Today’s business literature is replete with leadership models, and an entire industry has grown up around coaching leaders. Leadership is possibly one of the most valuable human activities; However, despite the vast literature on the subject, many people still cannot identify the basic building blocks that define what leadership is. it is. Intuitively we know that leaders have the talent to bring people together; get them to work together effectively; align them around a common purpose, goals and objectives; get them to cooperate and trust each other; and trust each other. We also know from the experience of observing leaders in action that the generic attributes leadership described in the literature, and the real paper that a leader’s games do not occur in a vacuum, but are embedded in specific historical contexts, business situations, and the organizational structures, systems, and culture within which people lead (Elliot Jaques and Stephen Clement, Executive leadership, (Arlington, VA: Cason Hall, 1994, p. Xiv et seq. And 6 et seq.).
Research and field analysis have shown that leadership has four interdependent dimensions.
- Expertise, experience and wisdom
- Problem solving ability
- Personality, core beliefs and values
- Awareness of oneself and of others
The first dimension of leadership (expertise, experience and wisdom) includes education, expertise, experience in specific industries and markets, and a track record of effectively leading organizations with various numbers of employees and management levels (Elliot Jaques, Organization required, Baltimore, MD: 2006). Over time, managerial wisdom emerges as solid, experienced judgment about how organizations and industries work, what motivates people, what customers and suppliers really need and want, and how to work effectively at the top levels of management. .
The second dimension of leadership (problem-solving ability) is about having the appropriate level of “brainpower” to effectively perform the level of work and complexity of the task to which a person is assigned. The complexity of the work and the task is defined as: a) the number of variables that operate in a situation, b) the ambiguity of these variables, c) their rate of change over time, d) the extent to which they intertwine from so that they have to be unraveled to be seen, e) the ability of the person to identify and control the highlighted variables once known, and f) the time horizon of the work in terms of days, months and years (Jaques, Organization required, P. 24 ss. and Jaques and Clemente, Executive leadership, P. xiv et seq.).
The third dimension of leadership (personality, beliefs and core values) manifests itself as patterns of behavior and interaction, unspoken assumptions, intrinsic motivators, and underlying patterns of how leaders view themselves, other people, and the world around them ( see Mark Bodnarczuk, Breckenridge (TM) type indicator). There is no “correct” personality or core set of beliefs and values for a given leadership position, but rather the question is: a) to what extent do they help a person to work effectively, or b) do they reveal bias in taking of decisions, predictable errors of judgment or inappropriate behavior patterns? A key indicator that a person possesses a mature understanding of this dimension of leadership is the degree to which they: a) avoid using what Collins calls or thinking, and b) instead practice both-and-thinking (Jim Collins, Built to last, New York: Harper Business, 1994, p. 43 ff.).
The fourth dimension of leadership (Awareness of Self and Others) is based on the timeless principles found in Jim Collins’ best-selling book, Good to excellent (Jim Collins, Good to excellent, New York: Harper Business, 2001). Collins began his research on Good to excellent with an anti-leadership bias. He told his research team that the fact that “great companies had great leaders” was self-evident and an uninteresting finding. But his research showed that truly great companies had a fundamentally different type of leader (what he called a Level 5 leader) and these people were characterized by professional will and fierce resolve combined with personal humility. Level 5 leaders put self-interest aside and instead focus on building a sustainable organization and preparing others to succeed, not fail. Level 5 leaders know how to look inwardly into the mirror of personal responsibility when things go wrong, and they know how to give credit to others when things go well (Collins, Good to excellent, P. 33 ff.). The key question is: “How do you become the kind of leader that Collins describes in Good to excellent? “Collins argues that Level 5 leaders exhibit a pattern of personal development in which the egocentric drive required to rise to the top of corporate America morphs into the paradoxical combination of professional will, fierce determination, and humility, but offers no focus. systematic way to become a Level 5 leader – it’s beyond the scope of your study.
The four dimensions of leadership are an interdependent set of competencies, skills, and characteristics that allow leaders to bring people together; get them to work together effectively; align them around a common purpose, goals and objectives; get them to cooperate and trust each other; and trust each other. As mentioned above, the generic attributes leadership described in the literature, and the real paper That a leader plays on a day-to-day basis does not occur in a vacuum, but is embedded in specific historical contexts, business situations, and the organizational structures, systems, and culture within which people lead. Consequently, the four dimensions of leadership must always be contextualized and to the real-life situations and challenges that leaders face.