling your company to re-engage in focused and profitable endeavors.
With that in mind, and with an affirming nod to “The Re-Emerging Need for Speed” discussed in our first-quarter newsletter of 2007, let me close with a quote from Shakespeare: "Better three hours too soon than a minute too late.”
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