Martin took a moment to look closely at his two friends and he began to wonder how things had ever got this bad. Anyone looking at the three o them would assume that they were three wealthy businessmen enjoying the end of a day’s golf. Certainly they all looked the part, but things are not always as they seem and Martin was worried.

In the ten years since they had been playing together, he had always enjoyed getting out of the office with Simon and Luke. Recently, however, he had begun to feel some resentment towards them. On the surface things continued as normal, free spending, joking and teasing. Martin’s father had reminded him that it was important never to look too hungry or too desperate when you are trying to close a deal. The recession had been tough on everyone. Luke was in the transport business and was pretty open about the price pressure that he was under, but he still seemed to be surviving. Martin was certain that Simon had done better in the downturn and he knew that he was still expanding and hiring people.

Martin ran an engineering business and things were bad. Sales were down 30% on last year and he had let several people go in the last few months. It had not been easy telling people the bad news, but now he was thinking that he should have acted sooner. When he first noticed things getting tighter he had taken the view that things would not be too bad for him. Natural optimism had been a strength and a weakness for him. “Hope is not a strategy” said his bank manager – prat. Cash was running out and he was spending more time on the phone talking to suppliers than he was looking for business. Soon he would have to back in front of the prat looking for a larger overdraft. And the banks were the ones who caused all the problems in the first place.

His accountant said that he should have a plan. Every time he phoned he kept asking about budgets and forecasts, but Martin had no time for that. This was a battle for survival. He had reached the stage now where he avoided the accountant altogether and now left the monthly figures to Ann in the office.

Simon had just done a review of his digital marketing and was about to invest £20,000 in a new website and internet marketing campaign. He raved about the marketing company who had done the strategy review and about the results that they were getting. He offered Martin their phone number, but he had not called them. Engineering is a very traditional sector and that internet stuff wouldn’t be well received by his customers. Anyway if he had £20,000 to spare he would pay some of his suppliers.

Still things would probably get better. You had to believe in a better tomorrow.

“Another drink chaps?”

The William Wallace Myth

Behind much of the discussions about leadership is an assumption that it is based on one of the fables that we learnt as children. Deep down we assume that a leader should be a hero figure, capable of riding out in fornt of his men and rousing their passions through stirring words and deeds of great bravery. This braveheart concept is almost never mentioned, but it does lie behind many of the ideas and debates on the topic. In truth, while people would like to be inspired by the people that they meet in work, too much passion is not considered to be a good thing in the modern workplace. While we would like the inspiration, we would have a low tolerance for the intensity that would go with it and most would not relish the expectations that such a passionate leader would have.

We do admire leaders that are physically larger, are physically attractive and are fluent speakers, but this is a dangerously exclusive model of leadership. It leaves no room for the average person and confuses attraction and admiration with ability to steer a good path for an organisation.

Leaders Are Born Not Made

For most of modern history it has been assumed that there is a cadre of leaders who are more qualified to lead than others because of their genetic inheritance. This group have been born to families of people who were successful in the past and therefore their offspring have been seen as well qualified to lead in any number of circumstances.
As social mobility has increased this myth has been debunked. People from a range of social and family backgrounds have been successful leaders. We also know of many circumstances in which the lord of the manor has proven to be a business disaster.

There are certain qualities that leaders must have, but they are not exclusively available to a narrow group of families. In addition, a leader will be influenced by a range of people as he grows up and these will play a significant part in the person that he or she becomes.

Leadership is about Getting Things Done

Managers run bureaucratic organisations by setting goals, allocating resources and by controlling the actions of people. This is how things get done in these organisations and the quality of these management controls determines how much gets done. Leadership overlaps with management regarding the control of people. The process of setting objectives and monitoring their delivery is management, but the communication of the direction of the organisation and making sure that people both share in the vision and want to contribute to its deliver is a part of leadership. At this level leadership and management are linked, but they are not the same things.

Good leaders Produce Superior Profits

For many organisations that yearn to produce great leaders, profits are the main goals. Yet it is not true that leaders always produce superior profits. At their best, leaders have a long term vision for their businesses, and they are generous in sharing the spoils of success with their colleagues. Their goal is to maximise long-term profits and they will do so at the expense of short term results. They will invest heavily in training and staff involvement. They will spend lavishly on long term incentive programs. A short term focus would produce better immediate results and is somewhat less risky. This is because the future is hard to foresee and visions have to change. In purely financial terms there is an argument for taking the money today and meeting the challenges of tomorrow as they arise.

People who are well lead are more satisfied in their work, but research does not indicate that that makes them more productive.

A Good Leader In Any Circumstance

It does not take much thought to realise that someone who is an effective military leader may not be a good leader of an animal care charity or lead a team in running the merger of two businesses. However, even in the narrower world of business leadership one man is not right in all circumstances. Compare Terry Leahy from Tesco and Tony Hayward from BP. Terry announced his retirement recently to broad acclaim in how he had led the company. On the other hand, Tony recently departed BP amid criticism of his handling of PR surrounding the gulf oil leak. Terry Leahy appears to be a modest man who knows his trade of retailing well and has used this knowledge to steer the business on a successful path for an extended period and his success is undeniable. It is doubtful if he were in the position that Tony Hayward was in earlier this year that he would have been able to cope with the glare of American publicity that he would have been under and that he would have been any more surefooted in his dealing with the press and the US congress. He was an excellent leader in one set of circumstance, but may not have coped well in another. This is not to take away any of the recognition he deserves for this achievements. Rather I am just pointing out how different people are required to lead in different circumstances.