There is no shortage of leaders in the world. The problem is that there are far fewer people who distinguish themselves as the exceptional leaders than we need at this moment. It is true in all areas of life \u2014and especially true for businesses throughout the world that the Covid Crisis has changed forever.<\/p>\n
As much as it is discussed and wished for, we are not going back to any kind of normality. Things will get better, but there is never any going back<\/em>. The best we can expect is to move forward to a reality that we are suited to prosper in. You must always be prepared to address the ever-present uncertainties of tomorrow. For most people, this is no easy task, and exceptional leaders make it look easy.<\/p>\n Good leaders are those who are well equipped to manage today\u2019s challenges. They also help ensure that the people they lead prepare themselves to face what they imagine the world will require from them tomorrow.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Preparing things for the future is relatively straightforward. It is more a function of management than leadership, and generally a product of experience and careful planning. We can often predict what we will need in the future based on what we have observed about the past. If you ever had your basement flood from a storm, you know to raise vulnerable belongings away from harm\u2019s way for the future. In business, you can manage for increased or decreasing capacity, anticipate cash flow and capital requirements, and upgrade systems to reflect changing needs. A good leader also relies on experience and observation to gain the perspective necessary to navigate the uncertainties of dynamic markets. They understand and identify the make-or-break issues impacting their world and demonstrate the courage to do the right things when they are difficult.<\/p>\n Predicting the future doesn\u2019t change it: people do.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Visionaries are how we describe leaders who foresee what must be done to prepare for the future. Being able to anticipate and plan for the future, as important as that might be, is still largely fruitless unless you can get people to do what needs to be done.<\/p>\n It is possible to coerce people to do the things you demand of them, and sometimes it is the only way to get certain things done. But people who are inspired by the contributions they feel they are making to a better future are far more likely to perform better. They tend to be more engaged, work harder, work smarter and seek to solve their own problems when they feel themselves to be stakeholders in the outcome. People tend to work harder to benefit others than they do to just benefit themselves.<\/p>\n Viktor Frankl describes this vividly in his book, \u201cMan\u2019s Search For Meaning,\u201d where the people who survived interned in Nazi Concentration Camps we those who devoted themselves to help others while there \u2013 and to ensure that the world would know about the atrocities they had been subjected to. People will sacrifice their own comfort \u2013 and even their safety to benefit others.<\/p>\n Effectively dealing with the inherent uncertainty of the future requires that people accept the discomfort they naturally feel. It is how people grow and emerge from times of chaos and crisis changed, more capable and more resilient. And it is how leaders shape themselves and then shape others when challenged by crisis.<\/p>\n You can spot outstanding leaders in times of crisis: they tend to behave differently. They rarely consume themselves with solving today\u2019s problems because their organizations are fully capable of and competent at doing so. Instead, they focus on preparing for the next challenge and the opportunities that the current circumstances might yield. Leading is all about moving people into the future.<\/p>\n People may take comfort by reminiscing the past and often get stuck there. Ruminating about how to change the past will not help you create the future. Learning from the past requires that you first free yourself from the emotional attachments and mental entanglements that keep you focused backward and prevent you from fully experiencing the present moment\u2019s reality. You can either look forward or back, but not at the same time.<\/p>\n People might seek certainty from the past. The future always bears some uncertainty, but the past at least appears to be solidly cast. People also strive to find clarity in the post-mortem we perform on our experiences. But memory is selective and, therefore, faulty. We can remember what we want to and forget whatever we feel doesn\u2019t serve us. You might even imagine the past to be different than what you actually experienced at the time. This is often true of how people misremember traumatic events or find they cannot remember them at all. It is also possible to blend your wishes and desires with the facts of your past experiences to create a vivid fantasy that revises your objective experience. Testimony in courtrooms often demonstrates that it is entirely possible for people to be certain about things that never happened.<\/p>\n The critical path to learning from the past is making useful meaning of what you have experienced. Making meaning is different than \u201cfinding\u201d meaning. Finding meaning is when you search for evidence and construct a story based on what you can infer. Sometimes the evidence can be so compelling that the \u201ctruth\u201d that emerges seems to be irrefutable. You find meaning by reconstructing the past. Yet, while we can sometimes prove that something happened, we can generally only speculate why. Making meaning is how we choose to interpret what we find.<\/p>\n Bring to bear the science of forensics and evidence can be quite damning. A well-orchestrated criminal investigation may prove beyond any reasonable doubt that the accused indeed robbed the bank. But \u201cproving\u201d motive is always an inference. You can never really know for sure what other people are thinking or feeling.<\/p>\n At best, you can presume who someone is based on their actions, but you may never know what was truly in their heart. The storyline of Les Mis\u00e9rables focuses on the criminal act of the character John Valjean, who is imprisoned for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his starving family. The question of whether he is merely a convicted criminal or a hero suffering the consequences of his convictions that set him at odds with the ever-dutybound to the law, Inspector Javert. The meaning we make is always subjective \u2013 even when the facts are clear.