Warning! Leadership Contributes as Much as 50% to the Success and Failure, Performance, Results Of Your Company, Organisation, Business or Economy.

People in general, most leadership trainers and educators, and many people (not all, but many) in formal positions of leadership grossly underestimate the impact of leadership on the success and failure, performance and results of their companies, organisations, businesses and economies. This is why leadership is not taken as seriously as it should. Despite some research showing that many top executives and business leaders acknowledge that improving leadership is one of their core areas of focus and concern, the same invest very little time and financial resources in what is needed to develop or improve leadership performance and results in their companies, organisations, businesses and economies.

Many ( not all) people in top echelons of leadership invest very little time and financial resources in their own continuous leadership training, education and development. Some of these people in formal leadership positions never evaluate their leadership performance, and, if they do, they exaggerate how well they are doing in their leadership. Even most of these so-called 360 degree performance reviews rarely work for many of these people because those who review them are dead scared of providing honest evaluations for fear of being victims.

Even many outsiders are scared of speaking the truth about the performance of some people in formal positions of leadership because they fear backlash. If you are a leadership consultant and you suggest that leadership performance is below expectations in a company, organisation, business or economy, you are likely to get a big business backlash because these people in formal positions of leadership have the authority and power to give you or not give you business. It reminds me of the concept of;

"Speaking Truth to Power."

Speaking the truth about leadership performance is speaking truth to power. It is a high-risk undertaking especially financially. This is not surprising because, in general;

Humans want to be told what they want to hear, not what they must hear. In other words;

Flattery pays a thousand times more than honest truth.

This is the challenge with fixing leadership challenges.

Great leaders are open-minded and are willing to confront their vices and shortcomings; they seek honest feedback, yet formal leadership positions in many (not all) old-fashioned companies and organisations, are filled with people of either bad or poor ego or emotional weaklings who can't stand honest feedback about themselves and their leadership not matter how diplomatically and no matter how respectfully you do it. They hate the exact solution that helps them become better and more effective at leading.

Most people rise to positions of leadership not based on their leadership potential or abilities but because of other means such as political manoeuvring, inheritance, patronage, "years of experience in a leadership position", and other widely accepted, but faulty, criteria.

Poor Effort at Improving Leadership Performance and Results

Many organisations never invest any cent or any second in improving leadership performance and results. Many who do invest too little time or use flawed models, poor solutions and bad approaches.

1. They invest too little time in leadership training education and development of their leaders and managers.
2. They use flawed models including mistaking leadership education for leadership training and completely ignoring leadership development and leadership equipment.
3. They fail to periodically review their theory and practice in leadership.
4. They use the wrong people to help them improve their leadership performance and results.
5. They confuse leaders, leading and leadership
6. They do not map out the real key leadership result areas to focus on.
7. They do not approach leadership performance and results improvement from a strategic point of view but from a tactical, reactive approach which is barely effective.
8. They continue using old-fashioned leadership models, paradigms and approaches.
9. They mistake power and authority for leadership.
10. They use the one-size-fits-all model of leadership and leadership training, education and development.
11. They do not react and respond to any calls to rethink and relook at their perceptions, theory and practice of leadership.
12. They take any criticism of leadership very personally.

So you see why we have a leadership crisis?

Do you see why this leadership crisis has serious consequences?

Do you see why it is very tough to destroy the leadership crisis even it is critical for sustainable development?

And where do you stand in all this?

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?Simon Bere, 2024