Leadership

Leadership is critical in today's business climate. It has been said that leadership is the critical lynch pin that holds the organization together while preparing the way for change and evolution that is necessary to succeed in turbulent and challenging business environments. The time that we live in are certainly turbulent with business facing tough economic time. Taking a brief look at the headlines show how uncertain our time are. GM and Chrysler going through bankruptcy, the Dow, S&P 500, and NASDAQ all experiencing lows that were unexpected a short time ago. As a result, leadership is challenged on a regular basis with layoff, flattening organizational structures, new channels of business, retaining the best people, and people in the organization having more and more work to do. There are no magical answers to the issues that leaders face. However there are themes that are apparent that become necessary for survival. Several of these themes include leadership, teamwork, alignment, empowerment, accountability, speed to market, and quality. At the top of the list is leadership. Many "experts" confirm this. Warren Bennis says "Around the globe we currently face a deepening leadership crisis in organizations." he continue by saying "...in many ways it is the most urgent and dangerous of the threats we face today, if only because it is insufficiently recognized and little understood." "Leadership is the most important single factor in determining business success or failure in our competitive, turbulent, fast moving economy." according to Brian Tracy author of The 100 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of Business Success. Certainly leadership is a great need for organization today. Stay tuned for more thoughts on the need for leadership and way that the leadership challenges in organizations can be corrected.