<\/p>\n Dealing in present realities isn\u2019t necessarily all that different. We find meaning in the things and situations we observe or hear about and then proceed to make meaning of them. In this sense, reality is always subjective. \u00a0We may all have to agree that it is raining but determining whether that is a good or bad thing is purely subjective.<\/p>\n A leader\u2019s role is to shape the way people make meaning of their present and future experience. They explain current realities in terms of future needs and objectives. It is this influence that exceptional leaders are highly effective at wielding in pursuit of a great and worthy cause. It is how leaders impart a sense of meaningful purpose that inspires people to take action and perform conscientiously. It is what makes leaders competent (effective in accomplishing what is necessary) and how leaders make those they lead competent as well. Leadership amounts to a constant pursuit of competence.<\/p>\n While outstanding leaders may make difficult decisions look easy, making difficult choices is not what makes a leader exceptional. Managing the things critical to the organization\u2019s success is something a good leader can and should delegate. The real make-or-break for any company is the competence of people who execute the decisions. Decisions themselves are inert; they have no force until someone carries them out. A decision without action is worthless.<\/p>\n Fully competent leaders shape themselves into people that shape the organization to do what it must do; shape the people of the organization, so they will accomplish what is necessary and possible; and shape the meaning that defines the \u201cwhy\u201d behind it all – and fuels the sense of purpose and drives the organization to perform, adapt and succeed. When these four tasks align, the result is not just performance but joy. People find joy in the things they accomplish that they understand to be significant and meaningful. Leaders cultivate moments of joy or MoJo \u2013 by demonstrating, exercising and wielding their leadership competence.<\/p>\n Leaders might be able to manage things that must happen, but you cannot manage the people who must make things happen. Getting people to perform at their potential is a function of leadership.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Perhaps the most challenging aspect of effective leadership is preparing your people for the future. It is also the single most important thing you must accomplish as a leader. Getting people to perform in the presence of a challenge they can see is difficult enough. But preparing people to take on a challenge that they can only, at best, imagine is the truest test of your leadership.<\/p>\n How well people perform is a combination of their having the requisite competencies, or the skills, knowledge, talent, and experience needed to do their job; and, more importantly, applying what they can do to effectively accomplish whatever must be done. What people are capable of doing is a function of training and sometimes natural talent for the task. But how people perform is a function of conscientiousness that only comes from within you. It is a choice.<\/p>\n You choose to be conscientious or not \u2013 depending on how you feel about what you are doing, why you are doing it, and the significance of the outcome. It is a matter of what you believe \u2013 or choose to believe. You might work hard under duress or in pursuit of some sort of reward, but these external pressures will not cause you to be conscientious in what you do.\u00a0 You might be diligent in so far as ensuring that you avoid whatever punishment someone might subject you to \u2013 or the rewards you are desiring. But rarely will anyone demonstrate the extreme grit \u2013 or the ability to get comfortable being uncomfortable without feeling a deep connection to a purpose and a sense of duty to something that serves something they see as reaching beyond their personal needs and interests.<\/p>\n Some people connect to such a sense of purpose and find inspiration to perform exceptionally entirely on their own. But most people find their inspiration through others. This is where outstanding leaders find themselves and where the people we generally regard as the most remarkable leaders in the world have all stood. They are the few who influence the many.<\/p>\n Exceptional leaders understand that the good they contribute to society is the work of others. It is not just humbleness. It is a fundamental understanding of the dynamics of true leadership: that it is the followers that make the leader successful and not the other way around. In business, the organization makes the leader successful, just as it is the soldiers who fight the war and the players on the field that win the football game. The role of the leader is to be a catalyst for the performance, meaning he or she ensures that the conditions are suitable or even optimal for change to occur \u2013 and then that leader can drop out without so much as a trace being part of the final product. This is where humility comes into play.<\/p>\n Great leaders don’t elevate their status themselves: it is their accomplishments that give rise to their notable reputations. And those accomplishments are rarely, if ever, the product of their own hands. Instead, their performance is measured by the work of others who have found purpose and determination in the presence of exceptional leadership.<\/p>\n You can spot outstanding leaders, but you have to know where to look and what you are looking for. You won\u2019t necessarily find them conspicuously at the top, towering over the others. Instead, you see them tucked quietly within the pattern of humanity that drives the organization. What makes them stand out are those they surround themselves with \u2013 and how those people stand out through their performance and by accomplishing what matters most.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There is no shortage of leaders in the world. The problem is that there are far fewer people who distinguish themselves as the exceptional leaders than we need at this moment. It is true in all areas of life \u2014and especially true for businesses throughout the world that the Covid Crisis has changed forever. 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