It is interesting that the Wikipedia entry on “Leadership” begins with the statement that “defining leadership has been challenging.” In today’s real world business leaders are a lot less concerned with defining leadership and instead, intensely focused on coping with successfully executing it for their continued personal and organizational survival and success. To do so, practical tools and resources are available from providers like TrainingIndustry.com and its many quality organization members. One such tool is the compass which has been selected as the symbol for our TrainingIndustry.com Leadership Community.
The compass is both a simple, and yet profoundly practical tool for enabling formal and informal leaders in these most challenging times. The dictionary describes the compass as a “resource for finding a desired direction…and then achieving it.” While this sounds simple enough, most leaders lack such a practical tool for achieving sustained success that requires pursuing different directions as its situation changes.
The four directions shown on a compass can be likened to the four different ones that organizations must be able to go in to remain competitive. The “N-S-E-W” destinations are synonymous with these four areas of leadership required for any organization to survive. These are Culture, People, Processes, and Strategy.
Culture and Strategy provide the long-term, visionary perspective and direction while its People and Processes involve the immediate, operational factors that must be effectively managed. Organizations that experience sustained higher performance in both good and bad times develop and exhibit strength in all four areas. And those that either aren’t strong in each or lack strength in the area needed either don’t survive or really struggle.
I’ve seen this in a company that had been an award-winning business leader whose winning business strategy and competitive advantage eroded over time because its people didn’t buy-in to it. And, in another organization, it had strong business processes that began to work against it over time as market conditions changed and it failed to respond in a culture that was resistant to reinventing itself.
It is perhaps most fascinating that the true “magnetic north” of the leadership compass is its Culture. This provides the character that keeps customers, employees, and thus investors to continue with them through turbulent times.
If you would like to learn more about this model or a copy of the complete article and graphic for use in your organization please send me an email at Drmichaeloconnor@centerformbv.com
