To be on the cutting-edge of career building or business development in this day and age, you will need to create a perception based on the person who would be uniquely qualified for such a career or business.
If two people were stranded on a deserted island, one would become the Leader and the other the Follower by default. It is the law of nature and a rudimentary principle of any society. Once a society expands and becomes segmented, each sub-category will choose its own leader. Homeless street people will find a leader among themselves. So will people who are fighting for a cause or conviction. In any society there are only two types of people: Leaders and Followers.
This social model of hierarchy also applies to career or business. Regardless of your level of expertise or knowledge, your ability to ascend to the next rung of your career or corporate ladder is directly linked to your ability to lead those who are your followers. If you stop climbing, someone will pass you!
Business owners are business Leaders by default! Yet, many business owners are uncomfortable in their role of Leader. Creating a business is one thing. Operating a business successfully is quite another! In order for any business to grow, it needs more customers. And as the business gets more customers, it needs more Leaders in the organization to service those customers.
Our current business model rewards Leaders in an organization through the process of promotions. Promotions are a tried and true mechanism for recognizing Leaders in any commercial enterprise. Unfortunately, that system of Leadership is regressive and fatally flawed! It limits Leadership potential by creating an artificial or glass ceiling.
So here’s a paradigm shift for any organization who wants to thrive in the 21st century!
“Everyone in any organization or corporation must become a Leader!”
When I say “everyone”, I mean everyone! From the junior clerk working in the mail room to the CEO.
When I say “any organization or corporation”, I mean any entity that has an operational structure of more than one person! Whether it’s the local general store or the international General Motors Corporation, Leadership is essential to success. Recent “adjustments” at the top of some of our automotive giants have resulted in dramatic changes in productivity and profitability, while at the same time improving quality and competitiveness.
So here’s a vision for the Future!
What if we could change every member of the executive team of a typical corporation into a Leader in his or her own right?
What if we could change every member of the staff of a typical business enterprise into a Leader in their own right?
What if we could change every worker or employee of a typical industry into a Leader in their own right?
What ifwe could make everyone a Leader in their own right?
What if YOU could be a Leader in your own right?
Just so that we’re absolutely clear on this one point, not every manager or foreman is a Leader and not every Leader is a manager or a foreman! But every segment of society and every economic model has seen a marked decline in its ability to achieve its objectives because of a leadership vacuum that is the direct result of an outdated and outmoded concept of what constitutes a Leader.
Let’s ask Dr. Laurence J. Peter what created this Leadership vacuum in the first place!
“In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.” ~ Dr. Laurence J. Peter
When I first read The Peter Principle (written in 1969), I was bemused by this treatise on leadership stagnation. While initially intended to be humorous and satirical, the Peter Principle soon became the alternative definitive standard (or lack thereof) on business management. “Rising to your level of incompetence” became the corporate cliché of the day. The irony with Dr. Peter’s verdict was that it hit a raw nerve with many managers and executives who were flat-lined in their career momentum.
For those of you not familiar with Dr. Peter’s hypothesis, or simply too young to remember, here is the gist of this quasi humorous treatise:
The Peter Principle holds that in a hierarchy, members are promoted so long as they work competently. Sooner or later they are promoted to a position at which they are no longer competent (their “level of incompetence”), and there they remain, being unable to earn further promotions.
At first blush, the Peter Principle appears to be validated by its innocuous implication. We rise to a certain level where the aggregate of our skills, education and experience match the performance required from us. And we will remain there as long as that equation is in balance. But Dr. Peter formulated his equation in 1969, when the world was a different place. No cell phones, no computers, no internet and no outsourcing. Some forty years later, we have surpassed the equivalent of half a dozen industrial revolutions. The competency level of your trusted PC is challenged by a new upstart: The MAC computer. The Blackberry smart phone will likely not survive in competition with the iPhone. Outsourcing is no longer the exception, it now is the norm! Anyone with the notion that reaching their level of incompetence signals the arrival of an era of peaceful obscurity, better think again!
Forty years ago, it may have been possible to perform and function at a level of incompetency and become incubated in that netherworld of irrelevance. But that was then and this is now! Everything is changing at warp speed and obsolescence no longer applies just to gadgets, widgets and what-cha-ma-call-its. By today’s standards, reaching a level of incompetency is akin to being career-dead! You are one infinitesimal degree away from becoming dispensable. You are about to become obsolete.
There’s no room in the Inn for the hapless incompetent! Incompetency have no discernible identity! Being obsolete has no intrinsic value in today’s corporate world! Once you’re obsolete, you no longer matter!
© 2014 Allan N. Mulholland, CPC
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