Misunderstanding of companies capabilities often leads to disappointment and condemns many endeavours taken by the company.

Company's leadership reaches well beyond a few good employees at the top. It includes minimal number of employees who can bring breakthroughs in performance.

For successful strategies there requires stronger and more dominant leadership at all levels.
As number of strategic dimensions and corresponding initiatives increases pressure on leaders also increases.

Higher aspirations and radical shift creates leadership gap Building right quantity of leaders with right mix at right time is essential to match the opportunities.

Right leaders must adapt to new culture, should have high capability and should be business builder.
Assessment of leaders capacity before new endeavour is of utmost important. Failure to above step burdens existing leaders and performance dips. One critical misstep can jeopardise entire investment. Existing leaders wont find time to coach young leaders which in turn can leave companys core operations and strategic growth at risk.

If the company does not have the right number of leaders the plan should not proceed. Companys strategic options should be weighed against the ability to launch new business, new approaches etc. Plan the path toward a predetermined strategic goal by taking into account the quantity, timing, mix of leaders that various alternatives require. Leading food company planning to launch 5 new products will definitely launch one by one product. They weighed companys risk taking ability and right mix of leaders that adapt to different cultures.

Business development leader would definitely be helpful in seeking an alliance partner to speed up pace. They also called an expert who can valuate the deals. Leadership can become starting of strategy by assessing their current pools of leaders.

To reduce risk of strategic failure they need to direct their approach to leadership with three horizons in mind.

Filling the gap

Companies need to position themselves in advance for future strategic goals. Company must hire and groom leaders as much as a decade or more ahead of market need and then help built them internal networks necessary for long term success.

Long term position

Medium term cultivate

Companies must start training their members 1 or 2 years in advance. It involves identifying right talent for specific job.
It includes counselling, training and giving new individual assignment as per strengths and weakness. Companies may give an indication for personal development before hand to the employees regarding new assignment. Better approach is to use corporate performance objectives and personality development goals to match current and potential leaders with opportunities. Strategy will not succeed in void and leadership will definitely make a difference.

Those who lead themselves and their teams to produce peak performance in the face of extreme challenges by overcoming the dangers not foreseen or addressed by current, pop leadership theory

Essence

Climbers bear a resemblance to managers . Qualities required is same in both the cases.

Authors have highlighted some qualities of manager through their insights they have gained while mountain climbing.

Both frequently face terrible situation Must make instinctive, critical decision that will avert danger or trigger avalanche They always face life-death situation Performance at high level is mandatory

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Eight dangers managers should overcome

Fear of death Selfishness Tool seduction Arrogance Lone heroism Cowardice Comfort Gravity

Fear is powerful and paralyzing emotion

Fear is inevitable, if risk is involve in a task Accept fear, actively look for it and growth will follow accordingly

SELFISHNESS

Selfish climber can risk the safety of entire team Selfishness manifest itself as dangerous, unproductive, dysfunctional behavior

TOOL SEDUCTION

It is a myth that expensive equipment can replace proper technique. Only flexibility is reliable
Nowadays, companies look for employees with right kind of attitude and personality

Egotism has ruined hundreds of mountain climbers and thousand of companies A leader should share his experiences, set his examples and motivate his subordinates by helping them to advance. LONE HEROISM Invincible attitude sometimes lead to failure Lone heroes who display such attitude end up lowering team morale and impede progress. COWARDICE Leaders hide their mistakes and fail to raise question when they smell something wrong as they are afraid to be labeled as troublemakers. They practice secrecy.

Significant and lasting change requires leaving your comfort zone

Languishing listening to customers complains is not easy task but there is no other alternative

GRAVITY

Giving our best, opening to new possibilities is only we can do and rest is beyond our control One should learn to follow their instincts, obey their hunches and play the percentages

A peaceful, harmonious workplace can be the worst thing possible for business. Conflict can shake things up and boost your staff's energy and creativity. Dissent will fire up more of an individuals brain, stimulating more pathways and engaging more creative centres. More of dissent makes people unique, innovative . Right balance of alignment and competition is what pushes individuals an groups to do their best. Purpose of alignment is not harmonious agreement.

Conflict is healthful only when peoples energies are pointed in the right direction and when carried out in a productive way. Not everything is worth fighting over. However ,Before girding for a battle, make sure it involves an issue that affects the future and has game changing potential. If fight is about a noble purpose than its even better.

