Quality Leadership Consultants Blog—September 25, 2010
One of the great responsibilities of leadership is to properly steward the power or influence that has been entrusted to the leader. I have come across two books that clearly explain the consequences of a positive influence. Bobb Biehl reminds us of the transforming possibilities of when a leader is influenced.
“When you influence a child, you influence a life. When you influence a parent, you influence a family. When you influence a president, you influence a corporation. When you influence a pastor, you influence a church. When you influence a leader, you influence all who look to him or her for leadership.” Pg.171
Biehl, Bobb. 1996. Mentoring: confidence in finding a mentor and becoming one. Nashville, TN: Broadman and Holman Publishers.
In their leadership classic, “Spiritual Leadership,” Henry and Richard Blackaby share with us why a leader’s character matters:
“The issue of influence is critical, especially in Christian leadership. In people’s attempts to enlist a following, some have resorted to developing the appearance of a leader rather than developing the character of a leader.” Pg. 87
“Collins and Porras, in their book Built to Last, concluded that the contention that ‘visionary companies require great and charismatic visionary leaders’ is a myth. On the contrary, they determined that ‘a charismatic visionary leader is absolutely not required for a visionary company and, in fact, can be detrimental tåo a company’s long-term prospects.’ Great leaders, they discovered, built great organizations, not necessarily great reputations. When organizations are built around the personality of a leader, not only is the organization susceptible to the weaknesses and whims of its leader, but is also faces an inevitable crisis then the leader leaves the organization. When a church plummets in attendance after its pastor leaves or a company’s profits significantly decline after the CEO resigns, this may indicate the organization was built more on personality than on a healthy process or product.” Pg. 92
Blackaby, Henry and Richard. 2001. Spiritual leadership: moving people to God’s agenda. Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
QUALITY THOUGHTS: Quality Leaders seeks to influence other leaders. Quality Leaders are authentic and seek to build an organization that is designed to outlast them.
Leading with Quality in Mind,
Denny Bates
Good post. I agree that a visionary leader does not set things up for the long haul. It is good to have visionaries as part of things so that we can see things in a new light and be challenged, but it is hard to build on visionary foundations. Our culture seems to crave flashy leaders...but then again many crave what is not good for them. Thanks for your reminder.
ReplyDeleteGood word! It seems that so many organizations put all their eggs in one basket (person) and when the basket breaks they've got a mess that is sometimes hard to clean up.
ReplyDelete