Leadership Lapse

Leadership — or the lack of leadership — has been written about more and more as our economy has crumbled. In an opinion piece in the Washington Post, Steven Pearlstein decries the leadership failure that got us into this mess.

According to Pearlstein, had there been leaders on Wall Street, they would have avoided going along with everyone else who was making risky loans and placing their assets in risky financial instruments. They would have spoken out at investor conferences and admitted that things were getting out of hand. They would have gone to regulators in Washington with charts and graphs showing a house of cards. They would have listened to a few child-like voices who were saying you’re wearing no clothes. I don’t know any leaders like that. And the child who told the emperor he was wearing no clothes was in a fairy tale.

Although I would yield to the opinions of three blogs that consider leadership on a daily basis, Execupundit, Managing Leadership, and Bob Sutton Work Matters, I wonder whether leadership exists anymore. Executives exist. CEOs exist. Boards of directors exist. Managers and supervisors exist. But leaders?

To oversimplify, it seems to me that leaders consistently do some basic things that aren’t done in this day and time: (1) tell the truth; (2) accept blame; (3) say I’m sorry; (4) give credit to others; (5) encourage dissent; (6) ask for help from everyone throughout an organization and accept the help they offer, particularly from those low on the totem pole; (7) be more concerned about the compensation received by the people being led than the people leading; (8) be consistent in the treatment of all employees/followers; (9) prove that people are the most important asset by placing them ahead of profits; and (10) give other people the power to assume leadership positions.

If those who say they’re leaders embraced these general leadership characteristics rather than Mr. Pearlstein’s characteristics tailored to a specific crisis, I think we’d have fewer crises and be able to promptly and effectively deal with crises when they occur. In proposing his leadership characteristics, Mr. Pearlstein says he doesn’t think he’s being naive. I know that I am.

1. 

   John Phillips says:

   December 23, 2008 at 11:23 am

   ML,

   Thanks for the link.

   John