Perspective: What Is A Leaders Most Important Job?
From Larry Winget:
A leaders most important job: To lead. Duh.
How do you lead? Not from behind, that’s for sure. Leaders have to get out in front with their ideas, vision, energy and presence.
As I watch movies and TV shows about the battles of old, I always see the leader, even when the leader was the King himself, sitting atop his horse and charging into battle out in front of his troops. What an inspiration that must have been to see their leader’s commitment to his beliefs, his words and to his troops by being willing to risk it all by riding ahead of them into battle. Of course, that also meant that he usually got killed first. There are consequences for being the leader. The risk is the reason they make the big bucks and why we record their names in the history books.
Few leaders today risk much. They rarely get out in front for fear of the consequences. They want the glory when it goes well but mostly they don’t want the blame when it doesn’t go well. They don’t want the responsibility for the mess because they might lose their job, or not get re-elected.
Larry Winget, the Pitbull of Personal Development®, is a six-time NYT/WSJ bestselling author, social commentator and appears regularly on many national television news shows. To find out more, go to www.LarryWinget.com.
From Mark Sanborn:
A leader’s most important job is focusing the time and expertise of her team on doing the most important work of the organization.
All results and revenue are driven by how people spend their time (effort) and expertise (knowledge and skills). Profit, innovation, efficiency, effectiveness—everything is the byproduct of time and expertise. Invested wisely, the organization achieves great success. Lacking focus, mediocrity becomes the norm.
A leader isn’t just a person who is focused, but one who creates shared focus. There is a great deal of wasted time and expertise in companies where employees are doing low-priority work, or work that shouldn’t be done at all. But lacking an effective leader, it is difficult for them to know what they should be doing instead.
Just as a conductor makes sure members of an orchestra are all playing the right music to the best of their ability, so does an effective leader do his job. That is the most important job of the leader.
Mark Sanborn is president of Sanborn & Associates, Inc., an idea studio for leadership development. He is an award-winning speaker bestselling author of books including, The Fred Factor. For more information and free resources, visit www.marksanborn.com.
From Joe Calloway:
What is a leader’s most important job? Clarity.
First and foremost, clarity about culture. Everyone must be crystal clear about who we are, what we value, and how we treat people. Clarity about culture means that those who violate the culture must leave. (Your culture, by the way, may very well invite new ideas, criticism, and disagreements.)
Then, clarity about what is most important. Here I agree with Mark Sanborn wholeheartedly. An effective leader makes clear exactly where we are going and what we have to do to get there. Everyone knows what the priorities are and is focused on the execution of those priorities.
We’ve all had the experience of working for a leader who was unclear about expectations, direction, or values. It’s the worst. A leader with no clear direction can destroy an organization.
To achieve clarity, a leader must have the ability to make the complicated simple. Steve Jobs was a master of this. He once said “if you can make things simple, you can move mountains.”
Amen. Give us leaders who can enable us to move mountains. Give us clarity.
Joe Calloway helps great companies get even better. www.JoeCalloway.com
From Scott McKain:
The leader’s most important job: make great decisions for the long-term benefit of the group.
It’s important to recognize that the leader has to view both the group that he or she has been designated to lead, and the challenges and opportunities in front of them, from a strategic, “30,000 feet” level.
This means sometimes building consensus before the decision is made is the right choice – other situations call for developing support for a judgment the leader has already determined.
Note, as well, I suggest it’s for the LONG TERM benefit of the group – which is precisely why so many executives aren’t true leaders. They’re managing for this quarter’s numbers, not leading their companies to create distinction.
When the leader views the future from that “30,000 feet” level, it’s like looking out the window of an airplane – you can see much farther down the road with that perspective than someone driving to the same destination. It’s commonly referred to as the leader having “vision.”
Until women and men in positions of authority are willing to have a visionary perspective, and start making more great decisions with the long-term benefit of their group or followers in mind, we won’t see an expansion of great leadership.
To find out more about Scott McKain, go to: www.ScottMcKain.com
From Randy Pennington:
The easy answer is, “Do what we’ve done in Texas.” The leaders here make it easy for business to do business.
Here are the results: unemployment lower than the national average; 40% of all the jobs created between 2009 and 2011; large companies relocating here.
The employment statistics don’t mention the high percentage of minimum wage jobs, however.
Adding jobs is not fixing the economy. For that, we must completely overhaul our education system to grow the skills and work ethic needed to compete in the 21st century.
Here is the truth: Many of the jobs lost in the Great Recession are never coming back. They can be automated or performed in less expensive places. And, we have a skills shortage for the jobs that will grow our economy.
We spend more per student than any other country in the world, and we do not rank in the top 20 on math, science, and reading scores. Our commitment to re-skilling adults is marginal at best – from both the unemployed and the government.
So yes, let’s elect grownups who will lead. But let’s not confuse putting people to work in low-paying jobs with fixing the economy. That requires a commitment to education and entrepreneurial thinking that enables jobs that add value. It is equal parts responsible leadership and individual responsibility.
That’s not easy. It is hard.
Randy Pennington helps leaders deliver positive results in a world of accelerating change. To find out more, go to www.penningtongroup.com.