Make it material
Make sure that stakes are high enough to motivate people Fight is material if it creates lasting values and address complex challenge.

Charlie Feld who formed IT Consultancy got into material fight Burlington Northern was the client, They use to run trains using processes and systems designed for hauling coal and grain Grinstein CEO of BN had a big vision for company He planned to turn BN into gateway for Asia So he started having a track of all the trains and committed himself to schedules Fight within the firm was material as status quo was at stake He centralised all the operations He persuaded his board to sanction funds for technology and innovation Result was that BSNFs stock tripled because of GPS trackers, direction and speed

Focus on the future

Leaders in viable, vibrant organizations spend most of their time and energy looking at road ahead not in the rear-view mirror Invest brain power, resource in future returns Rolf Classon CEO of a company in health care industry Company was looking for an acquisition when he was appointed as CEO One of the staff indicated that there was some problem with the new contract He was sceptic and started probing the deal with the executives who had some personal doubts Team conducted loud and heated debate He became a scrupulously fair referee and observed all the details

He realised that the move was not a great fit with firms financial strategy. What enabled his success was his genuine curiosity, his commitment to open and dissonant dialogue and hid focus on building strategic intent into sustainable reality.

If he would have not probed then the cash or bandwidth to do the deal that ultimately repositioned it for healthy long term growth.

 Pursue a noble purpose Make fight about improving the lives of the customers Right fight connects people with the sense of purpose A good fight isnt just about money or profits Campbell was one of the poorest performing food company Conant stepped in as CEO. He created a vision for the company stating nourishing peoples lives everywhere, everyday He asked executives to draft plans which went beyond their expectations Atmosphere became rife with tension

He replaced 300 top executives He aligned all the employees with common vision which rebuild the brand rather than continue to slash and burn They came up with new products which were accepted in the market Campbell was listed in Dow Jones in the year 2009

Conants fight was noble not altruistic

Choosing right fight is half the battle, how you conduct the fight is also as important 1. Make it a sport not a war

Leaders make themselves as a referee Opposing sides should be truly matched

While choosing a heir for GE Jack Welch, He gave the competitors to run a part of business All competitors for 6 months fought for alliances, speculation and angling for position Welch raised the tensions and created rules of the game to mitigate the consequences It was a high stakes decisions, worth a good fight

Runner ups were hired by the top firms according to their strengths and weaknesses

Set up a formal structure, but work informally

Hallway conversations, personal favours and relationships that cross official boundaries- that accomplish goals the formal structure cannot Patrick Cescaus move to merge two holding companies of unilever into one The goal was to have bigger, bolder innovations from centre To promote the cause in India HULs companies CEO asked the heads to cut the resources

The heads made decisions among themselves during evenings drinks rather than decision made for them
Hence informal communication worked

Turn pain into Gain

Not all ideas and strategies are good hence there are winners and losers in every fight Good leaders turn disappointing news into occasion for losers GE CEO had made a provision for competitors to be hired by the top firms Leaders find the proper place for displaced workers as per their skills To get people to step up and take risked, you have to reward risk taking itself, not just successful outcomes

Above articles focuses on the need of leadership It showed that leadership is an ongoing process, It is not stagnant

Leaders are a vital element right from planning an strategy, to execution of the plans and till the end
Leaders with right mix of skills are always helpful and can save the firm in crisis

Leaders should have guts and grit They should be able to adapt in various cultures and deliver performance They be a role model for others and should tend to change the mind set of the people Leaders should show right behaviour at right time. They should know when to take fight when something goes wrong

Leader as Vision Creator

High Performing Leadership

Leader as Team Builder

Leader as Tasks Allocator

Leader as People Developer

Leader as Motivation Stimulator

 Build

a cohesive team Promote team problem soling Delegate but not abdicate
Effective leaders develop and nurture

Great Team

Clear Goals Clear measures of performance Clear job roles

Team identity and spirit Sense of fun and enjoyment Open and honest communication

Task

People

 Leadership

is about developing leaders not followers It is about creating legacy

Leader Employee development and learning plan Employee

This process involves two fold strategy of 1. leading oneself to perform naturally motivating tasks 2. managing oneself to do work that is required but is not naturally rewarding

Self leadership requires an employee to apply the behavioral skills of self-observation, self-set goals, self-reward, and self-criticism.

Set goals Practice discretion constantly Take initiative Learn to love ideas and experiments Champion change Be a life long learner