Effective Leadership

The Center for Public Leadership at the John F. Kennedy School of Government reports that 80 percent of Americans surveyed indicate we have a leadership crisis in the United States. Of these individuals, 79 percent believe we will decline as a nation unless we get better leaders. Is it a surprise that business leaders rank near the bottom of the list, with only 45 percent of the people surveyed having confidence in these business leaders?

Think about a leader you work with. Is he or she effective? What qualities does that leader exhibit that either makes him effective or a failure? Joseph S. Nye, Jr. suggests we need to promote a new style of leadership. I couldn’t agree more.

Often times, a new leader goes into an organization and simply “leads.” All leaders are not effective leaders. What better way to ensure a new style of leadership becomes a reality than by providing leaders with the tools and training needed to improve their effectiveness? Some leaders get to the “top” and feel they have arrived because they know everything there is to know. Leaders must continue to develop their skills and to listen and learn from the stories of other effective leaders. Change will happen whether or not we pay attention to it. In fact, the only constant is change. Do you want planned and effective change? Or, do you just want it to happen around you and see what happens? Do you want to know how a new change program is doing after its implementation? Effective leaders want managed change. They want their followers involved in the planning and implementing of change activities, and they want to know how the new change is impacting the organization. How can they discover the “how-to’s” to accomplish their goals? What do you think?