Here is a thought experiment to get your mental juices flowing
Who am I?
- a multi-billion dollar enterprise
- with a long and distinguished history, filled with notable achievements, and some dismal failures
- have for held a position of international leadership for decades
- associated with a core function of any modern nation and economy
- provides products and services that are indispensible to modern life
- lately, appears to be disconnected from the “customer base” and out of touch with changing global trends
- have had operational failures attributed to leadership failure
- leadership executives have a clear, extensive career path and are carefully selected for promotions and positions of increasing responsibility
- current leaders are highly successful, career professionals with decades in the operational environment at the helm, and supported by world-class analysis and qualitative advice.
- Little to no evidence of cost control over their core processes
- Constrained by long term contractual obligations that are too expensive to maintain and too expensive to amend
- Recent failures have become so visible and widespread as to be an object of public scorn and disgust.
- Current leaders are by all accounts bright, loyal, innovative, articulate, humble, decisive, experienced, highly educated, nuanced, intelligent, thoughtful, good listeners, respectful of other points of view
Underwhat conditions do the positive attributes of leadership become irrelevant to the current situation?
By what criteria should we evaluate the situation to determine if those conditions are met?
Can we know the causal factors that reliably lead to success? How would we know we are right?
Can success come from unpredictable variables? If so, what does that say about our model of leadership and the qualities we look for in leaders? Has this dialogue affected your opinion of the concept of leadership? What are your reactions?