THE POWER OF FEEDBACK, LEADING IN THE POSTMODERN ERA | Part 1

Things are moving very fast these days and have led to words like “fast food”, “one-minute passport”, “fast internet”, etc. As a result of this love for speed and the world is a global village, information is transmitted at a great speed that in seconds, you can access things from anywhere in the world. This has not left leadership out of the scene as pioneer leaders are up against the task of leveling up their game. They have to lead with speed.

The truth about leadership in the postmodern era is that if you are not fast in adjusting to the changes of the era, you will be left behind. And when you are left, you become obsolete. Speed is what is required in the postmodern era of leadership, which necessitates a great deal of mastery without which there may be accidents in the journey. So, the leader must understand that this mastery cannot be attained by a single individual but through collective ingenuity.

Collective ingenuity is the assembly of experts who in their various fields of endeavors with respect to the leadership vision, mission and purpose, understand the dynamics of how things work. They are assembled to get things done with clear-cut instruction from the pioneering leader as feed-backs flow from the people being led.

Therefore, the pioneer leader becomes a talent scout whose work is to mobilize and then delegate responsibilities. He becomes the executive who knows exactly what needs to be done when it has to be done, and why it has to be done, which are keys that must be found before assembling the team. He should never make the mistakes of assembling his team before asking “what”, “when”, and “why”. This is because experts left alone may not know exactly the “what”, “when”, and “why” as they are mainly equipped with the dexterity to get things done – “how”.

For the pioneer and his team of collective ingenuity to do a great job and deliver on the vision, mission, and purpose of the leadership, they need constant feedback from the people. They must do this bearing in mind that postmodern leadership is designed to serve the people, never the leaders’ personal interests. Hence, feedback, being a form of corrective criticism that is intended to help the leadership serve the people better, cannot be overlooked.

Whatever the leading goal is geared towards – products or services or results – the end game is to bring about maximum satisfaction to the people being led. And if the people are not satisfied with the results of the leadership, the leaders have not done a great job.

The purpose of mastery is to guarantee an efficient and effective output that even though the leaders are agile, however, arriving at perfect products, services or results can only be through a progressive process that requires setting out a milestone and being open to adjust and effect changes via feedbacks.

Effective and efficient changes can only happen to the benefit of the people if the pioneer leader and his collective ingenuity make use of powerful feedback from the people. Here the product or services or results do not have to be perfect before they are achieved, however, there must be an ascertained minimum viable quality before it reaches the people who need them. And the feedback from the people will now help this thinktank to the perfect products or services or results.

The application of this feedbacks will come to inform of updates and upgrades. The pioneer leader and his team must be willing to update the people and also get feedback from the same to be sure that what is intended is achieved. When the information flows from the leadership, it is seen as updates, but when it flows from the people to the leadership, it is feedback.

Remember that the goal of the leadership of the postmodern era, by means possible, is the satisfaction of the people regardless of how that makes the pioneering leaders feel. If you are rendering services or designing products, they must suit your customers. If you fail to do so, you will lose over time. Kodak is out of business because they did not take feedback seriously. How about Yahoo, Nokia, Blackberry.

The results of leadership are the products that the pioneer leaders sell to the people, and they must do that giving regards to the feedback from the people. If not, they will be booed out of the office with time. The people are hungry for results and will go all out to get them. But will the pioneer leaders be ready to be the originators of these satisfactory results that the people see?